. . . and get tough on Russia

Baby steps: Donald Trump and his nascent administration have at long last moved from a see-no-evil refusal to acknowledge Russia’s pernicious interference in America’s presidential election to a begrudging acknowledgment of what U.S. intelligence agencies long ago confirmed.

“I think it was Russia,” Trump admitted in his Wednesday news conference, later politely saying of Vladimir Putin — apparently now the culprit in Trump’s mind — “He shouldn’t be doing it.”

For good measure, in confirmation hearings, would-be Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Russia’s hacking “clearly is troubling,” and it’s a “fair assumption” that Putin himself was behind it.

Now, both must prove their words are far more than perfunctory. America is owed:

l Complete cooperation with what must be an aggressive congressional investigation into Russia’s theft of information from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

l An end to Trump’s troubling victim-blaming of the DNC. A President must make clear that foreign interference is unacceptable — no matter how porous a political party’s cyberdefenses, no matter what embarrassing behavior is revealed.

l A rethinking of Trump’s eagerness to relax sanctions against the Kremlin — and an openness to imposing tougher penalties still.

A 35-page opposition-research memo chock full of unverified and in some cases downright erroneous information is now in the nation’s bloodstream, having been published by BuzzFeed.

Only one thing will set to rest swirling questions about Trump’s independence from Putin: strong action in the national interest.