Former Putin Adviser Gleb Pavlovsky tells Frontline's Michael Kirk that while he's not sure the Russian president would have thrown a lot of resources into hacking the U.S. election, the successful Russian propaganda effort he did support has bolstered Putin's confidence:
It’s really difficult to understand what was the level of Putin’s involvement or blessing in that. After November, after Trump was elected, the situation changed. Now Putin understands, or he believed at least, that he was strong. I don’t know who believed in America that Putin elected Trump, but Putin believed that. Putin believed that, and that has become a political factor.
Pavlovsky adds Putin's far from finished:
So now, from his standpoint, his mindset is super-competent. He feels that he is super-knowledgeable. He has insight. He always guessed that all this glamorous picture of powerful West was a Potemkin’s village, that this was another conspiracy against himself, that this was just a play. And now it turns out to be true. It’s a play. Now, if that’s a play, we are going to put up another play. That’s how he thinks.
PBS Frontline's new documentary "Putin's Revenge" features just a small portion of 56 interviews conducted over six months in Washington, Moscow, New York and California. In an effort to share the full 70 hours of collected content, PBS has posted it all online in The Putin Files.
Ex-Putin adviser: Putin 'believed' he elected Trump (The Hill)
The Putin Files (PBS)
Putin's Revenge (PBS)