MAZZETTI No evidence has emerged to date showing direct contact between President Trump and Russians involved in the operation to interfere with the 2016 election. Mr. Trump developed relationships with Russians when he took the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow in 2013, and some of those people were involved in setting up the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower. President Trump has denied he knew about that meeting when it occurred, and no evidence has come out suggesting otherwise.

What I don’t understand is why Russia wanted Mr. Trump as president and not Mrs. Clinton? Why are Russia and Mr. Putin better off with Mr. Trump?

— Tony Olds, Lansing, Mich.

SHANE One answer is that Mr. Putin had clashed repeatedly with Mrs. Clinton when she was secretary of state and saw her as a hawk who would provide strong backing for NATO and other Western institutions. As a candidate, Mr. Trump, by contrast, expressed admiration for Mr. Putin and seemed eager to pursue better relations with Moscow even at the expense of NATO and the European Union.

In practice, the Trump administration has produced a contradictory record: Mr. Trump has kept up the Putin-friendly rhetoric even as his cabinet has persuaded him to take a series of tough actions, escalating sanctions, expelling Russian diplomats suspected of spying and supplying defensive weapons to Ukraine.

Is Mr. Putin seeking to overtake the United States in terms of dominance and presence on the world stage? Does Mr. Putin believe that with President Trump’s help Russia will emerge as a rejuvenated world power, with the United States in a diminished capacity?

— John C. Turley, Chicago

SHANE Russia’s population, 142 million, is less than half that of the United States; its oil-dependent economy is about one-fifth the size of the American economy and is suffering under Western sanctions; its military, while modernized under Mr. Putin, has a fraction of the resources of American armed forces. So there seems to be no realistic prospect that Russia will overtake the United States on the world stage in the foreseeable future.

What Mr. Putin has demonstrated, however, is that by using the cheap, new tools of hacking, leaking and social media manipulation, Russia can cause outsize trouble for the United States and other countries. Presumably one of Mr. Putin’s goals is to convince Russians and their neighbors that the United States is a deeply troubled, bitterly divided country whose brand of democracy should be a model for no one. Russia is a much-discussed, much-feared player on the world stage, and that may be enough for Mr. Putin.