Actually, one woman.
Yes, we mustn’t leave “Cookies” out of this. Quite a pivotal figure in all of this mess, ol’ Vicky is.
“Actually, one woman.”
That woman you are referring to is just a front, along with her cohorts, doing what their masters tell them to do. (Military/Industrial Complex which likes wars, big business interests who would like to go back to the halcyon days of Yeltsin corruption, etc.)
Old tradition - find a Prince and in return for his protection serve as a front for his dirty work.