a reply to:
goou111
Why? Because he got what he wanted, Trump elected.
Not exactly. Putin wants his enemies-- and everyone is potentially his enemy-- to be in the weakest possible position. To do this, he creates
political division, making it difficult for enemies to act decisively. This is why Russia financially supports extremist groups at both ends of the
spectrum.
Good strategists adopt tactics that address more than one objective; if the first target cannot be reached, there remains a secondary or tertiary
target. Putin's primary goal was to weaken the American body politic by manipulating information. He has long been doing this through propaganda mills
like RT and globalresearch, but WikiLeaks has given him a platform to use genuine documentation to spread distrust and fear.
The first objective accomplished was alienating Sanders voters. None of the emails revealed illegal activities, but they made it explicit that the DNC
elders would never allow him to be their candidate. This looked like "cheating," and undercut the younger generation's faith in the democratic
process.
The next objective was to disempower the presumptive President Elect, Hillary Clinton. The Kremlin had been doing this online through its online
blogosphere. This generally only reached conspiracy theorists ad fellow travelers, but by releasing the emails to WikiLeaks, it became a mainstream
story. This allowed politicians like Giuliani to direct low information voters to the videos that created the false impression that Clinton was ill,
insane, a double, a robot.... The point being, a larger percentage of the electorate would be mistrustful of her.
Donald Trump foolishly forwarded Russia's agenda by claiming that the elections are "rigged." He did this as a narcissistic defense mechanism. If he
didn't win, it was someone else's fault. Ironically, that is exactly the message that the Kremlin wants citizens in liberal democracies to get:
democracy is a sham. Trump's victory has done more to spread that belief more than a Clinton victory would have.
Finally, a Trump presidency looks to be a good thing for Russia, and a bad thing for America and the rest of the world. Unless Congress fulfills its
constitutional duties, Trump's cabinet choices suggest that the sanctions on Russia will be unconditionally lifted for the benefit of Exxon, and that
military adventures against China and Iran may become unavoidable.
In other words, from Putin's perspective, he killed three birds with one stone.