Intel agencies assert he failed to VPN once and the IP routed to a GRU building. Knowing how IPs work, things can not quite work out like that -- things get leased, routing goes strange places, and proxies can even cut you off. It's also not beyond the possible that the traffic was re-routed unwillingly through the GRU (they have their own prison-grid over there you know).
Scott Adams' master persuader theory seems to suggest this. Do everything possible to make people think your regime is "literally Hitler". Meanwhile get what you actually want while everyone is losing their shit. Which, in the Trump universe probably means getting paid big time.
