Well, it didn't take long for Russian officials to start gloating as the results of the Brexit referendum came in last week.
Almost immediately, Kremlin aide Boris Titov wrote the following on Facebook:
"It looks like it's happened -- the UK is out!!!
"The most important long-term effect of all this will be Europe's escape from the Anglo-Saxons, and that means from the United States.
"This isn't the independence of Britain from Europe, but of Europe from the United States.
"Now we'll have a united Eurasia in 10 years."
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Likewise, State Duma deputy Sergei Zheleznyak wrote on Facebook that the EU's priority should be the interests of its citizens rather than "Washington and the blurred, theoretical unification of Europe."
And Aleksei Pushkov, the chairman of the State Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee, gleefully tweeted that more referenda are likely and that "public opinion is dangerous" to EU leaders' political goals.
The gloating was predictable and its tone was revealing.
In a nutshell, it summarized what Vladimir Putin's Russia has been trying to accomplish for years: Divide Europe and destroy transatlanticism.
And the Putin regime now clearly feels that it's one step closer to that goal.
The Kremlin hopes to take another step next year in France's presidential elections, in which the pro-Moscow National Front leader Marine Le Pen -- who has pledged to take France out of the EU and NATO -- is expected to run strong.
Now, the Kremlin didn't create the dynamics that are fracturing and fraying Europe and the transatlantic community, but it has clearly contributed to them and is doing its best to exploit them.
And it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
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