What was Vladimir Putin thinking?

| 12:33 am EST January 3, 2021
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Vladimir Putin hacked us in March, right around the time it became clear that Biden would be the nominee. In other words, Putin knew Trump would lose, and wanted to get what he could while he could. But now that Putin has been caught, he’s about to get obliterated by financial sanctions.

Putin’s plan was pretty clearly based on not getting caught – both so he could continue to spy on our agencies in the Biden era, and also so he wouldn’t get punished for it by Biden. Yet Putin got caught anyway. It’s the latest reminder that no one in politics has magic powers.

Maybe Putin got so much out of these hacks, it’s worth more to him than the billions of dollars that he and his oligarchs are about to lose. But Putin needs the support of the oligarchs to remain in power. If they get tired of his backfiring antics, he’s done – and maybe dead.

Keep in mind that as these were secret hacks that no one was ever supposed to catch on to, Putin clearly was’t expecting to get caught. So while a lot of damage was certainly done to us, Putin didn’t necessarily “win.” He’d have won if he never got caught.