50 years ago is irrelevant to comparing the graphs, because one of them only goes back 2 years. It's mostly irrelevant when talking about how this year's political cycle affected current opinions, though I agree there can be some value for explanatory purposes.
The "slight rise" you're talking about among Democrats from mid-2014 to mid-2016 is within the margin of error of the polls. It's irrelevant, random noise. The most you coul say is that Democrats' views towards Russia/Putin were effectively stable, while Republican views had improved slightly.
There is definitely the same drop in views of Russia/Putin among Democrats in late 2016 in the two polls, about 12 points in one and about 20 points in the other. The reason for that, of course, is obvious. That's the only similarity.
There is a MASSIVE improvement in Republican views towards Putin, over 40 points since mid-2016 and nearly 60 points higher than mid-2014. That's by far the most striking trend in that poll, which isn't reflected in the first poll because Trump's love-affair language has consistently focused on Putin, not Russia, and because old Republicans still have strong biases against Russia as a word.
