Not just that it is also strategically smart, if you are a geopolitical rival of the United States the absolute last thing you want to do is be the external aggressor that unifies them again (if temporarily).

Far better to just sit back and watch them blunder from unforced error to unforced error while you quietly achieve whatever your long term goals are.

While they’re sitting back, they might as well buy into the open corruption to serve their own interests like never before.