Yeah, plus I think while Trump (can't believe I'm saying anything positive about the guy) might actually be good for resetting relations with Russia, might reduce their paranoia etc - Russians tend to prefer opponents/friends who have predictable stability, and he certainly is not that. I feel a sensible Russian policy would have preferred the devil-we-know of Clinton.
I have nothing but disgust for Putin and his henchmen but at the same time I think there is a lot of value in reading/watching his full speeches directly. There is a lot of poor reporting these days in our Western media and it easier to make better predictions about his frame of mind by seeing exactly what he is saying - then monitor his actions. Many of the direct translations of his speeches about Trump are different from what has been reported. The Russians feel surrounded (by NATO expansion), by NATO intrusions of jets, submarines, Ukraine government change and they also feel humiliated from the 90s, Kosovo, Iraq etc etc. It's important that more people make a real effort to understand and internalise that understanding of Russian fears if we are to avoid a full on renewal of the Cold War...I severely doubt the Trump Administration has people who will be happy to walk back and reset things.
This is important to note regardless of your feelings on the election and of current US and Russian Politics. Despite what was picked up by many US media outlets, publicly, Putin has been much more diplomatic and even-handed in his assessments of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Privately, who knows what his intentions and relationships are. But since the media relies pretty much on only public statements from Putin, it seems only fair that we reserve any further judgement aside from that. Prior to the election, Putin expressed that he was glad to hear that Donald Trump wanted better relations. In the very next breath, he also cautioned that "who knows what will actually happen though if he's elected." In nearly the next sentence, he also expressed worry about Hillary Clinton's aggressive stance, then immediately countered with "but maybe she will change once elected to look for better relations." Of course, the media on all parts of the political spectrum overwhelmingly reported this as "Putin respects Trump", omitting his full, far more diplomatic statements.
I've been living in Russia for almost 2 years, and one thing I have learned on politics is that you really need to separate the Russian people from the Russian Government; your average Russian distrusts all politicians - most grew up during a time with very open corruption and when your political opinion could actively ruin your life if it was found out. They are very distrustful of the government, and in turn, tend to rely only on their family and friends. They believe government will do what it will do, and the Politicians here seem to be fine with that perception. There's far more focus on bring economic power back to Russia than there is on trying to stick it to the US. A few politicians for local elections tried to run on a "blame the US" platform, but they were largely ignored for the idiots they were. If there's some master plan from Russia to disrupt US Democracy, the end-goal isn't really clear from Russia's side.
I have nothing but disgust for Putin and his henchmen but at the same time I think there is a lot of value in reading/watching his full speeches directly. There is a lot of poor reporting these days in our Western media and it easier to make better predictions about his frame of mind by seeing exactly what he is saying - then monitor his actions. Many of the direct translations of his speeches about Trump are different from what has been reported. The Russians feel surrounded (by NATO expansion), by NATO intrusions of jets, submarines, Ukraine government change and they also feel humiliated from the 90s, Kosovo, Iraq etc etc. It's important that more people make a real effort to understand and internalise that understanding of Russian fears if we are to avoid a full on renewal of the Cold War...I severely doubt the Trump Administration has people who will be happy to walk back and reset things.