Putin waited only to see if Trump could win in 2020 because Trump called for ending sanctions and recognizing Crimea as Russian territory and his bad mouthing NATO.
That April, Trump backed Russia's disputed claim of widespread support for its annexation of Crimea that month.
"Will he become my new best friend?" Donald Trump tweeted about the Russian leader in 2013.
www.newsweek.com
That is a meaningless fact because there’s more evidence that Putin waited until after the election only because he didn’t wanna ruin Trump‘s chances to stay in power four more years being friendly to him. And then when the January 6 riots and insurrection failed it looks like Putin decided To go forward with this plan because he thought Trump’s America they didn’t give a shit anymore about Ukraine.
You have to remember that Trump was nothing more than a useful idiot to Putin and the January 6 in surrection was a pretty good return on his investment by turning so many Americans into anti-democracy mini-Putins.