Looking back at it now that we know that the Russians actually tried to help Hillary win, Putin’s complimentary remarks of Trump back in 2015-2016 were clearly meant to hurt Trump. To make it APPEAR as if he actually like Trump and wanted him to win. This as they probably arranged to plant a few fakes into his campaign (Manafort and Flynn). It makes more and more sense as time goes by.
Of course they wanted a pathetically weak/accommodating Hillary Clinton to win. The last thing on earth that Putin wanted, especially at this time when Russia is on the move, was a very strong-on-defense team like Trump-Pence.
So you think Putin was in on it. Makes sense considering this would have been the time line set by the communists in the 50s. We would have been so screwed if she won.