Catch 22
Russia is most certainly not upset that it was caught interfering in our elections. They and other foreign adversaries interfere in every U.S. election. Sure, they may have made a weak effort to pin it on Ukraine, but they can’t really care much either way. Whichever nation gets the blame, it has to count as success when Americans know that foreign interference happened and, in turn, suspect U.S. leaders of colluding in the effort.
The plan leads to success in every scenario. Russia knows that if Trump is impeached and removed from office, his supporters will consider it a “deep state” coup engineered for purely partisan reasons. If Trump survives impeachment and wins reelection, Russia knows that half of America will once more blame his victory on foreign intrusion. If Trump is defeated by the Democratic nominee, Russia knows the other half of America will blame it on four years of unprecedented investigations, harassment and impeachment that severely crippled the president.