Yeah reading it now All the people coming out to chat with them and say goodbye must have been a ****ing surreal day for them
This from a BBC analyst "Surely Prigozhin's political career and military future are over." Yeah, no ****, he just marched a private army to take the capital Doubt even Boris Johnson could get away with that
Thing is he's already made a mug of Putin, I can't see this ending as easy as it seems, between the two of them. You can get away with making mugs of people like Boris or Sunak, you don't get away with speaking out against Putin like he did, especially saying the things he did about the invasion of Ukraine, and making a public announcement about it.
He has one massive factor on his side, people in the West and in Ukraine know more about Wagner and Prigozhin than the average Russian does. They did an analysis due to todays events, how often has his name came up in Russian media, in the past six months it was once, without a picture of him. So he's quite an undercover figure in Russia. Of course, Putin has been humiliated, he has openly admitted that Wagner, who were hailed as heroes only a few months back have revolted against his rule. It's a complete disaster. Of course Teflon Prigozhin might be dead in a few months, radioactive teapots are dangerous.
He'll be poisoned in the next 18 months. Think he must have thought that others would join the cause and then **** himself when he realised it was just him and his boys. The Wagner soldiers have been offered jobs with the Russian army. Don't think they'll last long either. They'll just be cannon fodder on the front line, given impossible tasks as a death sentence.
Wagner have some high ranking former officers in their ranks. But, they're not just currently in Ukraine. Wagner mercs are in Syria, Mozambique and other places. So, what happens to all them?
Anyone thinking they have any idea of what will happen next is kidding themselves tbh. But I enjoyed the war games while it lasted lol
Prigozhin is ****ed but I think this could still pave the way for further mutinies and Putin will surely have to consider bringing some elite forces back to defend against that possibility? Videos of crowds in Rostov cheering and chanting for Wagner but hurling abuse when the police came back into the city centre. Still find it weird that it went from "we will have a new president" and "these are traitors and will be charged with treason to "nice chat chaps, we'll call it a day and agree to disagree yeah?" Wonder how much money changed hands yesterday lol. Still think this is only the beginning as I'm not sure Putin has ever looked weaker and there'll be other factions noting with interest how quickly and easily Wagner advanced.
This ^^^ They won't have done that alone, and there will be internal factions in and around the Kremlin supporting them. Pandora's box has been opened now and this seriously weakens Putin
I agree with you, this problem is not going to go away, and Putin does not forget. I just hope Wagner has no future intentions on visiting Salisbury.
What the Wagner leader seems to have forgotten is that Putin has Lukashenko wrapped round his finger, so Putin can get to him anytime he wants and the Belarusian leader will nod politely and say ok boss. I don't believe honour among thieves apply to the Russian President, well certainly not this Russian President.
There's definitely a power struggle going on. Putin has been untouchable for years and we saw what happened to people like Alexi Navalny, who was legitimately challenging Putin in the ballot box. But other underground factions will have been brewing and those looking for opportunities to destabalise him will have been secretly negotiated, and people will be biding their time. It looked like Lukashenko was off to Turkey yesterday when he heard that the Wagner group were going to storm Moscow, so any deal that he's done with Prigozhin seems to be done on shaky ground. Like you say, the Wagner leader is now in Belarus, but Lukashenko and Putin are thick as thieves and Prigozhin looks like a sitting duck He should have negotiated a safe retreat to Barbados rather than Belarus lol
Russia has been fighting her neighbours for 1000 years. That's not really a reason for us to get involved imo.
