Posted on 10/09/2022 12:58:24 PM PDT by marcusmaximus
Key figures including Wagner Group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin are using military defeats to undermine defence chief Sergei Shoigu.
Friends, rivals and enemies took their seats in the Grand Kremlin Palace as Vladimir Putin gathered the country’s elite to formalise Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine.
The ceremony was meant to portray strength and unity, but within 24 hours had been overshadowed by Russia’s failures on the battlefield. These losses, which continued into this week on the southern and eastern fronts in Ukraine, have led to a major, unprecedented rupture within the ruling class as the Kremlin seeks scapegoats for a series of military embarrassments.
The following account is based on 15 interviews with former government and defence officials, members of the military, political observers, journalists, opposition members, and an inmate at a prison where Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin recruited soldiers to join his mercenary group in Ukraine.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Wow… how do they have time for intramural fights between shelling their own nuclear power plants, their own multibillion dollar pipelines and their own bridges? Enquiring minds want to know. /sarc
Prigozhin strikes me as a Russian Dirlewanger and will probably meet the same fate.
глупый путин
путин это животное
You goobers treat war like a soap opera. It is pretty goofy and disgusting. I can see it is enjoyable for you and gives you a reason to get up in the morning.
Prigozhin, unlike the other guy, is an astute and very smart business man with political and military connections all over the world. Arguably the best fighting force in Russia, the Wagner Group was Prigozhin’s brain child. Prigozhin also controls many natural resources in Africa and elsewhere.
Don’t underestimate him by comparing him to a psychopath.
Rumors of infighting among the elites are likely accurate. The thing is - there’s always infighting - they’re jockeying for the next step up the ladder, in much the same way you’d see in any other political hierarchy. The whole back and forth in the Russian media between different factions probably relates to an attempt to avoid being the scapegoat - getting fired and sidelined. The out-of-breath speculation about coups and so on are probably more wishful thinking than anything else.
It is a soap opera thanks to the ineptness of your Putin.
Compare and contrast the Rooskies latest adventures in Ukraine with the USA’s later years in Afghanistan.
Extra points for detailed commentary on the benefits of having Gen. Milley around.
[You goobers treat war like a soap opera. It is pretty goofy and disgusting. I can see it is enjoyable for you and gives you a reason to get up in the morning.]
Ukraine ping
The following is the key part of this article. Putin trusts only Shoigu. He may or may not be ineffectual. But he gets along with *everyone*. If Putin ever croaks of old age, Shoigu might end up replacing the man, simply because he’s the one guy everyone trusts not to screw them.
The native of Tuva had always been an unenthusiastic supporter of the 2014 war in the Donbas but was overruled by a cadre of hawkish Kremlin advisers including Nikolai Patrushev, the person said. He also was not in favour of the more recent “annexations” of occupied Ukrainian territory, he added.
But Putin knows he can trust Shoigu and sacking him would be deeply embarrassing, said that official.
“Even if Shiogu isn’t happy with what is happening, he’ll always be loyal to Putin and do his job,” the person said. “Putin knows he can fully trust him.”
That reflected a sense among a number of Russian elites that despite the challenges posed by the upstarts that the weight of Russia’s main ministries: the army, FSB, police and others would far exceed the threat posed by them.
Kadyrov didn’t have the authority to tell Putin to replace his defence minister, said a former top official. And Kadyrov was considerably more measured in his private interactions with Putin than in his public statements, the person said. Prigozhin, meanwhile, was just an “operator”.
“I cannot imagine that the FSB would allow either Prigozhin or Kadyrov to acquire any political power,” said Yevgenia Albats, a Russian investigative journalist and editor of the New Times. “It’s impossible.”]
Neocons think this is their chance to take back full control of Republican Party.
Good points, and shows the dangers of this war continuing.
The Wagner Group has been consistently the most effective fighting force the Russians have.
To pursue the war Putin needs to give ever more resources to this private army, but do that and at some point Prigozhin gets strong enough to challenge Putin’s job.
“Prigozhin strikes me as a Russian Dirlewanger and will probably meet the same fate.”
His nickname is Putin’s chef. So I think he will survive.
“You goobers treat war like a soap opera. It is pretty goofy and disgusting. I can see it is enjoyable for you and gives you a reason to get up in the morning.”
You are dumb as a post if you don’t get a kick out of the Kremlin self-destructing. Did you salute yr Hammer n Sickle flag this morning?
I am so glad I got your bowels in an uproar. Most people are used to the weak minded abuse you warmongers dish out.
Just mentioning the theatrics and silliness of the crap you post is good for a few giggles.
I don’t care about the Kremlin, nor do I care about Biden’s distracting and America destroying war across the world. I don’t care if anyone wins and we sure as hell have nothing to gain from it. We only will continue to lose paying out our behinds for absolutely nothing.
Once you war cheerleaders put down the pom poms the end will come for that fiasco financially for Americans and in blood for Ukrainians.
If Biden is pushing something, you know it isn’t good for America or anyone else. Saving this country means to quit supporting what they are doing in any way possible. They are using you.
Wagner boss is probably a sociopath. Psychopaths are crazy, out of control. Sociopaths lack normal compassion and human feeling. Think Uday and Kussay, sons of Saddam Hussein. The first liked to crash wedding parties, rape the new wife, and kill the husband if he objected. the other was tasked with important jobs like gassing 5000 Kurds.
The British press has really gone down hill with their anti Russian “reporting”.
Young communist.
If Biden is pushing something, you know it isn’t good for America or anyone else. Saving this country means to quit supporting what they are doing in any way possible. They are using you.
I see. So when Biden was ignoring Ukraine in 2021 and denying military aid the proper course of action was actually to arm them?
Saving this country means standing up. Not quitting and day dreaming that Putin’s Russia will defeat the globohomo west. It’s not happening. You need to pick another horse there.
You play very simplistic and contrarian politics. The world is complex place and it’s obvious to me you know way less than you think you do.
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