I'm not so sure. Look at the bargaining power in geopolitics a country gets, when they know a certain country hacked them (Dem. hacks, Clinton email hacks, by Russia). It is always better to hide your tracks or to blaim someone else. Especially if it can be done easily.

Remember: the Russians also hacked the Republican email server as well, just, those emails were never released.

I forgot about that, so what you are saying is that all these gop legislators that are suddenly pro Russia aren't true believers? That is maybe better.

The use of the nlrb data on the other hand is pretty clear. They had a number of ongoing cases against Musk's companies. Involving Russia is unnecessary to explain the motive.

The Russians assassinated someone on British soil using a radioactive agent that can only be made in nuclear reactors, and is incredibly expensive to extract and transport.

There are literally dozens of ways to kill a guy, if you must poison him, which are cheaper in every possible way and can be sourced locally by someone with the sort of basic chemistry knowledge an intelligence agency would have on payroll, or from a drunk undergrad.

Which is to say: Russia's MO has at no point been "subtlety", it's been vranyo: a lie they tell where you know they're lying, but are obliged to pretend the other party is not.

They don't care, and also, their expectation from DOGE was probably "Logging is turned off, here's the credentials, go".