How did Russia set that stage in a manner that $6.5 billion [1] (publicly known at least!) along with thousands and thousands of hours of free & corporate biase

How did Russia set that stage in a manner that $6.5 billion [1] (publicly known at least!) along with thousands and thousands of hours of free & corporate biased advertising via mainstream media couldn't defeat? $100,000 in mixed republican/liberal ads surely had nothing on $6.5 billion. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/14/somebody-just-put-a-price-tag-on-the-2016-election-its-a-doozy/?utm_term=.7ddec7bc3ee9 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/14/someb...