Golden Bunny of Destiny 🕯@copter_chief The answer is likely much simpler. Putin realized he could never defeat the US militarily (look how long he has struggled just with Ukraine). So instead he made a devil’s bargain with him: bow down before me and I will give you the kingdoms of this world. Oil money has let him systematically buy politicians around the globe.
There was an old saying that Russian strategy was external encirclement plus internal subversion. This is 21st century subversion.