At the start of the article it says Russian troops get paid $50K if they are wounded (presumably lightly, for the scheme to work). Color me skeptical, but I seriously doubt that. Russia is not that rich or that generous.
They are /promised/ the equivalent of $50k.
How many actually receive that sum is yet to be seen, the Russian state can also play the same game.
Total BS? Or BS storytelling with accurate insights?
But IMO these joint ventures are believable. AFAIK companies like McDonalds and Pepsi started local operations during the last years of the Soviet Union. It's possible that for at least a few years which followed, the regional operations were still managed from their office in Moscow.
China and India together buy over 2 million barrels of oil a day. ~ $5 billion a month / 60 billion a year. Plenty of cash.