Strategically, from the US perspective, it was an enormously effective flex. It doesn’t matter what Putin says to his people, or the world, but now he knows that the US knew, and could have said nothing. Charles de Gaulle once said, “No nation has friends, only interests.”
First thing I pulled up said it was de Gaulle. I rather suspect Kissinger got it from de Gaulle, who got it from Palmerston. My point is that I didn’t make it up. And this thread demonstrates that it is a long standing sentiment.