Trump's first instinct towards Russia is correct and necessary: this is a great power deserving of respect. His attitude towards Putin is not so laudable; he is not a "strong leader," but a thug, as people like McCain and Harper realize. Obama's casual dismissal of Russia and Putin should now be realized as a mistake of historic importance- leading to and possibly causal of the situation in Ukraine and in Syria to a degree.

None of this means that Trump would go easy on Putin; this is the silly conclusion of the progressive/far-left's crazy Trump-Russia scandal-mongering, and nothing more. Putin may well come to wish that he was dealing with the Clintons, who had at least been on the receiving end of millions of dollars from Russian/Kazakh/Belorussian special interests for "speeches," etc.