1. What's going on in the Kremlin? Putin's press agency pushed back on the reports that he's ill and retiring. The way it's being amplified makes me suspect that Russian sources are behind it. So who's doing it? A couple of years ago Putin vanished for about three weeks.

2. Rumors swirled and then he re-appeared and joked about palace intrigue. At the time, my analysis was that he was subject to a soft coup where the military essentially took control and left him as a figure head. A lot of his troubles came from the Trump Project. Now Trump is

3. leaving and export controls will likely destroy the Russian military. They won't let that happen without trying to avoid it. So I think they are offering Putin and his Oligarchs as a peace offering. Russia could have a decent economy without the corruption tax that the mob

4. economy exacts. They have a well-educated population that could become part of a new economic system, but the KGB/FSB crime syndicate must be retired. Putin was on probation and now that Trump is going, I think Putin and his crew may be going too.

5. What I will watch for is people who have lived the good life under Putin suddenly being eliminated. Because @senatemajldr has a long history of involvement with Deripaska I would think both of them are at risk for future life changing events.

6. Fred Koch built Russia's oil wealth. The Kochs & Russia share goals of advancing fossil fuels regardless of the impact on the climate. Russia's military may realize more than most how much the climate has changed due to their extensive involvement in the Arctic. For McConnell,

7. his days as a bag man for the Russian mob that includes the Kochs IMO may be coming to an end. The question for him is, will the Russians want to leave him in a position to expose them more Deripaska has already done? There is a reason you never do business with the mob.

8. The retirement plan sucks. @FBIWFO