There is no credit to be given. 
He is doing what his boss, the Russian stooge in the White House, wants, and that is to disintegrate American links with friendly nations and destroy the inner structure of American government. That is what Yanykovych did in Ukraine, when Putin and Manafort installed him to run Ukraine into the ground so Putin's Russia could steal land. 
We haven't seen Putin's end game yet, what he is planning while he still has the Trump clan infesting the White House. It is Putin's style to hide in the darkness and arm groups who can disrupt and kill and open the doors to Russian military. 
I think  of that picture of Trump and the Russians in the White House, and fear. 
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon