I’ll go with what Putin actually said about it, over the Times’ opinion writer.
Bingo....You win the thread prize. Some folks continue to suck down everything the lying media tells them. They never learn.
I agree! Putin does not like nor dislike Donald Trump. Putin was scared that Hillary Clinton would start WWIII. That is the reason Putin did want Trump to win. Putin knows everything about Hillary Clinton. He has all her emails, and the emails of all her associates. He did not want Russia, Europe, nor the United States to end in a nuclear holocaust.
He is not stupid and I sure as hell prefer President Trump negotiating with Putin as opposed to Hillary. Russia and the USA have many areas of common intrest and also areas of opposition. Let the man that wrote "Art of The Deal" negotiate with Putin. Hillary and Obama set the Middle East on fire! This was not good for Putin nor the USA.