Due to media and 'deep state' in Trump's America I doubt any president after Trump will be able to have good relations with Russia anymore. Putin is definitely disappointed with that ...
The US' problems with Russia started back when the Soviet Union collapsed (and obviously before that when the USSR was alive and well).
Bush 41 was on duty when the USSR went under and Russia emerged as a separate nation. But Bush was on his way out of office. It was up to Clinton to then forge the kind of relations we should have with Russia, but he failed miserably at it. His mind was too much on extra-marital affairs and not on running the US.
Had Bush 41 been reelected, things with Russia would have been way different as a strong Republican would have been in the White House. Instead we got stuck with Bill Clinton, a loser larger in life than Hillary. If not for H. Ross Perot splitting the GOP vote, Bush 41 would have been reelected.
...but the simple fact that Russia interfered in our American election by leaking emails and flooding social media with propaganda and still Trump claimed it's 'fake news' and the fact that a lot of republicans agree with him is a huge win for Putin. Americans are so divided politically that even when a foreign power interferes in our elections, it's 'no big deal'.
No one in the entire US Gov't could predict that someday someone/country would interfere with our elections? Are you kidding me?
Go back to the 50s or 60s and slowly move forward and look at the dozens of elections around the world that the US interfered with, even resorting to assassination - whether by our hand or contracted out. Don't forget the coup d'etat countries where our fingerprints are all over too. I'm sure that I could find a list for you, but I have no doubt that you know exactly what I am talking about.
And exactly what was Hillary Clinton doing over in Russia during their 2012 election pretty much campaigning against Putin? What the hell was she doing there to begin with? Monitoring the election perhaps? If so, why? Can you imagine Russia sending election monitors over here? Hillary should never have been over there causing trouble and for doing so, she was paid back. Who could blame Putin IF he did in fact meddle in 2016? And what about 2008 and 2012 US elections? No interference there by anyone at all? Oh, sorry - those two elections were sacrosanct because they were intended for a democrat to win, so no need to look into election meddling.
Another victory for Putin is that Trump doesn't care about democracy or human rights and therefore the preaching of American values or promoting liberal democracy has come to a halt coming from the US., especially in Russia. Putin always wanted that. Trump's attack on mainstream media and judiciary may undermine democracy but it is also a victory for Putin because Putin can point and laugh that the president of the world's so-called greatest democracy is undermining democracy itself.
Trump's attack on the "fake-news" is 100% justified. They constantly give democrats a pass like Pelosi's big "I was set up" yesterday. God for bid if Trump did what she did. Even though 60 days to election day, Pelosi would start another, faster impeachment attempt.
They have never given Trump one moment of peace so that he could govern this great country. All they do is print negative stories about Trump using "Sources sad...". Absolutely disgraceful. They gave him about 5 minutes to grieve after Trump's brother died; then it was right back to the fake news.
I don't see US democracy being undermined at all. But face facts - it is not for every country in the world. We've been trying to export US democracy since 1945 and it simply is not working. Lord knows that the United States has tried every underhanded method in the world to install American values and democracy to every country in the world. So what if other countries want other forms of government? Why should it be up to the US to dictate what other countries do with regards to form of government?
Why should the US continue to be the world's police - especially for countries that can afford it on their own? We simply cannot afford to worry about the entire world any longer. Not with our national debt, anyway.
We have ~325 - 340 million people in the US that need help NOW. We need to isolate ourselves for a while to figure out what we can do to save the United States of America. We certainly have more and better nuclear weapons than any other country on earth in the event that a rogue state comes knocking at our doors with thoughts of trying to take us down. Do you really think that Russia is even a remote match for the US and its weapons? I don't.
So, let's look inward before that next foreign aid check is mailed and see if we can make better use of it internally.