Explain to me this, because I'm stupid.
Manul is a Russian cat. It inhabits Russia. By no means it is endangered. You can just go into the wild and catch yourself a manul cat. Just like you can probably go out into the city right now, and catch yourself a duck or a pigeon.
Why would Moscow Zoo look for manul cat mate at other countries' zoos?
Let's look at the publication, "The Moscow Times".
According to wikipedia article "The Moscow Times" as of November 17th, 2023 has foreign agent status in Russia, for posting fake news.
If you dig a bit deeper and take a look at Founder and publisher, two "Epstein" looking fellows, Derk Sauer and Alexander Gubsky. That should actually explain a lot, provided you have the blinders off.