Putin’s Long Shadow in U.S. Campaign Fuels New Red Scare

When Vladimir Putin praised Donald Trump as “talented’’ and the “absolute leader’’ in the U.S. presidential race back in December, the embrace seemed more mischievous than malign.

But now, with Election Day in just two weeks, the Kremlin’s role has become one of the dominant topics in the campaign. From the debate last week when Hillary Clinton and Trump traded barbs on which was Putin’s “puppet’’ to U.S. charges that Kremlin leaders were behind the hacking that has dogged the Clinton campaign -- a conclusion Trump has refused to accept -- Russia has transfixed the campaign in a way no foreign government has in decades.