This will get flagged, but it's a decent article.
I've thought for a while that Trump is not Putin's puppet but rather a Putin wannabe. He's too egotistical to be anyone's puppet. His goal is to become America's effective dictator, eventually either rigging (like Putin) or abolishing the electoral process. A partnership with another totalitarian oligarch would be fitting and very helpful toward this goal.
If the thesis in this article is correct the target of such a partnership would likely be China and to a lesser extent Japan and the EU, since those are the only world powers who could challenge Russia or America.
There's an intellectual basis to it as well. Putin is purportedly a believer in many of the same ideas that one finds in America's alt-right: esoteric post-war fascism (search for Julius Evola) and neo-reaction / neo-feudalism. The end goal is probably more feudal than fascist, though the distinction is somewhat academic.
If such a scenario unfolded we'd end up with something like a planetary nobility.
