[Miami Rebel]

Too bad it didn’t work, but it’s definitely shaken the confidence in the Russian fuehrer.

If the CIA is working to overturn him, good for them.

[PGR88]

Johnson has some good opinions, but his thesis here is based only on a comment from one journalist at the WSJ - an outlet known to often publish info from the US Deep State.

It would be an embarrassment for the CIA to say “we had no clue what was happening” and it benefits them to let the Russians fear that the CIA has players seeded throughout Russian government.

So in sum, Johnson doesn’t know exactly what happened, nor do we. We will never know what was happening in Russia, nor will we ever know what the CIA knew about it.

[Wuli]

Johnson has no real knowledge, just his speculations, and not the most sophisticated either. But I am sure Putin is grateful.

[dforest]

Progozhin working and playing both sides against each other for his own interests? I wonder what was in it for him? Sounds mercenary-like.

So far he is still breathing.

Think about this people. Jan 6th grannys and flag waving normal folks are serving hard time behind bars and being abused by the DOJ and the Biden regime for walking through the Capitol bldg. Progozhin walks away. So why is that since Putin is so bad?

[caww]

Well pretty much everything from all sides is propaganda since we know it's war on all fronts. They'll all frame happenings, data tc. up and down the line to tell whatever story they want.

Sooo all this drama being played via news sources, videos etc. really can't explain the realities apart from it's war....and it's continuation.

[wardaddy]

I doubt this surprises even Zee people

[G Larry]

Best evidence for me was Biden's strong denials....

He lies unconvincingly....

[Liberty Ship]

I have a feeling that the Puppet Master was the Soros Crime Family.

[DenntOR]

Please stop posting Russian propaganda.

[Petrosius]

Wait, I thought that this was a head-fake orchestrated by Putin.

[tnlibertarian]

All I know is that when I see that dude’s name, all I can think is, “Mmmmm. Pierogi.”

[VeniVidiVici]

Oh brother. Can this idiot write anything less than a thousand words?

[MalPearce]

This is hilariously unconvincing.

Putin and Prighozin go way back, and Prighozin gets results.

Shiogu and Gerasimov came from the GRU, and retain authority because of their connections in the Soviet nostalgia factions within the Siloviki. Like Stremousov, he was considered expendable despite his competence, because he’s outside their direct control.

No way did the CIA turn Prighozin. It’s far more believable that Prighozin embarrassed the Siloviki, or they were caught between wanting Wagner much more tightly controlled from the Kremlin and needing Wagner to be operationally independent and “deniable”.

Putin has blown the game by admitting that Wagner was funded and directed by his regime.

So take your pick.

If that’s true then we can kiss goodbye to that bullshit excuse Putin had with Minsk agreements, when he denied directing Wagner PMC operations in Ukraine in order to avoid delivering on the ONE commitment Russia needed to honour: pull its Little Green Men and Wagner troops out of Ukraine..

Or maybe Putin lied, and Wagner was an independent operation. In which case, he can hardly complain that they flounced out of the combat arena last week and headed towards Moscow.

Lukashenko has himself said that the Kremlin establishment mishandled Wagner. He’s now got a private bodyguard that Moscow hasn’t absorbed into the RF. So if Lukashenko is paying them now, don’t expect them to be marching onto Kyiv any time soon.

Maybe the CIA know about all that. Maybe they have been fed dodgy intel. But the idea they flipped Wagner is ludicrous.

[bosco24]

I don’t know what the heck happened in the supposed coup but the MSM narrative makes no sense. What may have happened that’s makes more sense to me is the following:

Step 1: The CIA with the UK SIS (MI6) courts Prigozhin about initiating a coup telling him that they have lined up some Russian Generals who are willing to support the coup and a lot of CIA money will provide to him up front and they will also fiancé the coup once it starts.

Step 2: Unfortunately for the CIA, Prigozhin tells Putin about the plan. Putin realizes that he can use the situation to identify the unfaithful Generals and a pretense to redeploy the Wagner Army to Belarus. This will add 55,000 Wagner troops to the 45,000 Russian troops already in Belarus to manning a new northern war front.

Step 3: The fake coup is initiated and follows Putin plan leaving the CIA trying to figure out what happened.

The fake coup ended with at least one unfaithful General identified (General Sergey Surovikin) and Prigozhin pardoned and in Belarus. Putin has stated that the Wagner troops involved in the fake coup (all 55,000 of them) are pardoned and must be move to Belarus. Belarus President Lukashenko announces that he is building a new training base for the Wagner Army in Belarus.

[FlyingEagle]

“Biden Administration went to extraordinary lengths to insist it knew nothing about the coup...”

Brandon always lies. This means Brandon junta was 100% behind it.

[silverleaf]

Notice how almost no one is talking about the failed Uke offensive and the pounding they’re taking, while continuing to throw their troops and equipment into Russian minefields and artillery?

[Mariner]

Where is Surovikin?

[discostu]

Riiight that’s why he went to Belarus. Cause the west is strong there and no repercussions can happen.

[CodeJockey]

I like my theory best. Prigozhin is working thru covert channels with the CIA and is being used as an asset against Russia. Kinda like they did with Ukraine with Ukrainian assets.

However, Prigozhin is about as loyal to Russia as the come. Him and Putin are 100% devoted to the motherland Russia. Prigozhin is working as a double agent and is actually using the CIA.

[woodpusher]

He claims to have the inside scoop on how Western intelligence agencies knew in advance that Prigozhin was going full Benedict Arnold, but is so naive that he did not realize he was being fed a fairy tale.

The Washington Post and the New York Times are widely believed to act as public relations outlets for U.S. intel agencies. What the government wants to get out to the public, without agency responsibility, it leaks to its favorite outlet and it gets printed. It is not unreasonable that these publications ger their info from someone known to be from an agency.

The fact that the CIA briefed the Gang of Eight in Congress on Prigozhin’s planned uprising two days prior....

The WSJ article states CIA and congressional knowledge of the plan two days prior to liftoff.

Western officials said they believe Prigozhin had communicated his intentions to senior military officers, possibly including Gen. Sergei Surovikin, commander of the Russian aerospace force. It couldn’t be determined whether Surovikin passed this information on to the FSB, or how the agency found out about Prigozhin’s plans.

Here the WSJ article intel source appears to misdirect attention, claiming a lack of knowledge of how the FSB found out about Prigozhin's plans. Why make the effort to misdirect attention from GRU (actually the GU) to FSB? Putin had shitcanned FSB, and put GRU in charge of Ukraine intelligence matters over a year ago.

https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-gru-in-charge-ukraine-intel-after-fsb-failures-report-2022-5

Putin sacked the FSB and put the secretive GRU spy agency in charge of Ukraine intelligence after a string of failures, top Russian journalists say

Bill Bostock
Business Insider
May 10, 2022, 6:37 AM CDT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/06/24/us-intelligence-prigozhin-putin/

U.S. spies learned in mid-June Prigozhin was planning armed action in Russia

By Ellen Nakashima and Shane Harris
Washington Post

Updated June 24, 2023 at 10:44 p.m. EDT
Published June 24, 203 at 9:09 p.m. EDT

[Excerpt]

U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Putin also was informed that Prighozin was plotting something. And though it is not clear precisely when he was told, it was "definitely more than 24 hours ago," the first U.S. official said.

It remains unclear why Putin did not take action to thwart Prigozhin's takeover of the military command or his move on Moscow.

Here, Putin "definitely" knew "more than 24 hours" in advance.

The original founder of Wagner was a GRU officer, Dmitri Utkin. Prigozhin said Utkin was the master planner of the March for Justice. Virtually all Wagner officers were former GRU officers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PyQnjeJXtM&ab_channel=HistoryLegends

The Truth About Wagner's March on Moscow (Youtube)

one thing that left me wondering was the statement from Prigozhin the night of the insurrection our commander was behind the whole operation he's the best strategist in the world Dimitri Utkin.

[...]

surprise surprise like we've seen in this video, I posted most of Wagner's commanders are also former officers of the GRU and this could explain why Prigozhin said our commander was behind the whole operation, he is the best strategist in the world, talking about the original Wagner Dmitry Utkin. And what do we know about him? Well Utkin served as the commander of the 700 Separate Special Detachment of the GRU.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Utkin

Dmitry Valerievich Utkin; (born 11 June 1970) is a Ukrainian-born Russian army officer. He served as a special forces officer in the GRU, where he held the rank of lieutenant colonel. He is alleged to have founded the Wagner Group, with his own call-sign reportedly being Wagner. Utkin has received four Orders of Courage of Russia.

If Putin knew "at least" 24 hours in advance, he could have known since the master planner Utkin, formerly GRU, hatched the plans. Putin could have known the plans before Prigozhin. Assuming the March to Justice went according to plan, Prigozhin remained behind in Rostov and sent most of what he had for men on a parade down the highway to nowhere. Putin did not resist their advance. Rather, the Chechen special forces were dispatched to Rostov where Prigozhin was at. When they got into position, Lukashenko was connected to Prigozhin who had a come to Jesus moment.

It is possible that Prigozhin gave an oscar worthy performance on behalf Putin. That would explain why Prigozhin went to Belarus unharmed, and apparently nobody was charged. An equal explanation is that Prigozhin and Wagner are very popular in Russia. The Russian government did not desire to make martyrs. It was better to have Prigozhin go off into exile. Rather like the lack of prosecutions following the U.S. Civil War. Notable figures such as Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee were indicted but never brought to trial.

There seems to be no good reason for the WSJ to speculate about the FSB when the GRU is all over Wagner. In recent days, Putin proclaimed that Wagner had been 100% a Russian government funded organization, the money coming out of the national budget. Wagner was never actually a private organization, but was actually a government organization budgeted under the Ministry of Defense.

As for Prigozhin's support, the vast majority of his officers were former GRU officers and they conspicuously boycotted the event. Maybe they were just patriotic, and maybe they were informed not to participate. It is at least cause to consider that the GRU knew what was going to happen.

When the CIA and the Gang of Eight knew of the planned action two days before it happened, and knew that the Russian government knew, they did not stop Prizozhin but may have speeded up the execution of his plan. In any case, while things appeared to be going well, and Prigozhin's parade proceeded without opposition, some numbnuts took to Agency self-congratulations about its intel and briefing the Gang of Eight in advance. And then Chechen special forces arrived around Rostov and Lukashenko made his phone call. And Mr. Numbnuts realized he had broken the first rule of Fight Club. At a minimum, the leak infers that the CIA, the Gang of Eight, and the President knew in advance of the plan and let it proceed wthout informing Prigozhin that the plan had been busted.