He is not acting for Putin, at least not directly.
Trump of course, he is the US president, leader of the free world.
There are thousands more in European military, politics and other institutions that are loyal to the US more than the EU. They grew up and came into whatever position they now hold in a system where Europe was de facto subordinate the USA for decades.
Needless to say for a truly independent Europe they are going to be a problem.
Civilian aircraft can also turn off their transponders, not that it's relevant.
ATC not having radar is not an issue, the US military most certainly had multiple radars in range. They could tell the tanker to divert way earlier. They wanted an incident.
As for normalcy, the US is part of a small group of countries that has shot down civilian airliners.
Money, gambling is (even if obfuscated via tokens) about money.
Monopoly is not gambling because there is no (real) money involved. Uno is not gambling because there is no money involved.