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preserving exorbitant privileges....Can Yevgeny Prigozhin’s attempted "coup" reverse the fate of arms in Ukraine? This was the wish of Nato, which hoped for this uprising and awakened its sleeper agents in Russia. The United Kingdom and the United States wanted to finally bring about the partition of the country that they had been unable to complete in 1991 [1]. Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion by Thierry Meyssan
Contrary to the comments of the Western press, Yevgeny Prigozhin never attempted a coup against Vladimir Putin. He wanted to blackmail him in order to preserve the exorbitant privileges he had accumulated since the creation of his private military company. Then he came to his senses and returned to his post. (HE WAS SENT TO BELARUS, NOT FAR FROM KIEV.... DRAW YOUR PEACE/WAR MAP).....
The creation of private military companies (PMCs), including the Wagner Group, was an idea endorsed by President Vladimir Putin to test new forms of command before selecting and imposing the best ones on his army. In the space of a few years, these companies have tested many different methods, often proving their effectiveness. The time had come to complete the restructuring of the Russian army by disbanding them and integrating their forces into the regular army [2]. A deadline had been set by President Putin: July 1. Last month, the Ministry of Defense therefore sent draft contracts to the various private military companies to plan their incorporation. But the Wagner Group refused to respond, and Yevgeny Prigozhin stepped up his insults against the Minister and the Chief of Staff. It’s important to understand what’s going on: Russia’s creation of private military companies is the equivalent of what the United States did, under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, when it increased the use of PMCs on the bangs of the Pentagon. At first it worked, but these companies also worked for the CIA, and the mix of genres led to a series of disasters. When they were working exclusively for the Pentagon, their executives spoke out in public, like Blackwater’s Erik Prince. But they never took a stand against the Secretary of Defense or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. By the way, neither Blackwater’s U.S. soldiers nor Wagner’s Russians are mercenaries. They are fighting for their country, and are paid to take inordinate risks that cannot be asked of regular soldiers. On the contrary, mercenaries fight for money under the command of a foreign power. The fact that the head of a private military company publishes inflammatory videos against the heads of regular armies for two months, and moreover in the middle of a military operation, would not be tolerated in any state. Yet it was with Yevgeny Prigozhin in Russia. The correspondents we interviewed during these two months all considered that the Kremlin was letting him bawl to capture the attention of Westerners and conceal from them the reorganization of the regular armies. Some began to roll their eyes when, in March, there was talk of Prigozhin running for the Ukrainian presidency: had the swindler lost his sense of proportion? Western intelligence services focused on Yevgeny Prigozhin from the start of military operations in Ukraine. On March 18, they revealed a thousand documents on his activities [3]. The aim was to expose the network of companies he had set up, in order to lend credibility to the accusation that Russia was not an anti-colonial power, since Wagner was plundering Africa. But in the final analysis, these documents show that Prigozhin is a thug, not that he steals from the countries he works with. He took part in the hunt for corruption within the Russian armed forces, but that didn’t stop him from developing corruption outside the armed forces. It is possible that, thanks to these investigations, Westerners have found a way to manipulate him; the man being both a patriot and a proven swindler, convicted in the Soviet Union. We don’t know, and won’t know until the case is over. The fact remains that Yevgeny Prigozhin has embarked on an enterprise worthy of the oligarchs of the Yeltsin period. He claims that the Minister of Defense, the touvain Sergei Choigou, went to Rostov-on-Don to supervise the bombing of Wagner’s troops. He accused Wagner of murdering thousands of his men. Finally, he left the front and came to Rostov-on-Don to take possession of the headquarters of the regular armies. He announced that he was marching on Moscow with his 25,000 men to settle scores with the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff. In his latest video, he declares: "We were ready to make concessions to the Ministry of Defense, to give up our weapons, to find a solution on how we would continue to defend the country (...) Today, they launched rocket attacks on our camps. Many soldiers died. We will decide how to respond to this atrocity. The next round is ours. This creature [the Minister of Defense] will be stopped.” Wagner had 25,000 men at his disposal, but not just on the Ukrainian front. Many were stationed in Asia and Africa. What’s more, although he has aircraft at his disposal, his air force is inadequate compared with that of the regular armies, and his column would have been bombed without him being able to protect it. In less than a day, all the authorities in the Russian Federation renewed their allegiance to the Kremlin. President Vladimir Putin spoke on television. He recalled the precedent of 1917, when Lenin withdrew Tsarist Russia from the First World War when it was close to victory. He called on everyone to assume their responsibilities and serve the fatherland rather than personal adventure. During his speech, Vladimir Putin praised the valour of Wagner’s soldiers, many of whom died for their country. He did not hold them responsible for the situation, but asked them not to follow their leader against the state and therefore against the people. Concluding his short address to the Nation, President Vladimir Putin declared: "We will save what is dear and holy to us. We will overcome all tests, we will become even stronger". This speech was broadcast over and over again on Russian TV, dramatizing the situation. The Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation opened an investigation against Prigozhin for "organizing an armed rebellion". The Ukrainian authorities appealed on social networks to the Belarusian opposition to take advantage of the Russian disorder, rise up and eliminate President Alexander Lukashenko [4]. The Russian secret services, which had been watching all the protagonists and keeping a low profile from the outset, had the traitors who had unmasked themselves in Belarus and Russia arrested in flagrante delicto. During the day, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who had been telephoned by his Russian counterpart, contacted Yevgeny Prigozhin and persuaded him to abandon his plans and return his troops to the front. Vladimir Putin gave his word that the rebel would respect the agreement he had signed. The latter announced that he was giving up on overthrowing Shoïgu and Gerasimov. End of story. First point: there was never any attempt at a "coup d’état". Wagner was not capable of taking Moscow, and Prigozhin never verbally attacked President Putin. In fact, Putin never denounced anything of the sort, but rather "a stab in the back" against Russian forces in the Ukraine. Secondly, this is not a "mutiny" either. Wagner does not report to the Minister of Defense, but directly to the President. Prigozhin rebelled against it and it alone. His only demand was to remain independent of the regular armies. If he was ready to give up his military activities, he clings to the related businesses he has developed in all theaters of operation where he is present. As we have said, the man is both a patriot and a swindler. Third point: in the words of President Putin, this is "armed rebellion" and "abandonment of duty". Wagner left the front, but the Ukrainians didn’t dare, or couldn’t, attack the part of the front he had abandoned. Now, there’s nothing more contemptible to Russians than defenders who abandon their posts. That’s why Prigozhin had broadcast a video the previous day claiming that Kiev had not bombed the Donbass in the previous eight years, shamelessly contradicting the observations of the OSCE and the UN Security Council. Unfortunately for him, the Russians don’t take kindly to anyone questioning their good faith. At this point, one more remark is in order: while rebelling against President Putin, Prigozhin didn’t kill anyone. His troops entered Rostov-on-Don without encountering any resistance. Regular Russian forces did not attack Wagner’s headquarters in Saint Petersburg. Prigozhin’s men did not march on Moscow. The Ministry of Defense apparently fired no missiles at Wagner’s soldiers. The Prosecutor General has closed the rebellion case. The Wagner militiamen who did not take part in the rebellion were immediately integrated into the regular army. Three units returned to the front. The fate of militiamen who took part in the rebellion will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. All in all, the state has not been weakened. The two winners are the Russian Federation and Belarus. The fact remains that, in the Russian mind, the whole affair was largely staged: we witnessed a threatening rebellion that immediately dissipated. The only thing that remained was the questioning of the quality of military command - a stubborn idea, despite the population’s faith in the self-sacrificing spirit of its soldiers. At the end of this strange episode, President Putin spoke again on television. He praised the Wagner fighters and called on them to join the regular army, the secret service or other security forces. He also gave them the choice of returning home or joining Prigojine in Belarus. All sorts of hypotheses are circulating on Russian social networks. The most surprising is that Wagner could not rebel and march on the capital without the help of the Ministry of Defense, which supplied him with fuel. The next few weeks should see the final phase in the transformation of the Russian army. It is by no means certain that those who clashed yesterday will turn out to be adversaries.
Translation
https://www.voltairenet.org/article219564.html
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"brief crisis".....
NATO members must not underestimate Russia, despite the brief crisis created by the mutiny of the Wagner private military company, the bloc’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.
“We all saw the events in Russia over the last [few] days. These are internal Russian matters,”Stoltenberg said at a press conference in The Hague, arguing that the rebellion was a sign of “new tensions” in the country.
“At the same time, we must not underestimate Russia,” said the head of the bloc, adding that NATO members will continue to provide military aid to Kiev and send “a clear message of our commitment” at a summit in Lithuania next month.
Stoltenberg told reporters that Ukrainian troops were “making progress” in their counteroffensive, arguing that the more territory Kiev manages to retake, “the stronger their hand will eventually be at the negotiating table.”
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukrainian forces have failed to breach defensive lines in Donbass and the Zaporozhye Region, and that Kiev had suffered significant losses in attempting to do so. A significant number of German-made Leopard 2 heavy tanks and US-made Bradley combat vehicles were destroyed or abandoned during Ukraine’s offensive operations this month.
On Sunday, the New York Times cited US officials as saying that Ukraine had failed to capitalize on the sudden Wagner mutiny. The unrest broke out late on Friday but ended by Saturday evening, when the private military company’s boss Evgeny Prigozhin struck a deal with the authorities. The Wagner fighters have since aborted their march on Moscow and returned to their bases.
https://www.rt.com/news/578818-nato-dont-underestimate-russia/
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pushing the rooskies....
By George Trenin
Taking a dagger to the ‘soft underbelly’: How the West has opened yet another front against Russia
Central Asia has become a key focus for the EU and the US in their ongoing attempts to weaken Moscow
In the first half of 2023, both the European Union and the United States were noticeably active in Central Asia – which is regarded by some as Russia’s “soft underbelly.” Many Western European and American politicians and diplomats frequented the region and attempted to pull the ex-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan over to their side in the ongoing conflict with Moscow.
The West wants to convince those states to support sanctions on Russia and block parallel imports to the country. It has promised compensation for financial losses. Moreover, Western European leaders see the likes of Kazakhstan as a source of natural resources that could potentially replace Moscow.
With all this recent attention, Central Asia is becoming increasingly aware of its own political importance – but will this lead it to break ties with Russia, as the West hopes?
Frequent guestsLast week, the 10th EU-Central Asia High-Level Political Dialogue was held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. This rather minor diplomatic event was devoted to creating roadmaps for the resolutions adopted at the much larger summit attended by Central Asian leaders and the President of the European Council, and held in the Kyrgyz city of Cholpon-Ata in early June.
Over the past year, visits by the President of the European Council Charles Michel to Central Asia – a region which until recently has been of very little interest to Brussels – have become regular. The very first EU-Central Asia summit attended by the Belgian took place in Kazakhstan less than a year ago, in October 2022 – just eight months after the start of Russia's offensive in Ukraine. The next summit involving the leadership of the EU and the five Central Asian countries will take place in Uzbekistan next year.
It may look like this year's event is a response to the inaugural China-Central Asia Summit held in Xi'an in the second half of May. But in fact, Beijing seems to be lagging behind its Western European competitors who held the EU-Central Asia Economic Forum in the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan, at the same time. Their was attended by high-ranking representatives of their governments – along with people from the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the OECD, and private organizations. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan were represented by their heads of government, the Uzbek delegation was headed by the deputy prime minister, and the Turkmen delegation was led by the minister of finance and economy.
Representatives of the US State Department have also made a considerable number of trips to Central Asia. In February,Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. His assistants at the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Donald Lu and Uzra Zeya have also been frequent guests in the region. In March, EU Sanctions Envoy David O'Sullivan visited Kyrgyzstan. In April, he made a working visit to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan accompanied by Elizabeth Rosenberg, Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the US Department of the Treasury.
Interaction between Washington and Central Asia mainly occurs within the framework of the “C5+1” format. It originated in 2015, when former US Secretary of State John Kerry launched a dialogue at the level of the foreign ministers of five Central Asian countries and Washington. Since then, meetings between the US State Department and these countries have been held annually.
The purpose of this cooperation is no secret to anyone. From the project’s earliest days, pro-Western media in Kazakhstan admitted that it is “more of a ‘1 + C5’ format” and is “another structure proposed by an external player seeking to bring the Central Asian states under its orbit of influence.”
But why have contacts between the West and Central Asia become so frequent and regular recently?
Old ties, new goalsAfter the start of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, in February of last year, the US and the EU introducedseveral packages of sanctions against Moscow, including restrictions on the import of hundreds of goods from Western countries. In response to the restrictions, the Russian authorities legalized parallel imports – i.e., without the permission of the trademark owner. Such trade rom Russia's neighboring countries increased a hundredfold and by the end of last year, 2.4 million tons of goods worth over $20 billion had been brought into the country using this mechanism.
According to Kazakhstan's edition of Forbes, exports from the country to Russia rose by 25% last year compared to 2021. The Financial Times indicates that the number of washing machines exported from Kazakhstan to Russia rose from zero in 2021 to 100,000 in 2022. The export of computer equipment, monitors, and projectors amounted to $375.4 million, and shipments increased more than 400 times over the past year, a Kazakh journalist reported.
At the end of April, speaking at an exhibition in the capital of Uzbekistan, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov noted that the trade turnover between Russia and Central Asia had increased by 15% last year and amounted to over $42 billion. Central Asia is one of the world’s leading regions when it comes to the growth of trade with Russia. For example, trade turnover with Uzbekistan has grown by more than 25%.
It is impossible to say that this growth is only due to parallel imports. However, such a surge has never been observed previously.
Indirect evidence shows that the Central Asian countries are trying to get the most out of the opportunity to meet Russia’s import needs. In April, the region’s warehouses were almost completely full and rental rates increased several times. By the beginning of spring, demand from Russian companies increased by 40-50%, to almost 400,000 square meters. At the time, the business media unanimously concluded that this was directly tied to setting up logistics chains for parallel imports to their huge neighbor.
Thus, the US and the EU are doing all they can to prevent Central Asian states from being Russia's main partners in avoiding sanctions.
Noting that in 2022, exports of goods from the EU to Kyrgyzstan increased by 300% in general and by 700% in the field of advanced technologies and dual-use items, Kyrgyz political analyst Azamat Osmonov has pointed out that Brussels is growing irritated.
“Western representatives do not believe that the consumer appetites of the Kyrgyz people have suddenly grown to such an extent,” the expert said.
Carrot and stickAt the EU-Central Asia Summit in June, Michel promised the leaders of the five former Soviet republics that Brussels would not impose sanctions should their countries violate the restrictions against Russia. However, completely different rhetoric was heard during the EU-Central Asia Economic Forum, a few weeks before.
In addition to the traditional green agenda – as well as transport and digitalization issues – some topics that had nothing to do with economics were also raised at the event. Despite the assurance of Brussels that the goal of the summit was to establish trade relations and investments, the conflict in Ukraine became one of the main topics.
Vice-President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis threatened to prevent the import of sanctioned goods to Russia via third countries and promised to “identify those organizations that continue to undermine our efforts” and punish them.
In the summer and fall of last year, the EU repeatedly offered to compensate the trade losses of certain countries (including in the Central Asia region) and invited them to support sanctions on Russia. But in recent months, Brussels’most substantial offer amounted to a proposed investment of €20 million ($22 million) for building satellite ground stations. Moreover, this May, instead of offering to make up for broken trade ties with Russia, the EU had only more threats for the refusal to follow US and EU sanctions against Moscow.
The US has been even more active in using its ‘stick.’ Back in April, its Department of Commerce imposed export restrictions against companies from Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Armenia, and other countries “for trying to evade export control[s]” and purchasing American goods for the needs of Russia. Following this, the European Commission also proposed sanctions against companies from several countries, including two Uzbek and one Armenian, for supplying dual-use items.
The efforts of the EU and the US have partially influenced Kazakhstan, which has introduced several bans on parallel imports. In April, to avoid secondary sanctions, Astana launched a tracking system for all goods brought in and out of the country. This has also complicated deliveries from Uzbekistan to Russia, since the cargo travels via Kazakhstan. As a result, supply chains are moving to Kyrgyzstan, China, and the UAE, and the cost of the affected imported products in Russia may increase by 10-12%.
At the end of May, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin warned the Central Asian countries they faced significant losses should they follow through with sanctions. He stressed that the Russian side does not dictate foreign and domestic policy to other states, but only in those cases “when it does not go against mutual obligations, including those within [the framework of]the CSTO [a military alliance], the EAEU [an EU-esque trading bloc], and the CIS [a group for former USSR members]”. He expressed confidence that the Central Asian states are well aware of this.
“The artificial destruction of ties with Russia can result in more serious damage than the expenses from the notorious secondary sanctions,” he said at the Central Asian Conference of the Valdai International Discussion Club.
Are things really that bad?Russian political analysts believe that Central Asia will remain important for the West not only in terms of anti-Russia sanctions, but also as a springboard for possible future military action against Moscow.
“The West is interested in deploying its military bases in the Central Asia region to threaten Russia’s ‘soft underbelly’. Moscow is not prepared for major military action here, unlike at its western borders, where the enemy usually comes from,” warns Maxim Kramarenko, head of the Institute of Eurasian Policy. “This may be a springboard used for posing a real threat to Russia.”
So far, this warning sounds premature since the West cannot even force the region to fully comply with sanctions. Central Asia reaps huge benefits from the current economic situation, whereas if it refuses to cooperate with Russia, it’s the countries within its own region, and not Moscow, that will suffer the main blow, says Central Asia expert Azamat Osmonov.
“Russia receives electronics, agricultural products, medicine, spare parts for cars, and other technology through these countries. If it becomes possible to ban these goods, the Russian market will quickly feel the shortage. But Central Asia will lose out more. Russia can also supply these goods via other post-Soviet republics, not to mention China and Türkiye,” he said.
Moreover, according to Alexander Knyazev, Doctor of Historical Sciences and a leading researcher at the MGIMO Institute of International Studies of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the severe consequences that Western countries threaten Central Asia with are greatly exaggerated.
“The threat of US and EU secondary sanctions and their probability are exaggerated, and so is their significance. In political terms, such sanctions against any country in the region would automatically make that country join the camp of Western opponents and make it a closer ally of Russia and perhaps China,” the expert believes.
He adds that “the West’s attempts to turn the countries of Central Asia against Russia, as it happened with Ukraine, will not be successful.”
An uneasy futureThe West may not currently have the ability to drag Central Asia over to its side, but this does not mean that it will give up on such attempts in the future. In this respect, Western countries are using their traditional “soft power” tools: Non Government Organizations (NGO) and media outlets.
“In Bishkek alone, 18,500 such organizations are registered. Contrary to the constituent documents, many of them interfere in the political life of the country, including by financing the organization of political rallies in Kyrgyzstan,” says a note to the draft law on the tightening of control over NGOs that has been submitted to the Kyrgyz parliament.
he concern of local parliamentarians, however, hasn’t stopped the work of these cut outs. In early June, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) allocated a first tranche worth $12 million to the non-profit organization KazAID, which is to distribute the funds among Kazakh NGOs in order to “increase the resistance of society to disinformation” and “increase the media literacy of the population.”
This is the first installment of the planned $50 million package indicated in the program’s budget estimate. Moreover, another $15 million was spent on USAID projects in Kazakhstan in 2022.
A significant part of this money goes into funding local journalists who go on to promote a pro-US agenda among the population. For example, one of the recipients of USAID grants is the Central Asian Media Program (MediaCAMP). It is overseen by the American NGO “Internews,” which was banned in Russia in 2007.
This NGO has comfortably settled in Kazakhstan where it has been active for over five years and “works with partners from Central Asian media outlets, [the] academic community and civil society.”
The scope of its activity is very broad. According to the USAID website, “the project has trained 2,830 media professionals across” Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Moreover, it reports that “over 10,500 youths, adults, and seniors from the three target countries… have participated in [so-called] media literacy activities.”
Just how soon the media workers and grant recipients concerned will begin promoting a policy of separation from Russia in their own countries remains unknown. However, there is no doubt that sooner or later this is bound to happen. After all, the official “US Strategy for Central Asia 2019-2025” plainly states that “Central Asia is a geostrategic region which is important for the interests of US security.”
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https://www.rt.com/russia/578416-carrot-and-stick-method/
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SEE ALSO:
https://yourdemocracy.net/drupal/node/43171
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230627/whole-logic-of-west-us-eu-want-to-weaken-russia-through-ukraine-1111488047.html
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colonel's view.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39hy51daKhQ
Douglas Macgregor: RUSSIANS DESTROYED WHOLE UKRANIAN COMPANY IN A SURPRISE ATTACK!MEANWHILE:
In recent weeks, a number of Kiev officials have sought to downplay the apparent difficulties Ukraine faces amid its push to reclaim lost territories. On Sunday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov said Ukraine’s attacks should be viewed as a “preparation operation,” while suggesting that Kiev never intended to conduct a “blitzkrieg.”
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky admitted that Kiev’s troops had encountered “very tough resistance” on the ground.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukrainian forces launched a large-scale offensive along several sections of the front in the early days of June, but their attacks failed. Russian President Vladimir Putin described Kiev’s losses as “catastrophic,”and ten times greater than Moscow’s. On Tuesday, he also said that Kiev had lost 259 tanks and 780 armored vehicles since the start of the offensive.
https://www.rt.com/russia/578886-counteroffensive-hard-work-ukraine/
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https://yourdemocracy.net/drupal/node/43171
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230627/whole-logic-of-west-us-eu-want-to-weaken-russia-through-ukraine-1111488047.html
MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:
NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)
THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.
CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954
A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.
EASY.
THE WEST KNOWS IT.
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change enthusiasm.......
"OH FOR A WORLD WITHOUT MACRON, BIDEN, THE AMERICAN CLIQUE OF PENTAGON NEOCONS AND WITHOUT SERGEANT SCHULTZ OR WHATEVER HIS NAZI NAME IS...."
— Gus Leonisky
by Rachel Marsden
For a hot minute, Wagner's Prigozhin was a hero for Western regime change enthusiasts
Even as last weekend’s mutiny failed to live up to their wishful thinking, commentators kept harping on about imminent chaos in Russia
Western figures who have long dreamed of Russian regime change saw an open window with the Wagner mutiny, and apparently saw a prime opportunity to toss their credibility out of it.
They couldn’t stop grafting their disaster porn fantasies onto the events, even as facts and reality started distancing themselves from all the wishful thinking. Who cares that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin himself had said that his beef was with Russian military leadership – Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, about whom he previously complained for insufficient ammunition and support. Or that his armed march towards Moscow was for “justice” for his men who he said had done the heavy lifting in the grueling months-long battle of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut), leading to an eventual Russian victory. So what if Prigozhin explicitly denied that he was mounting a coup, and hadn’t at all evoked Russian President Vladimir Putin as his target? This whole drama, viewed from here in Moscow, where people continued to go about their daily lives as usual, just seemed like a tiff between siblings, one of whom was hell-bent on getting Daddy Putin’s attention by tossing his toys out of the pram – at Rostov-on-Don and Moscow.
Putin ended up striking a deal to send the tantrum boy to Belarus, where the Russian President saidhis Wagner comrades could join him. This conveniently places them all closer to Kiev than they ever were to Moscow on their march – and right as the Russian tactical nukes are set to arrive, too.
However, regime change proponents don’t seem too interested in these facts or analysis. Instead, they can’t stop dreaming of chaos, since they used Prigozhin to project their anti-Putin fantasies – like he’s Pamela Anderson and they’re teenage boys in the 90s. And let’s just say that some of their musings are…out there.
“Do we worry about Russia falling into the arms of China? Is there going to be disintegration? Will it go full on fascist? Will we have a long period of confusion and chaos? Will they use their nuclear weapons as a bargaining chip to try and get things?” asked the Center for European Policy Analysis’ Edward Lucas on BBC radio. Woah, slow your roll there. The babushkas who feed the pigeons at the local park are busy making plans for lunch tomorrow and haven’t yet received your memo that perhaps they should be considering adopting the fascist ideology against which their country has actively fought in its biggest historical battles. As for Russia “falling into the arms of China” – they’re just buddies, and aren’t really into that kind of thing. Maybe it’s time for a cold shower?
Lucas didn’t stop there either. In the wake of Putin’s non-demise, the expert has since doubled down, looking right past Putin to a “post-Putin junta” with “a weak central government battling powerful criminal warlords.” In reality, the same kind of regional figures, separatist minorities, and corporate heavyweights he evokes constantly wrestle for power in every country that has any resources or power worth arguing about. He could just as easily be talking about France, or the US. So why do few such experts ever do so, despite the fact that life in inflation-hit Western Europe right now is far more taxing than life in Moscow? And I say that as someone who pings back and forth between both.
“Putin faces historic threat to absolute grip on power in Russia,” read a Bloomberg headline. You’d think they’d see these events as proof that the Russian President delegates and trusts his subordinates in respect of the Russian constitution. And as proponents of democracy, which as we know can sometimes be a bit messy, why aren’t they celebrating this event as proof of Putin’s exercise of it rather than lament that the authoritarianism, which have long and clearly erroneously attributed to him, risks eroding?
“Russia cannot function without a strong hand at the wheel, and this president's hand has been fatally weakened,” according to the Financial Times. Oh, so now Russia needs authoritarianism – which Putin is suddenly unable to provide despite the many years of Western critics accusing him of being too heavy-handed? Which is it? Pick a lane.
Gideon Rachman said in the Financial Times that embarrassment would do Putin in. “Even if the Russian leader prevails in the immediate battle against Wagner, it is hard to believe that Putin can ultimately survive this kind of humiliation,” he wrote, making it sound like the Wagner march resulted in Putin getting a wedgie in front of the entire school.
“Putin’s regime survives, for the moment,” according to the Journal de Montréal, citing the Kremlin’s desire to give an “impression of normalcy.” Apparently, Putin can’t even competently defuse a crisis without being accused of faking it. Yeah, it would have been so much better if he had just let things spin out of control, like they did in Washington on January 6th, 2021, during the breach of Congress amid the Capitol Hill riots. Because that‘s how real normalcy is conveyed to the world – lest you be accused of hiding chaos. But at least walking back Putin’s imminent demise is better than clinging to the notion and running with it, as others insisted on doing, oblivious to the actual facts on the ground.
US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who never met a US regime change effort that he didn’t like, mused on Twitter during the unrest: “As internal strife and chaos occurs inside of Russia, may the outcome eventually be: The Russian people freed from corrupt, autocratic war criminal dictators like Putin.” Does this self-styled proponent of democracy care at all about the fact that the Russian people democratically elected the leader he wants to see deposed? While literally cheering for what amounts to a terrorist act – the unlawful ousting of an elected president – Graham implied, without any hint of irony, that those who did the deed he was praying for would then be dismissed as terrorists and unworthy of serving. Putin should be “replaced not by a terrorist organization like the Wagner Group, but true Russian patriots who want to establish freedom and integrate Russia to the world,” he said. “Our hope is freedom for the long suffering people of Russia,” added the Senator.
Does it ever occur to these folks that their cheerleading or projecting of Russia’s Putin-free future typically involve scenarios which, first and foremost, represent flagrant violations of Russian citizens’ democratic will? Somehow that minor detail always seems to escape their analysis.
READ MORE:
https://www.rt.com/news/578854-prigozhin-mutiny-failed-west-russia/
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https://www.rt.com/russia/578927-ukrainian-generals-killed-russian-strike/
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Wagner's fat lady sang.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9EQL1wUa8I
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awaiting....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcxUoDKE-10
Sending Cluster Bombs to Ukraine NOT the Way to Go w/ Col Doug MacgregorREAD FROM TOP.
NOTE: IT'S HIGLY LIKELY THAT PUTIN/RUSSIA IS AWAITING THE END OF THE "NATO SUMMIT" TO MAKE A DECISION ON WHICH WAY THE RUSSIAN MILITARY WILL OPEN THE FLOODGATES (FULL FORCE). TIME FOR A PEACE DEAL...
MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:
NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)
THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.
CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954
A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.
EASY.
THE WEST KNOWS IT.
FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....
never was.....
Russian law does not recognize the existence of private military companies, including ‘Wagner,’ President Vladimir Putin told the newspaper Kommersant on Thursday, when asked about his recent meeting with commanders of the mutinous group.
While attending a technology fair in Moscow, Putin was asked whether ‘Wagner’ will continue operating as a combat formation.
“Well, PMC Wagner does not exist!”Putin told the Kommersant correspondent. “We don’t have a law on private military companies! So it simply doesn’t exist!”
“The group exists, but legally it does not,” the president clarified. “It’s a separate issue, related to legalization, that needs to be taken up by the State Duma and the government. A complicated question.”
The Russian government has long held this position when asked about the group, nominally headed by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. Wagner’s de facto existence was only acknowledged by the Russian military when the group became involved in the fighting in Donbass last year, in particular at Popasnaya and Artyomovsk, also known as Bakhmut.
Earlier this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the report by a French outlet that Putin had met with 35 members of ‘Wagner’ on June 29, several days after the group engaged in armed mutiny. On Thursday, Putin was asked to give his version of what happened.
“I don’t have a version,” the Russian president replied.“You or NATO may have a version. I have what actually happened.”
According to Putin, he wanted to meet with Wagner commanders who had fought honorably, more so than Prigozhin, though he was present as well.
“At the meeting I gave an assessment of what they did on the battlefield, and what they did during the events of June 24,” Putin said. “Third, I showed them the possible variants of how they could continue their service, including in combat. That is all.”
At one point, Putin said, he offered the men gathered at the Kremlin to continue their military service under the same commander they had served for the past 16 months, known by his call sign ‘Grayhair’. While many of them nodded, Prigozhin spoke up on their behalf and said they did not agree.
After laying siege to the military headquarters in Rostov and sending a convoy of vehicles towards Moscow, Prigozhin ordered Wagner to stand down on June 24, after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko mediated a deal with the Kremlin. Under the terms of the deal, Wagner would be reintegrated into the Russian armed forces, while Prigozhin would move to Belarus and the criminal case against him for armed mutiny would be dropped.
READ MORE:
https://www.rt.com/russia/579672-putin-wagner-existence-legal/
READ FROM TOP.
NOTE: IT'S HIGLY LIKELY THAT PUTIN/RUSSIA IS AWAITING THE END OF THE "NATO SUMMIT" TO MAKE A DECISION ON WHICH WAYTHE RUSSIAN MILITARY WILL OPEN THE FLOODGATES (FULL FORCE). TIME FOR A PEACE DEAL...
MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:
NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)
THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.
CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954
A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.
EASY.
THE WEST KNOWS IT.
FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....