The US and the Russians nee Soviets have been fucking with each other daily since at least 1945. As the tenor of the times and the available tech have changed, so has the nature and intensity of the action. It’s mostly under the table, but once in awhile something breaks the public consciousness.
All of statecraft is about trying to induce particular behavior in the other guy. The inducements are by definition either carrots or sticks. In any scenario short of the very end stages of a total war there is always plenty of scope for applying both simultaneously. Hell, we ended WWII against Japan by offering the gigantic carrot of keeping the Emperor right alongside the giant stick of a threatened third atomic attack.
The people upthread who are going on about “foreign aid to enemies” as some unthinkable *non sequitur *or as evidence of high treason are being simplistic and/or ignorant in the extreme. It’s just business as usual in the statecraft trade.
Are the Russians in a particularly ambitious snarly mode now? Yes. Modern tech and modern Western society offer them some real advantages to applying their efforts to our detriment. Meantime we have lots of sanctions going in the other direction, their economy is nearing collapse (thanks in significant measure to us), and so are their demographics. Just considering the international situation and ignoring any home-grown US problems I know who I’m betting will be still going strong in 50 years. It ain’t Russia.
As to Trump’s relationship w Putin …
IMO it’s pretty straightforward.
Russia is a kleptocracy ruled by an inner circle of insanely wealthy plutocrats. Many of whom came from the ranks of the secret police, but not all. Trump would love to become the Putin of the US, arriving at the same place - Kleptocratic Leader for Life - via a different route: tycoon, not secret policeman. And Trump would love to set up an inner circle of plutocrats running the whole show from their respective corporate HQs. Each paying tribute to the Supreme Leader. Trump doesn’t *like *Putin or *work for *Putin. He wants to *be *Putin.
Putin of course would equally enjoy a US that was run that way. That’s an entity he & his pals could easily do business with. Government of, by, and for, a small coterie of oligarchs in both countries. So Putin is working to assist Trump in emulating Putin’s model.