Someone was saying there was a Ukrainian crossing at Kherson in the confusion. I'm guessing since theres no follow up that was more fan fiction, but anyone confirm?
I doubt the CIA was involved. If they were it would have been successful.
I think that's a little optimistic. I would say instead that if the CIA were involved, a whole lot more people would have died.
Nah, according to the left in the US the CIA is responsible for every Socialist shithole suffering a collapse. [...]
The CIA is pretty good at coups. If the CIA was even involved a tiny bit the coup in Russia probably would have successful. Putin would have fled to maybe China or been killed. Instead this had Russian incompetence stink all over it.
as the joke goes:
How do you know Pinochet's coup didn't have CIA involvement?
It was successful.
I wa mostly just shit posting because everyone is correct: This is way too low of a body count for a CIA glow op.
the negotiations were handled by a man who is ostensibly a political puppet
From what I have been told:
For us, in the west, this makes him look weak.
For Russia, this makes him look strong via the following calculus:
Putin says "Death to traitors" on national TV. behind the scenes, he has his stooge make contact. Lukashaka calls Chef, offers him a deal. Chef bites.
Thus
If Putin had negotiated, the narrative would be "Putin so weak, he has to negotiate with mutinous mercenary". With the magic of Russian state media, the narrative is "Lives of fool hardy russian soldiers saved by the intervention of President of Belarus, who made empassioned plea to Putin to spare their lives becasue this was all a misunderstanding; Putin is so strong he can both show mercy and his pronouncement made them immediately reconsider their course of action. Do you think the president of Belarus will reach out to save you if you even think about trying the same?"
his is an interesting point i think a lot of people aren't bringing up. Not sure how much of Wagner is composed of felons rn but...
I'm a Russian felon currently serving 10-20 and want to get out of the my shitty cell and back into the real world. they allow me to sign a paper stating if i go shoot ukrainians i'll get a reduction in my sentence. Cool I'll do it. I'm then thrown into the worst of the fighting and some how make it this far. Commander Pierogi then tells us all to pack up and ship out. We're heading to Moscow to overthrow the government. For me this is a turning point that I don't have much of a choice in. I imagine if I say no Wagner shoots me or I just end up back in a cell with no credit to my time served. But if we do this, all of a sudden I no longer have a rap sheet. I'm with the people in charge. Either the war ends here or we take a chance to lick our wounds and plan so instead of wading into a meat grinder we're rolling through Ukraine as we were told we would be.
Skip ahead a few hours. we've driven through several towns with no obstructions, shot down some planes and helos and there has been 0 retaliations. We're closing in on Moscow. Their response is to what? Dig up roads? Rotate a bridge? This will be the easiest objective we've taken in this war. All of a sudden the convoy stops. Commander Pierogi walks out and says "I was just on the phone with the president of Belarus. We're gonna turn around." Pierogi says it's all been resolved and it's back to business as usual and he's gonna take some time to relax in Belarus. I'm not just mad. I'm pissed. We've already crossed an un-crossable line. Pierogi's going to Belarus, but my fellow felons and I are going back to the meat grinder. And now when this is all over do you think Russia is gonna go "good job," and let you walk? You're getting shackles slapped on you and nothing to thank you for your service if you make it out of this alive.
I imagine there's some fanatics of the commander that are completely disillusioned right now as well. I'd be just as concerned about the people around me if i was Pierogi. he had his rubicon, announced he was crossing it, caught putin completely off guard and just shrugged and walked away from it like that's a completely normal thing to do.
You aren't wrong, which makes me think some of this was expected before he started. Not in a vatnigger sad cope of "4D chess between putin and prigozhin", but I think Prigozhin made his guys aware of a plan B before they rolled out. The goal was never to take over Russia or moscow, it was to stomp on the dicks of the MoD. And he can very well argue that he accomplished just that
Quote bug, but I just want to say that this case of "Putin is fucked" is different.
Strongman dictators don't stay in power long-term by letting all would-be traitors and mutineers know that the punishment for treason and mutiny is a slap on the wrist and exile.
You would think, if there is one crime for which a "strongman" dictator needs to punish severely and without compromise, it would be just that - treason. Bribery, thieving, even shit like murder and rape can be overlooked so long as it benefits the man in charge, but marching a private army to the gates of the capital is NOT a crime that can be overlooked if you wish to dissuade others from doing similar.
What I'm seeing coming out is that this is being spun as a "misunderstanding". Prigozhin didn't actually mutiny, it was just a big confused mess as war is. Putin didn't mean to call for his death, he just misunderstood the situation. Its all cleared up now, don't worry. The roads will be fixed sometime next month.
And again, I'm not saying you're wrong - the fact Putin had to go this far is a huge sign of weakness. Any response beyond the limp wristed one that was displayed would have been even worse, especially since Wagner wasn't shooting first. This is a massive, massive Russian L and its hilarious to see people try to do the mental gymnastics to paint it anything else.
I just don't think it really matters in any substantive way that will either shake Putin from power or have any real effect on the Ukrainian war beyond this time next week.
But, just imagine if 10,000
Polish Finnish mercenaries rolled over any of the hundreds of miles of newly created NATO border.
Also, you just highlight text in a bugged post and select reply or quote+