Putin and the Russian oligarchs have long viewed the European democracies as economic and political enemies, firstly because the leading Western European nations pushed for and welcomed the former Soviet Bloc nations into NATO and the European Union, but also because the majority ethnic Ukrainians wanted to Ukraine wanted to also join. The overthrow of Russia’s puppet in the Ukraine (Yanukovych) with the 2104 revolution kicked that animosity into high gear, and spurred Team Putin to start a quasi-war for control of ethnic-Russian heavy eastern Ukraine and strategically important Crimea. That military agression spurred the western democracies, including the US, to enact sanctions against Russia. In response, Putin ramped up his covert campaign to destabilize the policy unity between the US and its democratic Western allies. And that campaign is progressing quite nicely with Trump’s help.