Hillary, John Kerry, and Obama, one at a time or sometimes all together, were giving Putin daily BJs.
Anything he wanted from them, he got and more.
These are old radical (Jane Fonda/Bernie Sanders type) hippies from the 60s, who were steeped in the idea that Communism and in particular the U.S.S.R. was the epitome of social political development. They would have done anything and given anything to Putin.
The very idea that Putin would favor a business tycoon billionaire capitalist, over declared communist sycophants who literally adored him, is nonsensical in the extreme. If Putin did anything to favor Trump, and there is certainly no proof of that whatsoever, then he would have done so simply to sow chaos in the election, not because he supported Trump and not because he thought Trump had any prayer to actually win the election.
If he did help Trump, which I doubt, then he was simply doing what he always does all over the world. He was playing games to sow discord and confusion.