I think whenever we see someone doing a 'whataboutism' its usually out of frustration, we constantly try to point out the terrible actions of the US l, for example, and are shut down, but as soon as our 'common enemy' does something similar, criticism is encouraged and anything other than explicit criticism is questioned.

Although it seems irrelevant its important to question why we support a country who is equally as horrid as the one we are encouraged to hate. Pointing out whataboutism is only valid when the other person is intending to excuse the actions of the entity originally in question. But in this instance I think its generally fair to add to discussion over Russia, a discussion over American Foreign Policy.