Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Times radio: Putin is clearly severely weakened.

Times Radio: Putin is actually stronger then ever.

Nobody has a clue what is going on....

a few grenades in the porridge ?

One of the tasters could be a magician and ‘slip something in ‘ after having tasted ???????????

My point exactly. It's just prediction bingo at this stage

If nothing else it seems like Russia have lost their best troops in the Wagner mercenaries. Who knows what went on behind the scenes but overall that is a win for Ukraine.

It must have been well over a year ago that Lukashenko was reported as having asked Putin if Belarus could have its nukes back, the ones that were transferred to Russia under the same circumstances as the Ukrainian nukes years ago.

Agreed. Whether it's one thug in charge, or another, nothing really changes for Ukraine.

At no stage during this coup was there even a debate about ending the war. The argument was all about how to kill Ukrainians most efficiently.

And Putin knows his environment 100% inside out too, its how he has survived. There are layer upon layer of intermediaries' between him and any source of "Contamination", be that food or Covid. The Cooks who prepare his food will also have to eat it before it gets to Putin. He has a special detail who look after all his toilet requirements, even to transferring the "by-products" back to the Kremlin for disposal, lest any foreign power take some samples, have them analyzed, and gain an insight into his state of health. A wee bit paranoid is our Vladimir.

Or maybe it was as Progozhin is now claiming, that after countless appeals to Shoigu and Gerasimov, and reporting them to Putin and getting no response, he decided take matters a stage further and personally take out his two arch enemy's himself. Hence the military convoy. But Putin was not taking any chances, and promptly bailed out, leaving an awful lot of fence sitters waiting to see which side would take the upper hand. And so Prigozhin go to within 200 klms of Moscow, easily overcoming any opposition ( seemed like most actually supported him en-route) and there was reports that after he shot down several Russian aircraft, the Pilots refused to attack him again. Seems like they were hedging their bets too. Had he taken the Kremlin, would that have been enough to collapse Putin? Well, we wont ever know now. (unfortunately) But one way or another Putin feared that it would, hence his inaction or rather panic in the first crucial hours. Another Leader would have destroyed Prigozhin's convoy the minute it left Rostov for Moscow, or maybe even after it had crossed over the border back into Russia. Putin could not at that point depend on his own military, and that's how it made such progress. And then for reasons we are still unsure about, Prigozhin did his by now famous U turn.

FSB have closed the investigation into the mutiny

So either it's all cool and deals were made, or Wagner and co have been found guilty and the hunt is on

And remember this is just the tip of the iceberg that the UN was about to document.

People following the thread for some time will remember the denials on this thread of Russian executions and sexual abuse of civilians.

Russia has summarily executed 77 civilians being held in arbitrary detention during its war in Ukraine, according to a United Nations report released this morning. Since Russia began its invasion in February last year, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has documented 864 individual cases of arbitrary detention by Russia, many of which also amounted to enforced disappearances...

"Russian armed forces, law enforcement and penitentiary authorities engaged in widespread torture and ill-treatment of civilian detainees," said Ms Bogner. Most of those we interviewed said they had been tortured and ill-treated, and in some cases subjected to sexual violence," which included rape. Torture was used to force victims to confess to helping Ukrainian armed forces, compel them to cooperate with the occupying authorities, or intimidate those with pro-Ukrainian views."

https://www.rte.ie/news/ukraine/2023/0627/1391346-ukraine-russia/

Yes, they're are positive examples of Serbian activities' out there for sure, especially in the field of sports etc. But also many like the BBC one's you mention. Just bring the Serbs up in any casual conversation over a few beers or any other circumstances, and see the reaction's you will get.

I shared a house with a demining team in Libya, ( amongst other places) and occasionally they brought their work home with them. A new or unusual type of trigger etc. They also took pictures of the destruction of their daily "haul", usually a massive explosion. I've been in minefields myself, ( not on purpose, I assure you!! ) but didn't know it until I getting out the far side , which was clearly marked "MINES" , but no such signage was on the entry side. ( mainly because it was on the "Other" side. I've recovered several vehicles ( and injured / dead) from mine incidents, and only for the Guardian Angel on my shoulder, I'd have been long gone by now myself. Like the incident where the mine was remotely triggered a fraction of a second too soon, and blew just as the vehicle approached it and not when it was directly over head. Or where the explosive had been placed in a dried up river bed, and lightly covered over. Fortunately, it had rained the night before and the main charge failed to go off, and the muted explosion only covered the underside of the vehicle is a fine white powder. But 20' away, there was another on, and this one worked 100%.

He hasn't let them off the hook. The organisation has effectively been disbanded, is handing over its heavy weapons and its leader exiled to Belarus. Who knows, he might be bumped off in two weeks.

So yes, Putin was humiliated and looked weak is one valid interpretation. Another is that the only organisation with the military means to threaten his grip on power has been swiftly rendered toothless. I mean, there's no sign of a democratic, peace-proposing Wagner substitute ready to seize the moment.

Like I say, no one has a clue. Putin might be vulnerable now, or he might still be there in 5 years.

And characteristic of the haphazard critical video messages he’d been coming out with. But Prigozhin didn’t get to where he was with his businesses inc Wagner without both pull and smarts. So surely there was element of thought and strategy in his words and actions? What seems to be the result is exactly what he said he was railing against and he appears a destroyed man. So maybe what appears to be the case is all smoke & mirrors.

No way the other large military powers in the world would have given them so much time to prepare defences. No wonder Ukraine have been continually looking to upgrade their Air Force and abilities to both attack beyond these lines and bypass them. Russia knows this and threatens whatever when it’s suggested but looks like that is what will be needed to get the f***ers out.

Rumours that putin is set to announce that he and lukashenkl have been been and currently are in fact a couple. They want to make it official with a kiss that will be broadcast live from the kremlin.

This explains a lot…..

Imagine living your life with the fear of an assassination plot lurking around every corner. Putin must have a constant hum of anxiety in his stomach that's been there for so long that he longer notices it. His whole life as Russian leader has been defined by abject paranoia and shapes every decision he makes. You could say that this mindset has been a part of Russian political life for a long time, but in Putin it is truly personified. If he wasn't such a horrible little murdering bástard, you'd almost feel sorry for him that he's probably never felt truly safe in his whole adult life.

Don't believe me. Try this -

I hope that all this silliness with Prigozhin isn't distracting from what's really important here. The Ukraine counter-offensive needs more help.

Things were never going to be easy but it's clear more needs to be done to crack the Russian lines of defence. People mocked the slow pace of the Wagner offensive at Bakhmut, but in reality Ukraine's is going at about the same speed. We've seen fighting for three and a half weeks with Ukraine advancing about 1km a week. You can't extrapolate that progress (cities may take long to take, resistance may weaken after Ukraine breach the first few lines), but at the current rate, Ukraine will be at Melitopol for Christmas 2024.

Surely it's time for NATO to look at providing something to break the deadlock here. Trading limbs and Bradley's for mines isn't going to cut it.

Would it not be the case that the ‘slow start ‘ is explained as follows :-

(1) go slow at the beginning to find out what’s ahead rather than going head first/ headlong into the offensive

(2) maybe it’s strategic - to go in ‘ first gear ‘ at the beginning and suddenly to go inti ‘third/ fourth gear and catch the Russians flatfooted

(3) the pace is bound to be slow at the beginning because that’s where the most difficult ‘stumbling blocks’ are re decagons teeth, trenches, mines, etc, but once these have been ‘ neutralised the pace of advance should significantly increase.

In summary, I expect the UKr army has all this worked out re applying different arnaments , attack strategies at the appropriate times