Russia - threadbanned users in OP

I wonder if we will find out who is behind that Darth Putin account ... they have hit so many home runs, have they made a mark elsewhere in the media?

Basically the FSB will be deciding what makes the Russian Federation look strongest (or least weak).

Putin - Gone. "Health issues" or arrested.

Prigozhin - Window.

Wagner - Some sort of humiliating defeat.

Shoigu & Gerasimov - Demoted or arrested for misappropriation of funds.

For Prigozhin, it's over.

He had an army of however many thousand. He even persuaded them to march on Moscow for about 12 hours. For a brief moment he had lightning in a bottle, but that's all over now.

Since then he's negotiated terms and basically surrendered. What ever power he had for that brief moment will never be regained.

He will go to Belarus and be put under house arrest. Putin will never, ever let him get near a position of command ever again after this.

Man, what a disappointment this turned out to be. The whole thing is just so perplexing. Like Prigozhin seems to have good instincts. Surely every bone in his body should be telling him that he can't trust Vladimir "I murder my enemies" Putin. He had his boot on Putin's neck and he took it off? Why? You don't take your boot off the neck of a guy like Putin cos when he gets up he'll stick a knife in you as soon as he can.

The only thing I can think of is that Prigozhin didn't think he had the numbers in the end - which seems odd as it looked like he had all of the momentum.

A day is/ can be a long time in politics etc What will tomorrow bring? Some serious sh*t went down, but exactly what consequences and who are the beneficiaries? Unless it was staged, which seems very improbable, a good few bridges were burnt.

Interesting

So is the arrest warrant cancelled ?

Strange for such a quick deal to be made after treason.

I should think they'd be there for a bit. Putin will be worried about his grip on power and be aiming to look strong in the days to come. One aspect of that will be boots in the capital. I'm not sure that Putin will be entirely comfortable that they are Chechen boots, though, and that he's essentially using one warlord to feel safe from another.

I've consulted "the youth" and I believe you are correct.

Its does seem he polished off a bottle of Smirnoff last night and got a little brave, sobered up on the way to Moscow and quickly backtracked 🤣

Finally the bunch of pussies might actually grow a pair and start a revolution.

Prigozhin fell for the banana in the tail pipe, once in Belarus he'll fall from his basement window, 10 stories to his death, and land on a bullet that gets lodged in the back of his head.

Not clear to me what has been going on in russia but the move to Belarus by Pregozhin is unlikely to see him simply agree to go into house arrest there in my opinion. Maybe the numbers of supporters he was hoping for did not appear but he still leads a force of experienced killers with some serious military equipment. I think it's much more likely that he is now going to be given a role securing Belarus as part of the russian federation and gets to keep his army there as without it putin or whoever is in control in the kremlin will just have him killed. Hopefully the shake up from this also sees moskovytes pull back from Ukraine to focus on internal security or opens a few cracks in their occupying forces sufficient for the Ukrainians to drive them out more quickly. Ukraine is still reporting making progress in their counteroffensive.

The Chechens and various other factions are waiting for the complete annihilation of the Russian army in Ukraine before launching a similar coup. Today showed how weak and defencelesss Putin is. Civil war in Russia is only a matter of time, and Wagner missed their best chance to win it.

Nice stash in his desk

Why would Lukashenko agree with that though? Or the Belarusian army? Inviting in Prigozhin and Wagner when they’ve seen what’s gone down?? Doesn’t make sense unless Prig has fully surrendered. Why would Shoigu etc resign in this case too? Nothing really adds up. Maybe there’s some wider play going on, with Putin being replaced??

None I'd say.

Seems that more than a few of his Wagnerites are dissatisfied in the extreme about their Boss's change of heart, and are showing it. With good cause too it seems. Putin's security / FSB are searching all over the place for them, identifying and tracking them down, which does not bode well for them. Shades of Erdogan's purge after the attempted coup in Turkey, where thousands were rounded up and imprisoned, in purges that are still ongoing to this day. Indirectly, this will be of benefit to Ukraine though, as it will rattle Putin's army and establishment.

Lukashenko already has invited in russian troops. Also seen reports he is on friendly terms with Progozhin. Maybe Luka simply sees wagner as being a more effective deterrent to anyone who would want to challenge his position as head of state in Belarus and Progozhin is happy to get a secure position as his well paid enforcer rather than take his chances against a much bigger military force in moskow. Just speculating and agree that with the information currently available things don't really add up.

Any chance we could retire descriptions like this. Over the course of this war I don't think the Chechens have shown that they have any elite troops. Some of their supposedly best troops were killed by Bayraktar drone strikes in the suburbs of Kyiv in the very first week of the war.

Since then all they have done is:

• man checkpoints
• act as blocking troops (ie shooting retreating soldiers)
• harass, bully and even rape LNR/DNR troops
• Record ridiculous tik-tok videos simulating fighting
• Manage to give away their coordinates via said tik-tok videos and get blown up in Himars strikes.

Is there any evidence of them actually being good fighters on the front lines anywhere? I think they may have been involved in the siege of Mariupol but I cannot recall them being involved in anything else.

I think their reputation comes from their predecessors who humbled the Russians in the first Chechen war 30 years ago. This current crop have been dining out on that reputation but have done nothing to deserve it.

?????