evidence: Vladimir Putin sees American talk of human rights, democracy, freedom as a cynical fig leaf, something that the U.S. uses to cover itself as it cynically pursues its interests across the globe, as it pushes its agenda across the globe. [...] For Putin to see an American vice president go talk to students and encourage democracy, he sees it as a threat. "Who are you to come here and foment trouble in my backyard?" It’s aggravating and offensive to Putin to see that kind of action. [...] From Putin’s point of view, he won. Not only did the candidate he favored come out on top, he has disrupted Americans’ faith in their own democracy so that we’re all turning on each other and we’re busy fighting with each other and in his mind hopefully too distracted to pose a threat to him on the world stage.