The deep state pushed Russia firmly into alliance with China.
Don't start with that bullshit. Russia and China have been allies since soviet times, even during the alleged Sino-Soviet Split, which was a fake split per KGB defectors. China is one of Russia's biggest client states for weapons and military technology purchases, and they have cooperated in military drills/agreements/etc for years now. Same with North Korea, which received modern targeting tech from Russia within the past few years per Japanese analysis of NK's sudden and speedy increase in missile technology. And of course, Iran receives all this same technology through North Korea. The same is also true for all the other communist countries and even communist terrorist groups. They have all been clients of Russia, not just in Soviet times, but even to recent years.