This week, The New York Times broke a story about Donald Trump Jr., the son of the president of the United States, meeting, in the midst of the 2016 campaign season, with an attorney for the Russian government for the purpose of acquiring potentially damaging information about former Secretary of State and then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. It was revealed that this meeting also included Jared Kushner, son in law of the president, and Paul Manafort, Trump's then-campaign manager.

Many questions have arisen in connection to that story: Did the Trump campaign (or President Donald Trump himself) collude with the Russian government to interfere in an American presidential election through illegal means? Did the president's son-in-law intentionally lie about his contact with Russian agents? Were there Federal Elections Commission violations involved? How much contact did members of the Trump campaign have with Russian agents during the campaign and leading up to the Inauguration?

Those questions will be probed and, presumably, answered in the course of the Justice Department investigation headed up by special counsel Robert Mueller. But one question remains unanswered and may not be in Meuller's purview. That is: Why? In particular, Republicans should be asking themselves this question: Why did Russian President Vladimir Putin so desperately want Trump to win?

Putin had to know the risks involved if it was discovered that his government had hacked emails, stolen information and had interfered with the elections in the United States. So he was willing to pay a very high price to ensure that the next president of the United States was Donald J. Trump. Why?

Cartoons on President Trump and Russia View All 91 Images

As a Republican coming of age in the 1980s, with Ronald Reagan as president, I learned to believe that we should be skeptical of the Soviet Union and Russia. I believed that Russia's interests were not necessarily American interests, that we should be suspicious of its motives in forging alliances with the U.S. because it didn't have a track record of defending liberty. When Reagan stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate on the Berlin Wall, which separated West Berlin from Soviet-controlled East Germany, and called out to the leader of the Soviet Union, "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace ... Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," it gave me chills. And I believed that America, and Republicans specifically, had the fortitude to stand up to the Russians and call for freedom and liberty.

Since then, Republican presidential candidates like George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney have spoken of the need for a strong America as the best hope for the world to live in peace – and that Russia continued to be a threat to lasting peace. In fact, Romney, in one of the 2012 presidential debates against President Barack Obama, stated that Russia was "without question, our number one geopolitical foe." The Democrats (along with many in the media) mocked him and condemned him for that comment.

So when did the Russians decide that the Republican candidate winning the presidency was in their best interest? And why?

The Trump family and team does seem to have an unusual coziness with Russia, Russian business interests and Russian government representatives. Relationships and conversations that would give other operatives pause seem to be commonplace in Trump world. Since Election Day, there has been a daily drip, drip, drip of news regarding Trump associates holding meetings with known Russian operatives. No one really knows the purpose or meaning of these contacts, and the answers to inquiries have been contradictory, conflicting and confusing.

Perhaps there exists a Trump/Russia relationship that isn't fully understood by the American public, and Putin simply wanted a friend in the White House. Some subscribe to the idea that this has little to do with Trump and more to do with Putin's disdain for Clinton. In 2011, Putin strongly condemned comments by Clinton calling Russia's parliamentary elections unfair. "We need to safeguard ourselves from this interference in our internal affairs," said Putin at the time.

Did Putin and the Russian government interfere in American elections on behalf of the Republican candidate simply to take revenge on Clinton and her hard-line approach to the Putin administration?

Another theory is the chaos theory. Chaos surrounded businessman Trump, candidate Trump and, so far, has surrounded President Trump. And chaos, in the country that has been the leader of the free world for the last century, is good news for a country that wants the world to be a little less free. Perhaps we have in Russia and Putin a country and a leader that would love the idea of the United States losing a bit of the moral high ground in world affairs.

Did Putin interfere in American elections in order to throw America into chaos? I don't think that we know the answer to the question. But one thing seems clear: In 2016, Putin and the Russian government sought to play a role in the American election process, and it was their desire that Donald Trump would prevail.