Putin has always been a dictator, but he hasn’t always been a fascist. He started his career as a moderate technocrat that happened to have incredible access to KGB resources. Very handy if you’re in the market to be forever president. As time went on he’s been mixing and remixing his stances and aims.

As far as NK, I’m not sure they’ve ever been fascist. They’re just a vanilla authoritarian police state.

A major component you can use to point out fascism specifically out of the rogues gallery of evil ideologies is the notion that a fascist government specifically derives its power from endlessly designating and promising to destroy out-groups. If it lasts long enough to run out of targets, it goes on to consume itself.

Those are well crafted, defensive dictatorships at this point that have had decades and decades to sow the seeds of complacency and authoritarian control of their population. In one of those examples, the people of NK worship Kim and his father and grandfather as literal gods. So Americans aren’t quite there yet.

Not saying they’re super far off, but still a bit to travel before you get to centuries of repressed soviet/russian control and literal god-king dictators with an iron first around their populace.