I am very concerned about Putin and what he will do next. Is there no way to stop him?
The list of CEO's dying keeps growing. Men who are drafted call the Ukrainian soliders to find out how to surrender, they don't want to fight and die. The pipeline that was sabotaged, I read, can't be repaired. I think he has lost his mind.
There are two ways to stop him. One is assassination, there have already been a few (clumsy) attempts. The other, which appears increasingly likely, is a military coup d'etat. The Russian military is becoming increasingly concerned that a war which they thought they'd win easily has turned against them. Putin doesn't even need to be scapegoated, he's directly responsible for that war and everyone knows it. We could see a military junta in Russia in the near future.
To be honest, I think reconsidering the idea of Ukraine joining NATO might have stopped a whole lot more. But it wouldn't have advantaged the West. And that then makes me believe, in accordance with the virtues of "we'll send weapons and indebt you while you go at them," they don't want Putin to be stopped -- not quite yet. Only weakened.
We've seen since then a continuing war of attrition for which "winning" might mean "losing the less"; but it's now anyone's guess what will happen in Ukraine and in other countries, now that the Wagner Group's leader has gone to Belarus.
All three men - Prigozhin, President Lukushenko of Belarus, and Putin - have been trying to claim for themselves some sort of strange credit for stopping what Putin (but not the others) has publicly considered the start of a "civil war".
Lukushenko has offered to take in WG soldiers and invited them to join his country's army; a sensible move from his point of view because if he did not previously know what a danger the WG posed, he does now. He seems not a blind admirer of Prigozhin, even remarking publicly on the foul-mouthed mercenary leader using more swear words than ordinary ones!
What are the WG troops doing now? Can they still act as they were? Will Putin absorb them into the regular forces?
The situation seems to change almost daily, but the last several days must have rattled Vladimir Putin and made him realise the mercenary force he thought his useful servants, could not be trusted. Whatever we might think of both parties, as bad as each other, the Wagner Group did betray President Putin by turning against his high command.
At least we now know why after talking of prosecuting the "mutineers" as he called them, Putin has now exonerated them. That was part of the deal for shuffling his former pal Yevgheny off to the nearest friendly country.
It is odd that the WG apparently just walked into the regular military HQ in the Russian city of Rostov and took over, and that they were greeted enthusiastically in that city's streets. How do the Rostov residents view the Russian army based there?
A sign of desperation too, by the Russian Federation, in digging holes in the motorway to try to stop the WG's progress to Moscow, some 600 miles North of Rostov. Military vehicles are designed to be driven off-road if necessary, after all, but I don't know if the traps were dug adjacent to marshes. Or if not desperation, perhaps a genuine attempt to stop them with as little fighting as possible. How the normal civilian traffic coped with the disruption seems not reported, but the holes were soon filled in again.
Really, only Yevgheny Prigozhin really knows what he intended, and I think it unwise to trust his public statements any more than we can trust Putin's.
Putin has been accusing Ukraine of harbouring neo-Nazis and using that as an excuse (and truthfully ONE brigade of the Ukrainian army, the Azov Brigade, does number more than a few) ... but Ukrainian President Zelensky is actually Jewish and the WG is absolutely fascist in form and action.
I most often try to give you the benefit of the doubt but this jumped right off the page: you said, "At least you admitted..." he said, "Putin has been accusing Ukraine..."
This is why many of us respond negatively to your posts! Please be more careful.
This post was edited by NYAD at June 28, 2023 8:24 AM MDT
Read his post again.... and truthfully ONE brigade of the Ukrainian army, the Azov Brigade, does number more than a few.
Ukraine has neo nazi in their national military services. I do not believe it is just one bbrigade. But even if it is it proves exactly what I said....at least Slartibartfast admitted it....as most people deny the nazi brigade exists. But the media did not ignore it in the past.
See above.....I was trying to give Slarti credit for at least acknowledging they are there. It has long been reported of their nazi problem in Urkaine.
Slartibartfast 