Crooks doesnt quite have the same ring to it as murderous dictators, Id say all of them are much worse than crooks.
And RUS's point is valid - Ukraine didnt have someone like that in charge committing crimes against humanity, that indeed is a major difference.
Its not always black and white and all of those invasions are different shades of grey (as pretty much every hard decision is), but point is that Putin here is completely in the wrong here. He's destroying both Ukraine and Russia with his actions here and there's 0 room for sympathy, whoever is standing up for Ukraine is the good guy in this situation in 2022 regardless of what happened 20 or 30 or more years ago. Look at the countries supporting this war - Russia, Belarus (basically Russia at this point), Syria and North Korea.