>No, it's not at all clear.
> The 2016 disinformation campaign clearly favored one candidate, while simultaneously attempting to radicalize his opposition.
Per a recent article by FiveThirtyEight.com [0] they labeled 719,087 tweets as "Right Troll" and 427,811 tweets as "Left Troll." When describing the two types they say
"Right Trolls behave like “bread-and-butter MAGA Americans, only all they do is talk about politics all day long,” Linvill said. Left Trolls often adopt the personae of Black Lives Matter activists, typically expressing support for Bernie Sanders and derision for Hillary Clinton, along with “clearly trying to divide the Democratic Party and lower voter turnout.”"
So on one hand, yes they clearly favored Trump. On the other hand, favoring Trump was the most divisive and destabilizing thing they could do.
> Or maybe they're just indiscriminately pouring gasoline into the fire.
I think that is a huge part of the strategy. Was there collusion as well? Probably but Putin is happy to watch the West burn.
[0] https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-were-sharing-3-mill...