Now we may just witness complete mobilization of the Russian military to fill the Wagner hole.
* do not confuse an uprising against the military leadership with Vlads leadership.
Putin is not so stupid as to expand the war beyond Ukraine as that would end him.
However he is not beyond using tactical nukes in Kiev if Ukraine threatens Russian territory.
>Now we may just witness complete mobilization of the Russian military to fill the Wagner hole.
This is why the Wagner hole was created - Russians will allow mobilization because the fear of civil war is much greater than the fear of NATO.
The Wagner insurrection makes it difficult to keep it all together when the Army has been stalled in or on the Ukrainian border for 16 months.
WW III starts this weekend.
At least during the Soviet era Russian leaders understood the concept of MAD.
This should come as no surprise to anyone. I have said since day one of this that if it were me and someone was supplying my enemy with armaments, they, too would be my enemy.
Putin could not win a war with a relatively poor and militarily weak country on his doorstep, to he is going to up the ante by engaging the U.S. and Britain. Even Putin is not that insane.
Wars are peculiar things. They teach us in school that this-or-that war began on X date because of Y and ended on Z date. This has almost never been the case. WWI, for example was predated by a number of smaller wars taking place in Africa and the Balkans. Think of a tornado. Everyone focuses on the tornado. But the real cause of the tornado is the collision of two air masses with opposite characteristics. The tornado can occur anywhere along the demarcation line. Everyone focuses on the obvious storm, but the actual cause could have made the storm occur anywhere along the contact zone.
Then, WWI “ended” on the eleventh hour of the eleventh month. Well, no. It continued to the north of Germany and in Russia and Poland and sparked lots of other conflicts. The war in Ukraine might “end” but the fighting is going to go on for a long time. As Russia gets weaker the various republics, who are getting a bad deal as Russian states, will probably make a play for independence. There will be a lot of wars and a long time before there is a general peace in the region.
Putin is thinking to himself:
Everything was going to well, until I stupidly decided to invade Ukraine. Why did nobody stop me? And who suggested hat I go in; I’m going to find him and kiil him. Where’s the escape tunnel?
Shoigu
Sounds to me like this guy is hitting the cornered animal panic button.
How many times have we heard this is the end game!
Crimea is part of Ukraine. Any Russian forces present in Ukraine are legitimate war targets.
Not quite.
At least we will finally get to stop pretending this is a Ukraine/Russia war.
Black knight victorious ove King Arthur.
Since the Swedish Vikings first started building settlements along all the major rivers in what is now Ukraine, ownership of the Rus has been fought over ever since...
It reminds me of an old fashioned NYC boxing ring gym, everybody eventually gets in there and starts swinging...
Ukraine will be fought over in perpetuity, since it has an incredible assortment of natural resources, including the biggest food basket on the continent...
IAC, IMHO, lets keep our Nation’s nose completely out of anything that happens there... Neither side is worth the blood of a single American...
Hard to believe the CIA isn’t behind this. Time to start hoping Vlad’s a take the money and run sort of guy…
But, but, but...I thought that Vlad took the gloves off last winter? That’s what you said back then...