Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul suggested to MSNBC that Russian President Vladimir Putin's five-year "emotional, personal grudge" against Hillary Clinton could very well be the motivation behind the recent cyberattacks against her presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.



McFaul told host Andrea Mitchell the genesis of the grudge came in December 2011.



"Mr. Putin has an emotional, personal grudge with Secretary Clinton. She accused him of falsifying an election," McFaul said. "He's never forgotten that."



McFaul went on to call it "unprecedented" that the Russians tried to impact elections in the U.S., but even more staggering was Donald Trump's encouragement of Russia to do even more of it.



"Russia played a role in trying to impact our election … That is something new and unprecedented," McFaul said. "And even more unprecedented Mr. Trump then encouraged them to continue their espionage efforts."



McFaul, ambassador for two years until 2014, called the Russians espionage capabilities "world class," and said they are better at it than the Chinese and North Koreans.



"The Russians have tremendous capabilities with respect to gathering intelligence on the web — they are world class," McFaul said. "I think most Americans would be shocked, however, at their capabilities. And most of the time, you never know what they're doing. What's different about this time is that they were actually caught."



McFaul told Mitchell it was important to note that Trump shares the "policy views" of Putin on the issue of Crimea and rethinking the relationship the U.S. has with its allies.



"On the policy issues, that's the most important," McFaul said.



