Why People in Russia like Putin?

Here's the thing. When the Soviet Union existed everyone had food and clothing and houses and buildings were being built. However, when the Soviet Union collapsed people were starving and almost nothing was built after that until now. So, from the late 1980s mostly there has not been much infrastructure being maintained or taken care of because most people have been struggling just to put food on the table so they didn't starve to death.

When Putin came to power he made sure people have enough food to eat (generally speaking) and found ways to either employ or feed people nationwide. It is also why so many young men join the military because good jobs are hard to find in Russia. Now with the oil crisis it is even worse. But still, Putin is better than what they experienced as a nation after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

At least the whole nation isn't starving to death like it was during and after the collapse. Only a few people were able to game the system to get rich and mostly they were friends of people in the government in the first place. So, when the Soviet Union collapsed most people just got completely screwed by this.

Putin is the first leader since the end of the Soviet Union to actually take care of the people. This is why they like him.

But, things are now getting worse because of low oil prices and now China is not doing well either so this is harming both Russia and China as economies more and more now. So, it is possible people in China or Russia will become more angry at the rest of the world over time because of their predicaments.

If you study history this is what tends to happen if countries are not able to solve their problems they get mad at other countries to redirect the attention away from  their governments in order to prevent revolutions against their governments to manifest from their peoples.