Putin has been in power for 20 years. It takes a while to dismantle all the democratic institutions that make is so that you can stay here without worry. Trump made an attempt to dismantle every institution from the 3-letter agencies like CIA, FBI, CDC, DOJ, the media, rule of law, even the concept of the presidency and elections themselves. We won't be so lucky if Trump has a second go at dismantling these institutions, because it took him a while to figure out how, but now he's pretty much an expert.

It seems like the institution of presidential debates that has been a hallmark of our democratic process for decades was destroyed by the GOP just yesterday, so speaking in the past tense as if the damage has ceased is a mistake.

I would argue that Russia did not had much of democratic institutions in the first place. And Putin was just returning back to the practices he learned when he was young and middle aged KGB agent the first moment it seemed useful.