Certainly, the election of Obama contributed to the perception of weakness in America and as a result encouraged revanchism in the Russian Federation. Prior to that, the ruling class there had a fear of unilateral action. We still have that, evident is how hesitant RF is in supporting the irredentists in east Ukraine. There seems to exist a party advocating negotiation and complete withdrawal of support for the insurgents. However, so long as Putin and his neo-soviet clan remain in power or close to the levers of power, RF will remain a regional threat.
Putin seemed attractive earlier for a couple of reasons. First, looking from America, it is easy to confuse his soviet cultural conservatism with genuine conservatism. Buchanan suffered from this delusion. Second, one doesn’t argue with success, and Putin was successful defeating the domestic mafia and bringing the oligarch under Kremlin control or exiling and murdering them. He also presided over the rapid growth of real incomes in RF, fueled by increasing oil prices.
Your analysis ignoring improved rule of law and more freedoms under Putin’s presidency, to a level unseen under any previous Russian government dating back to medieval.
This trend has somehow reverted circa 2008 but modern Russia is still freer than anytime in known history before 2000.
It is actually explains why the economy in Russia was performing significantly better than any other oil-exporting national economy in a period of oil bum.