Putin was in place to succeede in his final act and he still can.
Putin would have been declared the winner without social media, without lackluster russian 19 year olds on army tanks, without Poland, without a socially reformed Ukraine and without his favorite enemy Hillary Clinton moving faster than NATO allies can think.
Trumps problem with the MSM this week is he treated Putin as a sane actor, who Putin needed one western leader to conjoled and relate to. Sometime calling your enemy PAL in public and listening to the response in private is the diplomatic in depth play. Trump realized PUTIN isnt a wayward EU leader needing something, this guy is stuck in 1983 and regressing backwards...... trump can relate to that. Trump was in the room with Putin, responded to Putin threats with a strait forward I will flatten moscow before you threaten our NATO partners like Poland and the US for still for real despite all the nation building.
Now Putin gets to deal with a leader we all know is not there. The shell game will work Brandon and the new german chancellor over.