My theory is that the sanctions passed during Obama's tenure did just that - cripple them. But, it took more than just Russian meddling to get their man into office. It took oil money and the banks too. See, the oil industry owes trillions to the financial industry, because extraction and surveying is expensive. When there's an oil glut, the low price of oil makes those debts unpayable. So what's an oil baron and a big bank to do?

Well, you first see if OPEC will cut production to help bring the price back up. Problem is, Russia needs to produce more than ever to keep their gas economy afloat, and absolutely cannot afford to cut production while under sanctions. So you need OPEC to cut production and Russia to get out from under the sanctions. You also need to slap a currency manipulator label on China to make sure all their crude stays put where it is.

I mean, I know it's pretty conspiratorial as far as theories go - it's probably just a coincidence that we have a Russian marrionette as POTUS, the head of Exxon as SoS, a shill for the fossil fuel industry at EPA, and various Goldman Sachs alumni in the cabinet sprouting like mushrooms. But holy shit, if near every geo-political clusterfuck can't be traced back to oil and finance, then I don't know my history.