People keep saying that Putin is threatened by democracy in Ukraine, but I find it unconvincing. Democratic countries had no problem making friends with dictat

People keep saying that Putin is threatened by democracy in Ukraine, but I find it unconvincing. Democratic countries had no problem making friends with dictators - just think of America's former (and current) allies. Conversely, those same dictators had no problem cozying up to their democratic allies. These talks of "being threatened by democracy/authoritarianism/whatever" usually sound pretty close to Orientalism or its mirror image. After all, it would be a piss-poor dictator who can't turn its neighbor's political system into a self-serving rhetoric, whatever the system is.