Russian, under Putin's direction, interfered with the 2016 election. Period. Believe it, or deny it; that doesn't change the fact. That's neither hearsay nor conjecture nor wishful thinking; it's just reality.
It's definitely possible, but it hasn't been conclusively proven yet. Like Hefaistos says, it could've been done by the oligarchs backing Trump, or by some organisation leaving Russian fingerprints all over the place, or by a Russian company or individuals trying to make ad money, the Russian mob, etc. Or a combination of all the above. Reality is messy and rarely reads like a John Grisham or le Carré novel.
But in the meantime sanctions against Russia have been intensified, which means hardship for the Russian people, economic losses for European countries trading with Russia, and more power for Putin. At the same time there's a crackdown on foreign media sources in the US, which can easily lead to a slippery slope. Another slippery slope being companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter determining what is fake news.
As for all those people from Team Trump denying having contact with Russians, there
are other possible reasons for that:
- They were doing shady business with the Russians anyhow, non-related to Russiagate, that they didn't want attention drawn to.
- Ever since the Democrats announced Russiagate as part of the Clinton campaign, there's been a frenzy. Maybe Team Trump didn't want to fan the flames.
- The Donald ordered them to lie about it, so that focus remains on the side show.
Again, if this were hard science, parallels with Climategate etc could be drawn. But it's social science at best, which is very soft, and there is no direct connection to sources (never mind the reliability of those sources), which means info can be framed or manipulated by media that have a vested interest in ratings and keeping advertisers happy.
Trump is a bad man, and Russia is a morally flexible state (like Saudi Arabia and Israel, for instance), but no one can afford a new Cold War. Except perhaps for the military industrial complex, politicians in Russia and the US, and the mainstream media.
And I seriously doubt anything will happen to Trump; so long as the donor class gets the massive upward distribution of wealth they bought and paid for, Trump will remain a free man. Of course, Dems retaking Congress in 2018 could certainly change things, though a) with voter suppression, the loss of Net Neutrality, attacks on the press, gerrymandering, Citizens United, and so on, there's absolutely no certainty that will happen even though the majority of the electorate leans left; and b) with the aged, milquetoast bunch running the DNC--Perez, Schumer, Pelosi, etc.--there's every possibility that if the Dems do retake Washington, their very first act will be to toady up to that same donor class by announcing they intend to take no action against Trump and his cohorts for the good of the nation. Or something...
Yes, that's the core issue that needs to be addressed.
I'm also not excluding that Mueller's investigation is actually a negotiation between the various oligarchic factions. If nothing comes of it, you can bet some deal has been struck.
But even having said all that: we need to know the truth.
Maybe we'll hear it 50 years from now.
Trump has removed the system's pretty mask and day by day proves that he's just as much part of the swamp as anyone else. A small group of racist idiots won't mind, but all those people that voted for Trump to give the establishment the finger, will be susceptible to voting for politicians that are genuine and offer change (real change this time). Russiagate won't move them that way as much as the real and serious issues that affect them directly do.
I don't know if the amount of attention Russiagate gets, has lessened in recent weeks, but I still think it's important that it does. I fear it is not a winning strategy.