Russia and Ukraine

[The Grand Nudger]

Soledar is strategically important to Prigozhins bank account.  He'll have to round up some pows and stolen kids to work the salt mines, but that shouldn't be a problem.  Russia intends to build a bunch of labor camps and penal colonies in the occupied areas.

That’s a very good point too. In West Africa they are convincing local dictators to tell European states to leave the area. Than they come in to “support” local governments in their fight against some terror groups. And their payment is usually in the form of local resources especially mining resources. This is called “predatory strategies” and I am surprised to hear that the US waited this long to add them to their lists of terror organizations.    
 
Wagner is clearly destabilizing many parts of Africa and they do this for the predation of some natural resources. + I increasingly believe that they are an autonomous force in Russia. I think that Putin is answering to them more than them answering to Putin. So “What a mess!” I remember the final days of the USSR in the late 80’s. What a mess! Really.

I'm not surprised at all.  For whatever reason, our nuts wanted to do bidness with russia, and theyre white..so, ofc they don't get fast tracked to our list of filthy brown poors with guns.  As for Wagner, they're not autonomous - but Prigozhin has been showing his ass the entire conflict.  Complaining about the russian mod, bullshitting about their own "victories"....in comparison.  The smart money is that this is a way for Prigozhin to consolidate more power, and in the process offer The Great Man an out.  It wasn't that he was a dummy with a bad idea, his generals (all) failed him. That's crucial to any regime change notions - because whoever replaces putin, if he does end up replaced, isn't going to run on the idea of undoing what putin has done - but doing it more, shittier, and more brutally.

As for russia and china being close allies - not in the least. China delayed russias invasion for it's own benefit, and is currently raking them over the coals - like a handful of other countries, laundering their products to evade sanctions at bargain basement prices.