Of course, somebody like Putin can never admit that the people of Russia were genuinely fed up with him and his clique of corrupt oligarchs. The story he told himself – and the country, of course- is that the protests were organized by Hillary. He had the most bizarre, ridiculous “proof” of Hillary’s complicity in organizing the protests. Since then, he is convinced she has it in for him and lives to destroy him.
Blaming Hillary came easy to Putin because Bill Clinton is blamed in Russia for derailing the US – Russia relations until the golden era of GWB. Bill Clinton, this narrative goes, betrayed Russia’s trust when he attacked Slobodan Milosevic (which is seen as an enormous humiliation to Russia) and especially when he allowed the NATO to keep expanding.
Since the 1991, things for Russia’s corrupt rulers always improve when a Republican is in the White House and deteriorate when a Democrat is. And that’s especially true when the Democrat’s name is Clinton.
Right now Putin is banking on getting his former employee Manafort to prod a highly manipulable, weak Republican candidate into the Oval Office. Imagine what a victory it would be for a former KGB man: to put a puppet in the White house. Complete control over the president of the United States of America. That would be a culmination of Putin’s career. Especially if you consider the alternative, which is a strong, resilient and knowledgeable Hillary as president.
Clarissa's Blog 
Russia Expert Stephen Cohen: Trump Wants To Stop The New Cold War, But The American Media Just Doesn’t Understand
I just don’t find that kind of coherency in Trump’s statements. It feels like wishful thinking on this Russia expert’s part.
COHEN: “Said to have.” Said to have. That’s not news, that’s an allegation. James Clapper. I don’t know who hacked. Everybody hacks everybody. I mean, we hacked into Chancellor Merkel’s cell phone. We learned that from Snowden. The Israelis hack, the America. Everybody hacks. The point is, and I know you said it, not to defend it, but as a provocation, that let’s take the position you just set out. That Putin wants to end the independence in Baltic states. There is no evidence for that. None whatsoever.
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Stephen Cohen is a major embarrassment. In the 70s his apologia for Brezhnev was bad enough. But, his propaganda for Putin is just shameless.
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Cohen was a Brezhnevite?? I had no idea there even were people in the West who defended Brezhnev.
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Yes.
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Typical of Cohen–defend Putin and anyone that is associated with him while ignoring those who have been affected by Putin’s policies.
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Oh, absolutely. Some people are so afraid the Cold War will return that they’ll tell themselves any lie to avoid noticing what’s going on.
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Cohen is a notorious Putin shill. Let’s not be paying any attention.
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