The Russian government - the one Donald Trump so admires, and the one whose leader has praised Trump - seems overly interested in American political campaigns.
Especially given the timing of some 20,000 Democratic National Committee emails stolen by Russian government hackers and suddenly dropped onto the public Wikileaks.org website on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.
The embarrassing emails show a DNC - which is supposed to be objective with Democratic candidates - seemingly seeking ways to undermine one of those candidates, Bernie Sanders. Even worse, they seem to show a staff trying to exploit religion for election purposes - a charge that Democrats have consistently called against Trump.
But now with experts drawing possible links between the hacking, the leaking, Russians and Trump, the question arises: Is the bromance of Vladimir V. Putin and Republican nominee Donald J. Trump flowering?
The New York Times on Monday says the question of whether Putin is trying to meddle in America's presidential election is gaining currency: "Until Friday, that charge, with its eerie suggestion of a Kremlin conspiracy to aid Donald J. Trump, has been only whispered."
But now, the paper notes, the DNC computer hacks and email releases have "intensified discussion of the role of Russian intelligence agencies in disrupting the 2016 campaign."
Last year, Russian government intelligence hacking groups got into the network of the Democratic National Committee computer and were able to read and copy emails and chats of employees. This April, a second Russian hack gained access to the DNC's opposition research on Trump.
After the second hack, the DNC discovered the breach and called in a cyber security group to investigate. The experts now say the hack has the hallmarks of previous Russian cyber intrusions on defense contractors, aerospace firms and think tanks in the U.S. and other major countries around the world.
Certainly the Russians might have good reason to support Trump. Last week, the GOP nominee told The New York Times that he might not back NATO nations if they came under attack from Russia - unless he was first convinced that the countries had made sufficient contributions to the Atlantic alliance.
But there are other connections.
Talking Points Memo on Saturday reported that Trump appears to have deep financial dependence on Russian money from persons close to Putin. The story, by TPM Editor and Publisher Josh Marshall, notes that major U.S. banks no longer want to work with Trump and that the post-bankruptcy Trump has been highly reliant on money from Russia, "most of which has over the years become increasingly concentrated among oligarchs and sub-garchs close to Vladimir Putin."
Marshall also points to a June 17 story from The Washington Post that explained Trump's friendly view toward Russia as one influenced by his business dealings there. The Post story reads, in part: "Since the 1980s, Trump and his family members have made numerous trips to Moscow in search of business opportunities, and they have relied on Russian investors to buy their properties around the world. 'Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,' Trump's son, Donald Jr., told a real estate conference in 2008, according to an account posted on the website of eTurboNews, a trade publication. 'We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.'"
There also is Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Working through his lobbying firm, Manafort was one of several American advisers to Viktor F. Yanukovych, the Russian-backed leader of Ukraine until he was forced out of office two years ago. Yanukovych was a key Putin ally who is now in exile in Russia. Manafort in April told Fox News that his job was to help the Ukrainians build a democracy that could align more closely with the United States and its allies.
Manafort says the idea of questioning his or Trump's connection to either Putin's interest or the leaks is "absurd."
Meanwhile, Trump has refused to make his tax returns public. Do we wonder why?
Whatever the connection, the damage to the DNC is all of its own doing. The leaked emails show the Democratic National Committee to be every bit as cutthroat as the Republican National Committee when it comes to exploiting religion and anything else possible to further a candidate.
Sadly, we can expect more leaks to come, according to interim DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile, who took over the position after former Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced her resignation Sunday. Schultz correctly resigned - not because the DNC was hacked, but because of the unprofessional demeanor of the DNC staff.
Brazile publicly apologized Monday: "I sincerely apologize for those of you who took offense and were offended, for those of you who feel betrayed and were betrayed by the ridiculous and insensitive and inappropriate emails released from the Democratic Party," she said. "[The emails] "do not reflect the spirit of the party."
No, they don't reflect the people of the party. But the staff may have a different mirror.