>Even if Putin was a Hitler 2.0 (which is very doubtful, since History rarely repeats itself and reasoning by analogy often leads to spectacular failures)

History is famed for repeating itself and analogies are a powerful tool, some (Lakoff) even asserting that they are the core of cognition. That's the entire premise behind "learning from history". When a dictator starts invading his European neighbors while ranting about building an empire and restoring former glory, it is difficult to come to a different conclusion than Churchill did about Hitler.