Personally I find Putin fascinating. I actually have a collection of Putin pics.
He's a very shrewd, careful individual, which makes him extremely hard to read. He defiantly wants to consolidate and keep control of power, but at the same time he will mostly let people do as they please(although he has restricted this given recent events).
Whether he actually gives a shit about Russia is also very confusing to try to puzzle out. He's perfectly fine with not even being able to drink his own tap water, and he freely admits things are not idealistic in the country while doing nothing to change that, but he also went to great lengths to secure Russias interests in Ukraine and present and good image at Sochi.
For a long time he has been fostering a nationalistic stance in Russia, but strangely it is not very militaristic. That could change soon, but for the past, oh, 15 years or so he's mostly used it as a way to suppress and placate his own population, as oppose to raise them up and excite them in preparation for expansion as it typical.
I think this is also evident in the way he has handled Ukraine. The fact that he has and continues to twist things in the area towards Russias favor with less than 100 people dead is, frankly, miraculous. I don't believe he's out to make a statement or wants to be the next Stalin. Keep in mind he was KGB; he works in the shadows. I think he seriously saw the EU agreement as a threat to Russia's interest, particularly the gas pipeline, and has taken steps to preserve things the way they were for the past 20 years.
I hope this isn't too rambley and maybe helps you decide for yourself.