Well perhaps the article doesn't put it in quite the right way, but to put it another way: if you were Russian or Chinese intelligence and you had the opportuni

Well perhaps the article doesn't put it in quite the right way, but to put it another way: if you were Russian or Chinese intelligence and you had the opportunity to read, say, the Obama camp's internal memos, wouldn't you want to do so? As an example, presumably Obama has various advisors on foreign policy, and they'll disagree. Some of them will advocate taking a harder line with (say) Russia, while others will advocate a softer line. If I were Russian intelligence I'd want to know who was who, so I could keep track of those advisors if and when they move into positions within the next administration.