@bob I think it's probable that it was such a thing.  They wanted weapons to use against foreign governments, not tools in the hands of their own population to resist the establishment.  In fact, I think the genesis of this trend of "Russian haxor" nonsense comes from a place of the US establishment trying to find a way to explain away destroying the cyberdissidents programs and claw back funding for groups that don't dance to their tune like TOR.