Russian leaders are either fondly rembered at home and despised abroad (e.g. Stalin), or the other way around (e.g. Gorbachev).
I guess in Putin's case it will be the former.
And even if Russia happens to be a fully fledged democracy in 50 years, Russian "conservatives" may still admire Putin then... just like many Spanish conservatives still have a thing for Franco till today. 
Stalin is liked in Russia WTH that just cant be true. He was the 2nd most evil person in human history , and most of his victims were people in the USSR itself.
