Russia has had a long history with NATO that extends far beyond Trump and its current leadership. In fact Vladimir Putin and the Clinton family have a long history together as well.
To begin with, a careful student of the current events must understand where we are now. Putin is a completely amoral leader that acts solely in the interests of his nation. He uses tools that most world leaders are too squeamish, or afraid to talk about about publicly or in polite circles– altering elections, assassinations and military force where applicable.
This makes him dangerous, and problematic for world leaders that have (up to now) relied on laws and only economic warfare to damage political enemies. His understanding of the world and how he relates to it is both rudimentary and unequivocally hard nosed. He only knows and act on what is, and what is not. He is not interested in the internal politics of a nation, only in how it relates to his country. Putin’s response to question’s about Russian interference in American elections is an example.
The American public still refuses to accept that the information contained in the Podesta emails, and what may be lurking on the missing Clinton server, is far more damaging to the nation than whatever Putin or Russian intelligence services did.
This was the point that Putin tried to make in the Chris Wallace interview of July 16th, 2018– that we have more problems with political infighting than we do with Russia, and that most of it is not his concern. To understand both the nature and intent of that interference, you have to look at the relationship history between Putin, the Clinton’s and NATO.
When you talk about election tampering and meddling, you can’t refer to Putin’s interference without realizing the Clinton’s and Putin have a long and troubled history with Russia and with Putin. It was Bill Clinton as POTUS that facilitated the breakup of the old Soviet Union and tried to expand NATO into Eastern Bloc nations, which was against the UN charter.
NATO formally agreed in January 1994 to establish the Partnership for Peace, which in effect created a pathway toward membership for nations joining the organization.
This agreement was supposed to protect former satellite nations from interference by either Russia or NATO. It would isolate the normal internal affairs of these former Soviet nations, and not extend the security commitment of the NATO alliance. Russia agreed and joined the Partnership in June 1994.
When the 1994 pact was signed, Western/NATO leaders prior to Bill Clinton – told Yeltsin (and earlier to Gorbachev) that they would not expand NATO an inch, and that the divided Germany would be neutral if unified.
Sufficed to say, that did not happen once the US under the Clintons got involved. The Clinton Administration decided to not give a damn about the promises made and started the expansion of NATO in 1994, and used interventionism in Yugoslavia for humanitarian purposes. The United States did not understand about its complexities, and acted without a UN Security Council mandate.
Despite this agreement on paper, NATO also started to interfere in numerous events. While Clinton objected to Russian military intervention in the autonomous region of Chechnya, including the siege of Grozny, Yeltsin objected to U.S. military intervention in Bosnia, including NATO airstrikes in September. It was quickly spiraling out of control.
It could potentially break out into a Third World War. But did people really think that Russia would politely stand by forever as the EU and NATO captured half of Eastern Europe? Despite being severely weakened by the Soviet breakup, Russia was determined to act in some way.
Putin, as an intelligence man, was nearby and cautioning Yeltsin not to do business on Clinton’s and NATO’s terms. Now comes the blowback after all these years. In Madrid, July 1997, NATO formally invited three former Soviet satellites—Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic—to join the alliance; and in March 1999, less than two weeks after their membership became effective, NATO began to bomb Serbia. It’s no coincidence that 9 months later, in December, 1999, Yeltsin was forced to turn over the presidency to Putin, a direct result of NATO capturing those former Soviet satellites.
Meanwhile the EU was developing into an economic powerhouse designed to isolate and threaten Russia’s economic security, knowing full well that Russia could not make any military moves with the US sitting in the catbird seat. NATO and the EU intended to steal those nations for their own enrichment.
It’s no wonder Putin has it out for the Clintons, and decided to weaken the EU economically.
So– by 2009, an opportunity presented itself to Russia with the weakness of Barack Obama. A new economically stronger and well positioned Russia under Putin, began an intelligence operation to pit forces inside the United States against one another in an effort to destabilize America and its election process, in order to damage and weaken the probable next president, Hillary Clinton. Putin also recognized that Team Clinton had been accepting large amounts of money from people like George Soros and the EU who had been economically squeezing Russia for years.
With her credibility damaged, if Putin came to the negotiating table with Hillary, he would have the upper hand, and be able to maintain the land grab he began under Barack Obama. He was not going to have a repeat of the continued pressure from NATO and the EU. After all, he now had them by the short hairs with their energy dependence on his cheap gas and oil supplies through the North Sea transit. 
As it turned out, he is now dealing with Trump. Anything could happen from here on out since Trump and his economic team understands what is happening, and cannot rely on NATO or his own intelligence people (such as the the CIA and NSA) which have been politically (and possibly GRU) compromised.
Trump is reliably unreliable, and that random factor could be used now to regain the upper hand.
Or he could completely and utterly blow it.
