Prigozhin’s Moscow march, the aftermath
Up to 39 Russian military pilots and aircrew killed during Prigozhin’s march to Moscow. (East 2 West News)
Belarus’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, worked out a deal between Vladimir Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin. Moscow dropped charges against those involved in the coup while PMC Wagner stopped their march and turned around. Prigozhin must move to Belarus, and the Kremlin must replace the defense minister, Sergei Shoigu and the Army Staff General, Valery Gerasmivov. Prigozhin has also agreed to pay compensation to the family members of the Russian airmen killed during that march. The Russians reportedly suffered their worst air losses since they invaded Ukraine.
From the Daily Mail:
Garry Kasparov, the chess champion who has become one of the foremost leaders of the Russian democratic opposition, said Putin had been ‘humiliated’ by Prigozhin.
‘The game ended with Putin’s worst humiliation – a run for his life from Moscow when Prigozhin’s army was hundreds of miles away,’ he told CNN.
Kasparov added: ‘Many of Putin’s top officials ran for cover. A dictator relies on his aura of invincibility.’
Sergey Sanovich, Hoover Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, who specializes in disinformation and autocracies, said Putin had never looked so weak.
He said needing Belarus’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, to negotiate with Prigozhin on his behalf was a sign of how enfeebled he was.
‘Prigozhin makes a daring move and gets away with it, potentially with additional gains to come,’ said Sanovich.
‘Lukashenko saves the day. Putin reduced to a bystander, complaining on TV and letting his top generals be humiliated.
‘Never in a quarter century Putin looked so ineffectual and hapless.’
Sanovich’s view on the involvement of Lukashenko was shared by Michael McFaul, Barack Obama’s advisor on Russia from 2009-11, who then became the U.S. ambassador to Moscow.
McFaul tweeted: ‘Putin could not control a mercenary force that he created & run by his buddy. He had to rely on Lukashenko of all people to cut a deal with a guy he called just hours ago a traitor.
‘These are signs of real weakness, not strength. What has weakened Putin’s grip on power? His disastrous war in Ukraine.
‘The longer the war continues, the weaker Putin’s regime becomes. Those that want to avoid Russian state collapse (i.e. Xi) should be pushing Putin to end his war.’
The Daily Mail has additional information here.
Category: Russia
FIRST thing Mr. Prigozhin needs to do is hire himself a food taster…and avoid tall buildings.
Still doubt that we know the whole story to this. Just added a few more to the body count.
He’s gonna die by “suicide”– either falling from a tall building or shoot himself with a automatic weapon (only re-loading once).
Prigozhin Needs to befriend the Clintons. 🤔
He better hope Putin doesn’t tell Hillary that he has dirt on her..
He could have done it the easy way, and gotten Putin killed off by telling Der Hildabeast that Putin had dirt on her.
Either its true, or it ain’t.
As long as the foolsball game is on, the Bud Light culled…
I’m reminded by the SECOND (h/t ‘stixx) Greatest Navel Documentary of ALL TIMES, what was the plan? (sea below)
And congrats, I guess:
24 hours vs 15 months? MuH NaRrAtIvE bRo.
I heard two negatives, and I’m not sure which is better or worse. This is the most aircraft, the Russians have lost in the year. This is the most aircraft, the Russians have lost since Afghanistan maybe they’re talking about in one day. It was a very brief statistic and then gone so I don’t know if I caught that differentiation.
It was the most in a single day loss. But Russia has lost over 300 helicopters since they war began as well as hundreds of fixed wingcraft.
Putin is looking like a pathetic weakling. He’ll have to do something soon to save face.
If Putin falls who will replace him. I’m sure the Chinese will try to get someone they can “work with”.
That is an excellent question. I’ve asked my Russian teachers and they chuckle. They have no clue. Everyone is corrupt. The “cure” will easily be worse than the disease.
Take a look around the Duma. Who would replace Putin?
For starters, in the United Russia party there’s Dimitri Medvedev. Extremely close to Putin (was his de facto president for a term in the past 23 years) and the oligarchs, and would be a continuation of the status quo.
In the second largest seat holder of the Duma is the Communist Party. Make no mistake about it. They will fill the void if the United Russia party falls from power. I think the tyranny and millions of deaths from 1917-1992 speaks for itself.
Then you have wildcards. Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner group head extraordinaire (heads army of convicts, murderers, and rapists, so he sounds nice). Nikolai Patrushev, another long term Putin ally and head of the Russian Security Council who encourages even closer alliances with China and Cuba.
I see lots of media focus on Western favorites such as Alexei Navalny, but the guy can’t win and hasn’t won any elections period. Just because we like him, doesn’t mean he’ll be well liked in Russia. This is the problem with the diplomatic shortsightedness of this entire fiasco.
Prigozhin will soon die by falling out of a window, even though he lives on the ground floor. Hopefully his thugs will then get all fired up and resume the attack on Putin’s thugs.
Like Claude Rains said in Casablanca:
Experts agree… he should avoid tall buildings:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/wagner-boss-prigozhin-might-want-034832806.html
Time magazine ain’t optimistic;
https://www.yahoo.com/news/long-wagner-boss-yevgeny-prigozhin-220131344.html
Sums it up
It’s a damn shame that Commissar can’t explain it all to us. Whatever shall we do without his sage words of explanation? I fear all is lost.
Well, at least it wasn’t a “FALSE FLAG”!!
Or a “conspiracy theory” to distract from Biden, inc.
Or we hear him screech that this too is Trump’s fault!
My carefully massaged empiric data, collected from “reliable” sources, told me and the Commissariat that this would be the final outcome! Just like I was right on Zika and COVID!!!
Now watching non stop speculation on Fox News.
That is, watching from my vacay motel 1000 miles from home.
How annoying.
About as helpful as all the now worthless speculation
that filled the boob tube over the last 2 days.
Ugh.
Every tv ever made has a channel selector and a power button.
But the “brightness” button doesn’t make it any smarter.
Galliger
I find the “Food Network” to be quite exciting and informative; even more so than the various “news” channels. I do miss Alton Brown and “Good Eats”, though.
Let me help you out:
Hunter Biden was guilty of tax evasion and violation of gun laws! That’s it! Nothing else follows! No jail time or fines! It’s just going away!
Now excuse me. I have to go claim as income the Nickel I found in the parking lot so that I don’t go to jail for tax evasion.
But on a good note, if you have a child, there is a safe and trustworthy drag queen waiting to read bedtime stories to them in order to show them that it’s ok and acceptable to do anything in a sexual nature with an adult as long as “we don’t tell your parents”!
SARC/off
🤦🏼♂️🤷♂️
Welcome to the real world in 2023!$
Sadly true. No sarcasm nor snark implied or typed.
Precedence has now been set so I guess those sales of $600 or more are now null and void to prosecution?
I’m curious to see how this all plays out in the end. False flag? Psyop? Legitimate coup waved off? Flex by Wagner turned feint?
Honestly, outside of what I read here and catch on YouTube, I know as much about this as I know about what’s going on in Ukraine. We are all subject to the media bias from both sides. Putin is either weak or strong. This “coup” either almost toppled the Russian government or was planned by same. This was a victory or a defeat for Putin, Prigozhin, or even Biden.
I wonder what is being swept under the rug in US news. Hunter gets off light, then we’re fixated on dead rich people for days on end. Once the inevitable result to that story comes out, we’re subjected to “YES! Putin’s pooping his pants scared over 25k Wagner mercs!”.
Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was an attempt to weed out disloyal and anti-Putin forces. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Prigozhin was dead serious about taking Moscow before thinking about the repercussions.
But as an American, I wonder what these stories have been replacing, especially with a former President under indictment and the current one seemingly competing with the Clintons on the corruption scale.
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of Putin and Prigozhin… The Commissar knows…
He sure THINKS he knows everything!
Spapos doesn’t know our buddy, Jack.
Where has the good Doctor been as of late?
His pithy critiques and scathing rebukes have been missed tremendously.
If you have a line on him, please send my well-wishes and regards.
“THINKS”?
“You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means”
Yeah, um no.
This is the beginning of the end of the war. I don’t think Putin gives two shits about news stories in the US. He is trying to figure out how to get out of this mess. Part of the problem with Americans is the heavy bias towards narcissism, they think literally everything is about them.
Well here’s something a bit different from Gateway Pundit: Did the corrupt CIA get played to the tune of $6 billion by the equally corrupt Russkies?
Kim Dotcom: Did Putin and Prigozhin Play the CIA to the Tune of $6 Billion? | The Gateway Pundit | by Richard Abelson | 123
Maybe, He has literally been complaining non-stop for months so they might have figured him to be reachable. But it could explain the missing $6B, maybe.
The key question is “did they know?”. Because if they did know, or at least suspect that would explain the attempt on his life that started the whole fracas.
Everybody else has been making out like a fat rat on this, why not them?
Not me, I haven’t seen a penny.
“But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.”
Newton Minow (Sounds fishy, I know, but there is only one ‘n’, so it’s for reals)
And that was over 60 years ago when there were only 3 channels. Now we have hundreds, so the dilution is orders of magnitude worse.
The Telegraph ventures the deal that got Prigozhin moving to Belarus includes Gerasimov and Soigu going under the bus:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/prigozhin-mutiny-shows-why-west-200438493.html
This is an interesting take on the “coup”. Prigozhin – Will the Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up? – A Son of the New American Revolution (sonar21.com)
I’m digging the comments. Many are theorizing that this ‘one stone killed many birds’, and without scalps I’m inclined to believe that.
Putin has repeated several times, as sacrosanct policy, any threats to the Federation will be treated to the full range of military responses.
Or is he just a ‘crazy’ ‘madman’ ‘liar’ that just so happened to hold on to control of a ‘fractured’ ‘nation’ whose largest military force wants to terminate his command?
If it wasn’t an op, where is The Highway of Death?
(my $0.02, if it fits…, dictated, not read, etc)
Where indeed? Why don’t you look here?
https://nypost.com/2023/06/26/wagner-chief-yevgeny-prigozhin-breaks-silence-to-claim-attempted-russian-coup-was-just-a-protest/
Like I said the other day, shooting down well over $100M in badly needed attack helicopters would be the ultimate deep fake. So not believing it.
Even if, omelets and eggs…
Who ordered Air to attack would be the real question.
He’s talking to the AP during a declared emergency? Well, let’s hope he isn’t subject to the same law he done profess.
Not very well researched.
Contracting with the MOD is a lot more about naked bribery than in the US. In Russia if you are Putin’s friend that is all it takes. The reason there isn’t much linking Pirgozhin to Wagner early on is because he was trying to conceal his links up until 2022 when he simply admitted that he founded the group 2014 to fight in the Donbass. Previously he had even sued Russian media for suggesting it was his. He didn’t want the attention or all the international warrants that are now out there in his name.
The reason Wagner is called a “group” is because they aren’t even a company. They are officially a series of separate private ventures that associate with Concord, which is Pirgozhin’s company. Once one falls under scrutiny from an international organization it dissolves.
The whole point of Wagner Group was to go in as a private force and not be subject to scrutiny of the domestic and international community. They were never an official arm of the GRU, they do contract heavily with them. There is no evidence that that GRU was ever in charge of Wagner, in so much as Xe was an arm of the DOD. They have the same type inbred relationship going on where many former members of GRU are in Wagner.
Former GRU member and well known Neo-Nazi Dmitry Utkin leads this effort. Utkin worked for Prigozhin before the effort was started as his head of security and is now the official lead of the company. The irony of a Neo-Nazi pretending to lead an effort to rid a country led by a Jew of Neo-Nazis isn’t lost on many who know.
Prigozhin has spent literally the entire year bitching publicly about the MOD on line on his channel. Anyone who doesn’t belive he was being earnest would be silly.
I guess I’m silly then.
MoD wanted the W boys to get under their control. I believe the deadline is 01 JUL and after that they’re required to unass RF soil, including Donbas/annexed areas.
The “Heisenberg’s uncertainty coup” led to approximately 1/3 of “Prigozgin’s” forces to be placed under Shoigu… for now.
If Pigface lasts longer than Shoiboy I think that’ll be indicative of the hows-and-whys.
Another piece of the equation that lot seem to have missed was the relationship between Putin and Prigozhin. If anyone is dumb enough to believe that is was based on Pirgozhin’s Borscht recipe they are really missing the boat. Prigozhin was cooking alright, he was cooking the books going all the way back to 2004. He has very likely to have money laundered over a $100B US dollars for Putin.
That is part of the scary part for Putin. He knows where all the money is and if something happens to him, the fallout will likely make Downfall look like a love story. The rope goes both ways. If one goes, they both go.