I wasn’t fully convinced before that Putin has Trump in his pocket, but after that stunt, I am convinced that he is under Putin’s thumb. Trump and co. could have had marching orders from Putin to do exactly that. Also, this is something that Putin have done and would do, publicly humiliating someone on live TV.
Your question already imply an answer: they wanted it to be on TV
To me the situation looks quite clear: people are calling up for more war and military spending, that’s what governments ever wanted. People are getting fooled with a gimmick as simple as a scapegoat.