Note on Russia...

Russia's cyber-war on Estonia was centered around the Estonian people's refusal to honour a Russian statue in the center of their capital. Russia shut down not just the Estonian government's sites, but also its media and banks. A year later, Putin invaded Georgia and later rigged an election to put in a billionaire puppet leader, Ivanishvili. No party in Georgia could have been in a real, popular way pro-Russian, so Ivanishvili said words later echoed by Trump to the effect that his country should seek a better relationship with Russia.
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Gazprom, the world's largest gas company, backed by Putin's promotion of right-wing leaders, was using affiliates in order to buy up energy supplies in other countries. Ukraine is 100% dependent on Russian gas sales. Russian oligarch Dimity Firtash, a close ally of Putin who worked with Mogilevich, the Russian crime boss, siphoned off lots of money from Gazprom to the tune of billions of dollars. He was also a business partner of Paul Manafort. Putin shut off the gas in Ukraine to spite prime minister Tymoshenko, before Manafort helped smear her as an “Armenian traitor” and “dirty jew” and she was jailed, beaten, and financially ruined.

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Trump's Taj Mahal tower in Atlantic City, called “the 8th blunder of the world” at the time, was pure folly and quickly failed, and in 1999 his casino resort was ruled to have violated state gaming laws. At the time of his divorce, he had filed at least six bankruptcies and, unable to secure any further bank loans, had no means to move forward without committing more crimes and misdemeanours. While no American bank would support him, Deutsche Bank, to the shock of many, did, having been already heavily involved with Russian money laundering and set make a killing in the foreclosure racket during the 2008 global financial crisis. When the CEO of Deutsche is fired for money laundering, he gets hired in 2014 as the CEO of one of Russia's main money laundering tools, the bank of Cyprus! Who hired him? – Wilbur Ross, tight supporter of Donald Trump, later his Secretary of Commerce. And who is Ross's partner as principal owner of the bank of Cyprus? - Dmitry Rybolovlev, the “king of potash” who deposited cool $100 million into Trump's account during the housing crisis.

As U.S. security advisors have confirmed, Trump fit the description of a typical Russian 'mark' – failed business and a difficult financial situation that opens them to bribery, narcissistic bravado, a history of existing corruption, shady morals, and political ties or aspirations. At this point, the Russians stepped in to save his interests.