If you look at the history of Russophobia it’s hard not to see Russiagate as a continuation of the same racist, Machiavellian political tactics that the west has been using for awhile now. Not that I think someone who could help destroy two functioning societies and leave hundreds of thousands dead in her wake at state would do something so cynical.
But there is history here in Western Europe and the United States that goes back a coupla hundred years.


Anti-Russian sentiment

Here’s a more contemporary examination of the current use of Russophobia in context of American imperialism:

“ And this is what makes Russophobia a phenomenon specific to the West. It proceeds with the same categories Edward Said identified for orientalism: exaggeration of the difference, affirmation of the superiority of the West and recourse to stereotyped analytical grids. The ultimate strategy of the Russophobic discourse is to provide a full-fledged, infinitely adjustable subject, sufficiently sophisticated for academics in charge of theorizing about Russia yet popular with journalists eager to put that within everyone’s reach.

And that makes Russophobia a political weapon, used by a variety of special interest groups that together constitute the Anti-Russian Lobby.”
Three Books on the History and Nature of Russophobia Help Explain Russiagate

But then, talk of our expansion of our vassal states and military up to Russia’s doorstep and our support of neofascist elements in the Ukraine doesn’t get much traction round here. Nawp, it all bout the orange bad man and the bad political faction. The idea there’s connective tissue between foriegn policy and domestic political politics may be a stretch for some.