If I were in Russia's shoes, making Americans not trust their own news sources is brilliant success.
You give Russian way too much credit for America's own-goal. I figured you were from Eastern Europe, as I hear this talk a lot there. Understandably, as Russia would make me nervous too if I had your history with them. But, I think you are looking to the past for clues to the future, and the world has changed too much for that.
The idea that weakening (and she is weakening) Russia can direct the political dialog in the massively larger US is laughable. Russia can barely direct the political dialog in its former client states. The Kardashian family probably influences more Americans than Russia.
Pretty much as Dande and Gilsan said, America is destroying itself. Leftist ideologies have permeated education and media, resulting in increasingly dumber generations with zero awareness of history or civilizations. The media is a joke. If that makes Russia or Putin happy, well who cares? It's completely irrelevant to anything that matters in the US. Whether Putin is laughing or crying like a baby... so what? Russia has a lot of good points, but as international players they are has beens. Not unlike the UK after the last World War. Their time of empire has passed, and some of them still don't want to believe it. China is expanding influence. Russian is not.
Add to this that the conquest of nations is becoming a very unattractive thing to do in the modern world. There is little to be gained and much to be lost. There are few rational reasons to invade and occupy other countries, Only dogmatic ideologies will cause countries to do that - whether it's religion or fighting "to protect our freedoms." (God forbid you should ask anyone in the US to explain how they are freer than most other developed and stable countries that are not at war anywhere.)
Historically, when empires reach the decadence and corruption levels of the US, they collapse. I don't know of any offhand that have come back from the brink. Only some form of collapse will allow the changes needed to rebuild. I am not saying that because I want American people to suffer, because I don't. I would like to see it rebuild and become the great country it once aspired to be. But that's not going to happen without a massive shock to the system. And because of America's dominance, it will be a global shock.
I don't know what that will be, but I don't think Russia will have much to do with it. Major governments are obsolete models of incompetence, greed and corruption for the most part. Where Americans are especially weak is that most still haven't realized that the government will not solve their problems, but is actually the source of most of them. Lots of people are aware, but they simply lack support right now. The only Dem candidate that wants the US out of nation building (what an Orwellian term!) is laughed at or called a traitor (despite being a military veteran). So it's going to be a long messy process, and it's anybody's guess which nations will come out ahead in the end. Some people think one might be Poland, by the way, and they make a good case.