And Scott Ritter is straight in there saying he sees nothing in that theory but then that means the Iranian and Russian intelligence services were caught cold by a very (apparently) overt preparation of a large armed force in an area they would usually have heavy intel on. I don't see why Russia would make such a deal (if Ukraine is their side of the bargain) given that they are apparently winning there without too much trouble.

Odd how Pepé's "intelligence sources" didn't have a single word to tell him about this in advance but now it's "source, trust me bro, old school, former deep state, senior guy, never wrong"...just didn't have a clue about anything two days ago apparently...

The speed and ease of the conquest does suggest something having been arranged so I'm leaning more to some soft of deal being made but it will have to be one that smoothes out all these apparent contradictions.