Wondering if accusations against Assad for human rights & war crimes would be taken more seriously by activists if his wife were not so fashionable & they were not so Western in style? Say, for example, if he looked like Idi Amin (charged with the same atrocities), dressed in a military uniform, or if he dressed in traditional garb like the monarchs of Bahrain & Saudi Arabia?

Wondering also if the glorification of Putin would withstand scrutiny of his political practices in Russia? Say, for example, his 2014 law making homophobia state policy which incited street violence against gays & led to raids, prosecutions & incarceration for being gay?

Or maybe his treatment of immigrant workers who built the stadia for the 2014 Sochi Olympic games? After the stadia were built, his regime launched raids on them, incarcerated them under abusive conditions in overcrowded or outdoor cells without food or medical care, & then deported them. Or perhaps his use of forced immigrant labor on the Sochi stadia where authorities confiscated passports, denied required work permits, cheated workers out of wages (an estimated 50,000 workers)? Is all that just demonizing, Western propaganda?