I mentioned this in PoliGAF, but very slick move by Putin. His political chess game is strong. He's going to eat Trump for breakfast.
But I'd argue this actually puts Trump in even a tougher spot. Because Putin is appearing to play nice, Trump is going to be tempted to rollback the sanctions Obama just added. Trump has been trying his hardest to avoid any critical words or actions toward Russia and Putin just gave him a pathway to continue that. However taking Russia's side on this will put Trump at direct odds with quite a few Republicans in Congress and it'll give visible evidence to the American public that Trump is "Putin's Puppet".This is dangerous for Trump because any rogue action that Russia decides to do down the line, Trump will be considered complicit in it.
So while on the surface it may seem Putin made Trump's life easier with today's comments, it's actually made it harder for Trump to take the right action. The right action would be for Trump to go along with the sanctions & investigations and show at least some distance between him and Russia. But now he's going to be more tempted to make the wrong choice. Obama was actually doing Trump a favor by boxing Trump into these sanctions and investigations on Russia. But it seems Putin might have successfully got Trump out of that box with this slick move this morning and thereby ensuring Trump will stay loyal to him.