Donald Trump’s comments about the Democratic National Committee email leaks may have discouraged Russia from further engagement in the presidential election, experts say.

“The Kremlin tries to maintain deniability in whatever it does — in Crimea, in eastern Ukraine — and so here I would [suggest] that maintaining plausible deniability will be Moscow’s goal,” Igor Zevelev, a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told reporters on a conference call Thursday afternoon.