So why the focus on Russia?
While the Chinese are certainly sometimes nefarious in their online activities, their goal, as you mentioned, seems to usually be gaining IP. The perception is that Russian hacking is usually more (a) directed at stealing directly from the populace (credit card phishing, etc), or (b) directed towards political ends (see recent American politics for examples). These effects are both more visible to the general public and politically damaging. Thus they receive more focus on the political stage.
To me, (b) seems like the real differentiating factor.
Also, there's a pretty clear understanding that targeting Russians is career suicide. So you'll find documentation in Russian, but templates in English.
We've been fighting a repeat of the 80's proxy war in Afghanistan for nearly 15 years. Roles reversed, though. Russia arms the Taliban, just like we did in the 80's with the Mujahadeen.
Syria, another blatant proxy war, is probably a better example. We're arming rebels and providing support to fight Russian (and therefore communist) interests. Sounds just like the Cold War to me.
With the recent Russian propoganda campaign (see: "fake news") going over so well that they took to celebrations in the streets, expect a lot more funny business in elections in the West.
France's election seems to be the next plaything for Russia to influence, it's setting a precedent that will restore Russia to superpower status if allowed to continue unchecked.
The power of the internet works both ways. Information, and therefore misinformation, is spread more quickly than ever. Propoganda has never been easier to dress up and present as fact. Nor have people been so willing to eat it by the spoonful, as long as it validates their own opinions and/or biases.
It didn't with the fall of the Beeline wall, but did with the fall of the USSR. Unfortunately, by the late 1990s (particularly, this was noted during the Serbia/Kosovo conflict and subsequent peacekeeping operation) a new Cold War had clearly started between NATO and Russia.
China vs USA is a business competition. Both think that can get an advantage out of it.
Russia vs USA is a struggle for power and influence in Europe. If USA losses the EU it is isolated. If USA becomes Russian ally it is a major shift in the world power and will bring with it a lot of instability, and that means lose money.
Brexit can be an example of the late. Brexit movement foundation relays on the so called fake-news. It is a big shift in power, but not so big as the UK was never well integrated into the EU. The monetary loss is immense.
At least one of the stories and featured photos (guy with the yellow car) is of a Russian hacker the US picked up in July of 2014.
There's a news story from 2015, but it mentions the guy was picked up from the Maldives a year earlier.
http://www.businessinsider.com/notorious-russian-hacker-kidn...
I think the latter is far more concerning.
But on the other hand, maybe they were always a bigger problem and out of reach, and the agencies finally have an excuse to nab some while there is all the hype going on.
Also, Xi Jinping is visiting Mar a Lago soon. Would probably strain talks to play that move before the meet.
But politically, we had the Contras and Cuban exiles. It's not as if the US has clean hands.