Except that I wonder how useful he really is, I would agree. The issue for Putin is that Trump seems to be less dependable and more erratic than they had originally planned. Putin can’t really count on Trump to do 100% of what they had decided to do. And some of it has slung back and hurt Putin’s mega-billionaire friends. Trump is probably still on the Putin payroll, but I think his value as a puppet may have gone down.