It's not clear how The Guardian obtained classified documents belonging to the Russian government, but they report that leaked documents they've reviewed confirm that Russian President Vladimir Putin himself signed off on the operation to make Trump a president.
According to the top secret documents, the goal of installing Trump as president was to destabilize American society and weaken America's leadership position in the world.
The documents also confirm that Russian intelligence is in possession of compromising material that was obtained during Trump's trips to Russia.
The report – “No 32-04 \ vd” – is classified as secret. It says Trump is the “most promising candidate” from the Kremlin’s point of view. The word in Russian is perspektivny.
There is a brief psychological assessment of Trump, who is described as an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex”.
There is also apparent confirmation that the Kremlin possesses kompromat, or potentially compromising material, on the future president, collected – the document says – from Trump’s earlier “non-official visits to Russian Federation territory”.
If the goal was to throw American society into turmoil and weaken our diplomatic position, there's no denying the operation was a success.
Trump destabilized the country far more than a direct rhetorical attack from any foreign power could and he's not even finished. Trump is still holding rallies and may run for president again. And even with President Biden leading the country, our allies are still not entirely sure they can count on the United States long into the future because Trump demonstrated that American voters can't be trusted even Biden himself and the Democratic party can be.
We'll probably never know if the so-called "pee tape" was real, but it doesn't matter what Russia's "kompromat" included. They got what they wanted even if there is no pee tape.
To some extent I suppose this is all old news, but the Republican party would like to give Moscow more of what they want. Everything old could be new again if the GOP gets their way.