Russia and Ukraine

[Anomalocaris]

With all of this, is Putin trying to get Trump reelected in 2024?

John Bolton says (so take this with a large grain of salt) that Putin held off invading Ukraine as long as he did because Trump planned to withdraw the US from NATO if he won a second term.

So the answer to your question is ‘yes’.

Boru

Trump’s prospects for 2024 were probably not that good to start with given the chances that various investigations around him turning up fatal flaws too severe for 2 years of republican dominated congress to overcome.  trump made his own re-election significantly less likely by his yapping regarding Putin at an ill judged time.   Even for trump, his hangers on such as Graham and Haley, and little would be trumpolinos like DeSantis, there is limit to how much private benefit can accrue from throwing red meat for the sake of throwing red meat.

Putin undoubtedly judged trump’s re-election chances sufficiently low to start with, and trump’s fecklessness makes his policy sufficiently unpredictable, that it was not worth letting prospect of US nuclear weapon in Ukraine get three years closer in the hope that it would be resolved by trump’s reelection.

so you might say a canny foreign observer with a more realistic appreciations of effects of the papered over contradictions and the hidden faults in american politics and society than is common amongst americans has just called the 2024 american election cycle against trump, and put his money and tanks where his mouth is.