The biggest mistake non-Russians seem to make with regards to interpreting the "West vs Putin" debate is, that they forget that western political systems are hugely more transparent and reliable.

Essentially this means that virtually any "misdeed" on the part of a western government will come out over time, whereas there will be no such evidence or a wider discussion over what Putin is doing.

Given the choice over the U.S. strong-arming payment processors in very few cases, and Putin strong arming them for whatever reasons he sees fit, I'll choose the U.S. any time...