OT: Prigozhin's Wagner in potential coup attempt. Russian forces reacting.
Reports that Wagner Mercenary Group, under Prigozhin headed to Moscow. Russian Forces moving to Defend. Picture is still hazy, but too many reports to ignore. Time for Ukrainian forces especially in the Crimea, to take advantage.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/wagner-boss-declares-war-on-russian-defense-ministry
WorldNews Live Thread for the Russian Invasion of Ukraine:
Is this the latest CFBRisk command?
As often as I'm disappointed with how hastily put-together and lazy the first joke comment usually is on every thread on this board, I feel I really have to commend you for this one.
Are you saying my "Awww shucks. That's a heckin' shame." From the Darien Mayo cancelled thread a few days ago wasn't good enough for you?
'Preciate it!
It's like watching an MSU-OSU game.
Underrated comment.
Delete
That's some heavy shit, I hope it doesn't end up becoming a bigger conflict somehow and that the coup works if this new group is altruistic.
The guy that leads the Wagner Group is not a “nice guy” and his mercenaries are a proxy force for Russian government. I’m guessing that a coup might help end the war for now but I’m not sure it really changes Russia as a whole.
Hey man, anything to kick the can down the road with Russia half a decade or so... wouldn't hurt to see some famine and internal strife to give Ukraine some relief and let them implode for a while.
A tornado wrapped in a cloud. Hard to say good or bad. But possibly a deflection point.
Mercenaries in charge of the nuclear arsenal might change a lot...
It definitely would not end the war, if anything, it would ramp up if Wagner comes out victorious. He's more hard line than Putin, by a lot.
The narrative being pushed by Wagner now is that Russia’s justification for the invasion was wrong and it was pushed by Russian elites for personal gain, so IF Wagner took over it would be pretty odd for them to then continue and ramp up the war.
I thought Prigozhin was pretty much doing his own thing b/c Putin allowed for it. Didn't think he was actually plotting a coup attempt or that Putin was not a fan of his antics.
He's been at odds with Russian Military Command for awhile. Claims of not being supported, and given hardly any ammunition. In the latest, he claims strikes against his forces by Russian military.
There's talk now that Prighozin was exaggerating those ammo shortages and was actually stockpiling equipment/ammo for this very thing
It's too well coordinated for a snap reaction. And the strike against his forces seemed exaggerated as well.
Maybe this is why they didn’t send him more ammo, because they knew enough to not trust him?
Or why Wagner had to carry the load in Bakhmut - Russian gvmt/military trying to bleed and weaken him?
Good for Ukraine, at least for now. Even if the rebellion is put down, Russia will have to redirect assets to do it. Also, this can’t help morale in the military and the general population
General population is being told they’re liberating the nazis so I’m not sure what they know and they’re not allowed/too afraid to go online and post. I have a feeling they’ve sniffed beyond the state media but who knows?
Looks that way. Also ties in to his use of the convicts and conscripts that he acquired. He used them as cannon fodder, while keeping his main units in reserve, and hoarding his supplies.
Putin was trying to take control of Wagner...gave them a deadline to submit to Russian military command. That, obviously, hasn't gone down well.
Putin has survived, as most dictators do, by playing various power centers off against one another. Wagner thrived as a Putin approved counter weight to the conventional Russian military. Evidently the tensions between Prigozhin and the Russian army became untenable and Putin was forced to choose.
Or…
Mercenaries, being mercenaries after all, are for sale. Perhaps Prigozhin, realizing he has reached the end of a useful relationship with Putin, decided to accept a better offer?
According to a couple locals I know casually, Wagner is the furthest possible from altruistic. They’re a merc group hired to do Russia’s dirty work.
Let that sink in. They do shit fucking Russia wants plausible deniability for.
Using them was stupid from the get-go. Putin abused a dog to make it violent, injected it with rabies, put bees in its mouth, and now it’s out of control.
Wagner is basically Putin’s Dirlewanger Brigade.
For those who aren’t familiar with the Dirlewanger brigade
Maybe one in a hundred will know what that group was.
One in a hundred feels optimistic to me. Count me amongst the 99, by the way.
one in a hundred on a Michigan blog = one in a myriad on any other blog
I need to take a shower after just skimming that Wikipedia article.
Yeah, it’s a Dirty Dozen-type unit for those who have seen the Lee Marvin movie. Actually, the French Foreign Legion isn’t vastly different either, though it may have changed its recruitment policy. They will take anyone with virtually no questions asked and give you a new identity and provided that you fulfill you contract with the legion, give you French citizenship and the opportunity to start a new life. They used to exclusively recruit foreigners but now some French Army regulars are sometimes assigned to the Legion. Basically it’s a devils bargain because the troops in these quasi-mercenary units are viewed as much more expendable due to their backgrounds and often their status as non-nationals.
It's kind of crazy to me how unknown the Wagner Group is here in the US(It was even a triple-stumper on the Jeopardy Masters tournament) given the impact they have in places like Syria and multiple countries in Africa.
Agreed. They've been a major player in international conflicts for some time and at very much at the forefront of the Ukraine war.
If your skin is brown or black, America don’t care.
the kind with bees in their mouth and when they bark they shoot bees at you?
In this case, you should probably hope Putin comes out on top. That's a sentence I didn't think I would ever type, or say.
No way in hell this is a group of pacifists. I imagine any pacifists who are “of consequence” in Russia are either in jail, have “vanished,” or if they’re lucky, got out of the country when they could.
They are literally sadistic criminals many of which were commuted from prison to fight.
Be careful what you wish for. Many of the people looking to be Putin’s successor are far less pragmatic and more ideological. Prigozhin is only one such example. Aleksandr Dugin and his National Bolshevik anf Pan-Eurasianist followers is another.
This isn’t a new group they are the ones who captured Bakhmut last month for Russia. Also think Prigozhin’s beef is with the defense ministry not necessarily Putin himself. This could get very messy.
Putin backed his defense ministry in this mess so I think Putin is part of it by proxy
Xi in China has to be alarmed about the flaming wagon he hitched his horse to. This makes his 'show of friendship' with Putin look weaker and who knows, maybe a push north into Siberia on the part of the Chinese is being tossed around. Power-hungry autocrats may not make the best neighbors...
screw u/spez - go to squabbles.io instead:
Wonder if Putin is going to threaten the use of nuclear weapons on Russian soil.
We really should start an international agreement that any world leader that threatens nuclear warfare gets assassinated.
Not sure if that's necessary, unless the targeted nation doesn't have any nukes to respond with. Nukes are their own deterrent in that way. Kind of strange how that works.
Yes because clearly an automatic assassination of a regime leader with nuclear weapons makes things MORE stable
+1 Underrated.
Only two things scare me and one is nuclear war.
What’s the other… carneys?
Wagners have been known to drop their enemies.
"Ankle BREAKER!"
-Gus Johnson