Bill,
I don't know of course, since Vladimir Putin hasn't been talking to me lately. Even though the net effect of their activity may have been to provide a small advantage to Trump, I am dubious that their primary intent was to actually help him win, since no one thought he would. Not you or me, not Hillary, and certainly not Donald Trump. And I don't think they were particularly invested in damaging American democracy whatever that means. American democracy is way too resilient for their shenanigans to have much of a lasting or powerful effect.
My guess is that they saw their efforts as an instrument to limit the effects of American power. Russia is a 3rd rate nation, with a miserable economy that functions slightly above third world levels, a pathetic standard of living, limited life expectancy and host of social ills. No one after all. is clamoring to emigrate to Novosibirsk. It is in John McCain's memorable phrase, a gas station masquerading as a country. Russia is not, and never will be, on the same playing field as the United States in economic productivity, education, innovation, quality of life, culture, and host of other arenas that I can't think of at the moment.
What Russia does have is a robust state-of-the-art community of intelligence services and great cyber espionage capabilities. That's hardly a surprise, since it's run by a spy. So if it can't compete in an equal and transparent way with American influence, the answer is to bring America down to its level. And the easiest way to do weaken Americans' faith in their government and in each other, to sow discord within the body politic, limit unity of purpose, promote paralysis, and weaken resolve. With regards to those goals, one would have to acknowledge, they've been pretty effective at what they set out to do.
Bill
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