Exactly, but policies and leaders shape countries' perspectives. I didn't vote for Bush, but he was the president representing the US because Americans voted him into office.

We rarely remove people from their nation, and our attitude toward Russians shows it. We view Russians through Putin, but just like Russians, our foreign policy isn't democratic. We don't get a say in what our country does internationally.

Furthermore, we only hear the side shown to us, and the media prints what sells. All of our invasions were based on freeing people from a dictator, and we assume that means every person in the country views their leader as a dictator and wants our help. We don't know if a minority or majority is unhappy with their leader because we view the people as one.