Obama shrewdly set this all up by sanctioning Russia.

[Eyeball_Kid]

2. I wondered if something was up with the sanctions.

It occurred very late in Obama's term, and reasonably, we could expect that the sanctions would still be "fresh" when Trumpy took over. If sanctions are placed on Russia, we knew that lifting them would be Trumpy's eventual responsibility, but Trumpy would either have to lift them or leave them alone. So Obama left a homework assignment for Trumpy. And Trumpy's homework paper would show all of us whether he was being a good student. Obama was also well aware of Trumpy's being a patsy for Putin, so he designed this homework to exacerbate many of Trumpy's vulnerabilities. So what does Trumpy do? And what can we learn about Trumpy because of the sanctions? It was a great move on Obama's part, and characteristic of how he prefers to operate.