Look at the amount of people dying of cancer. It's pretty clear that cancer research is low on the priority list.
That's really back to front logic. Isn't it more likely that keeping online systems completely watertight is a really difficult task, no matter how much money is thrown at it?
For me, the only question is whether the West are using the same nefarious tactics to try and dethrone Putin and if not, why not?
You have to look at this from a Democracy v Authoritarianism perspective. Russia is pretty authoritarian whereas the West is Democratic. The US has programs that promote Democracy, media freedoms, gender equality, economic development, the rule of law, and student exchange programs (with the expectation that foreign students from poor or authoritarian states who study in the US will take their experience studying and living in a free society and promote Democratic norms when they return back home). These are pretty transparent programs that take place in most countries where the US has an embassy.
On the flip side, Putin's Russia, which is authoritarian, has banned most of these programs because they don't want their public clamoring for Democratic reforms or even attempt a Ukraine style revolution. Putin instead goes on attack by attempting to clandestinely undermine Democratic institutions in western countries through his own post-KGB style of information warfare:
1. Rampantly propagandist TV channels like RT masquerading as legitimate 24 hour international news channels, who exist solely to influence foreign audiences towards Putin's world view.
2. Social media troll farms in St. Petersburg where dozens of paid government trolls work 12 hour around the clock shifts in nondescript warehouses to respond to Twitter, Yahoo, YouTube, Facebook comments and rebut any anti-Putin narratives and undermine anti-Putin politicians (like Hillary for example).
3. An intense around the clock domestic propaganda campaign through state controlled web sites, tv channels, and radio stations, which includes legal provisions where companies doing internet business in Russia have to have their servers located on Russian soil (presumably so they are available for Government raids/shutdown if they don't tow the Putin line).
4. Using clandestine military units to procure hackers who attack western government and politician email accounts to embarrass Putin's opponents or promote right wing Putin friendly politicians by embarrassing their opponents (such as what just happened with Hillary).
So what you have is a battle for power between Democratic and Authoritarian systems and the Russians appear to be making tremendous progress in reestablishing a Soviet style capability to create a group of satellite states led by politicians who got into power with Putin's help for the sole purpose of neutralizing the ability of their respective states to challenge Putin's expansionism.
