Frankly, I trust Putin and Russia to be… Not genocidal? Not really sure what the word is.
Anyway, point is that Russia has a vested interest in those cables. As we do, as well. In my own plans for war with the state, key targets were fiber nodes located throughout the continent. Control over those for when the traffic and situation was favorable… Scorched Earth if it went the other way. Better to deny the asset to the enemy than risk it being recovered and returned to use against me.
I see Putin the same way, here. His position is not strong enough to take on the cabal from an idealized standpoint. He, also, has no choice but to prepare for the possibility of Q team's failure. Assuming he is on the side of "I don't like baby-eaters". Our own nation's contingencies for that are not as easy to see… And I would expect them to be in place - all of which taken into account per the plan's design.
Russia is playing their part by doing exactly what they are forecast to do - which is exactly what they must do.