The Russians may indeed be responsible for electing Trump - but with a major caveat

This is a long and detailed read. I may try to add some quotes tomorrow, time permitting, but not right now.

I will slightly shift my stance on this. While I remain absolutely unable to comprehend how millions of people can think of Trump as presidential material, the fact is, they do. Given that the political and ideological divide is so sharp even when a talking racist orange mass of indeterminate substance is one of the candidates, a landslide victory is not really possible. So, knowing that, it wouldn't take much to tip the balance. In that sense the Russian influence could be decisive in effect despite being small in magnitude, and they could thereby be legitimately seen as responsible. The fact that millions of people are apparently unable to realise basic things like, "fire is hot" and "Donald Trump is a bad person" is another, quite separate issue.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/how-russia-helped-to-swing-the-election-for-trump?mbid=social_twitter