Treating Kremlin like a "gang"?

Thirteen Russians have been criminally charged for interfering in the 2016 U.S. Presidential elections in favor of Donald Trump, the office of Robert Mueller, the Special Counsel, announced on the February, 16. This was Mueller’s first official move towards framing power circles of Kremlin. According to a foremost Russia security affairs and transnational crime expert, Mark Galeotti;

[T]he prosecutor is fighting the battle on his own ground, treating the Kremlin more like a criminal conspiracy than as a rival state.

Galeotti argues that that the point of the Mueller investigation is not to expose whether Kremlin is actually meddling in other countries’ politics, but to uncover whether actual crimes were committed during the course of manipulation. 

As Galeotti puts it: 

[T]his is like an anti-mafia RICO case, where one predicate offense can bring down a whole gang. Except in this case, it’s applied to a country.

Galeotti argues that what he conceptualizes as “dark power,” is eventually counterproductive and the Mueller investigation is precisely pushing for that tipping point. 

In his words, "dark power" is: 

the way some countries can try and get what they want precisely by being regarded as dangerous and unpredictable. In the long run, this is corrosive, leaving a country out in the cold as another pariah. 

What Galeotti frames as the follows, indeed involves "criminal activity" beyond mere political scheming and manipulation:

multi-vector “political war” being waged, one that also involves untraceable “black account” money, hacking, espionage and intimidation.

In Galeotti's view, Mueller is actually “after” Trump when investigating obstruction of justice; but the Special Counsel is pursuing his way to Trump through the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Will this strategy work on Trump? Time will tell. But, it may very well work on Kremlin. The end result may be more sanctions towards Russia; but actual consequence may very well be more isolation of Kremlin under Putin.