i didn't even imply that putin would assassinate him and that's why it's stupid to rely on him. russians can be a bit more nuanced than this
the personal gains will benefit them on the short term. it's already happening with trump, vance, musk and tons of murican journalists. and these are just the most obvious people. i bet russians also recruited judges, prosecutors, decision makers in municipalities, administrative bodies in legislation, media and market control, etc. that's what they do. and they'll all have their short term benefits
look at orbán to see what happens on the long run. ~12 years ago he wanted russians to buy the hungarian rtl tv business for him. back then he was in a different position, he could actually ask some favors. now he's russia's trojan horse in the eu, he let russians hack the hungarian ministry of internal affairs' computer systems without doing anything (of course he didn't, he was ordered not to), hungary isn't getting any eu funds because of the "friendship" between the two, and i could go on. trump will be long gone when jd will still owe putin with a favor here and there: lift some sanctions, let russia attack a country, let russia hack some us systems, plant some assets in important positions, change some bills, you get the idea. and he doesn't even need to be elected for that. once an asset, always an asset. but in case he's elected, the first favor will be about ukraine. and if ukraine lose, murica will lose some of their geopolitical influence. trump already said that he won't protect other nato allies unless they pay for it lol. then moldova, poland or some smaller eastern european countries are next, and murica will become even more powerless. then it's not a stretch to speculate that china is likely to attack taiwan, and jd won't be able to react because he'll get an order from putin. and jd, the supposedly smart dude will sit there in his oval office and look at all the mess he created.
he's ambitious, spineless, calculative, manipulative. he can count the votes, he can string two sentences together. he's got some intelligence, much more than trump. and at the same time he's still just a lightweight russian asset who lacks the backing of a voter base and powerful business circles on his own. that makes him vulnerable, controllable and an easy target. so back to square one: he's dumb.