“Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe.”
Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince
“Windows are dangerous. Also, radioactive umbrellas” - zeppo, a Lemmy Member
Link dead/broken
This is not a “war”, it is a “special military operation”.
This is not a “coup”, it is a “march for justice”.
Everyone tries to control the narrative, this is completely normal. Anti-terrorist operation, peacekeeping mission, special military operation, march for X. I don’t remember someone who just said “yep, we are invading X”.
In this case both Prigozhin and Putin (or the establishment) are trying to control the narrative to gather support from “patriots”. Saying you are making a coup sounds antigonizing, while saying you are marching for justice, because it’s the government who has betrayed the people does not.
lol he switched sides? ah, classic.
Russia/Putin is boned, Wagner is all they really had left for non-shite fighting capacity
What he’s been saying is that the Russian Ministry of Defense has been lying to Putin. So I’d say this is Wagner and Putin working together to manufacture a face-saving pretext to leave Ukraine.
Same, though I epxect this to be more of a purge of - probably - the actual resistance within the army. Just like what Russia and others have been doing for centuries. Prigozhin already said in his speech he will return to the front once his cleanup is done. Who would do that unless they knew full well there were no consequences to be feared? And why would there be no consequences for something like this?
a rocket from behind started this, why would he not fear another? unless its scripted like you say.
Removed by mod
Supposedly they’ve already agreed to retreat to Belarus? Shortest coup ever, or a dog n pony show.
The Wagnerites also seized the buildings of the head office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB department, the administration of #Rostov and one of the police departments, according to local channels. Nobody in the city understands what’s going on.
How lovely
Like watching Cobra attack the Decepticons.
Nobody knew what was going on in 1968 czechoslovakia as well, when the russians came with the tanks. I don’t really wish them any harm, but I’m glad they can experience the same confusion now. May this experience serve as a warning.
Actually Russians didn’t come here. Soviets did, but not from Russia.
Holy shit.
Things are getting real real.
Ukrainian army called …they need fresh supplies of popcorn…
I welcome russian infighting. Hope it makes it easier for Ukraine to retake Crimea.
All the Nazi’s who were “expelled” out of Azov/various militias could join up with Wagner and then they all take Ukraine for themselves.
More evidence as to why you don’t hire mercenaries. They are only loyal to the money. I hope the US is watching with their love of PMC’s.
Breaking
„Ukraine runs out of popcorn“https://twitter.com/war__online/status/1672535209038827521?s=20
Can someone please explain what’s going on ? I am out of the loop. I know Wagner was fighting for Russia but what happened now?
Everyone in Wagner was about to be conscripted into the regular Russian Army as the latest in an ongoing power struggle between Wagner’s boss and the Russian MoD. So to avoid losing his private army, the boss has stepped up the power struggle to an attempted coup, basically.
Holly shit this has been picked up by the BBC.
Remember, it doesn’t matter if they succeed or not. The fact it has happened will terrify Putin.
I feel like this might be on behalf of Putin.
Wagner has been pretty careful to call out everyone but Putin.
Feels like setting the stage for a claim that the war was orchestrated by rogue elements in the Russian military, giving an out to tuck tail and run and move toward easing sanctions.
Nah, this feels more like an “evil counsellors” situation - you don’t want to take on the king directly, so you instead give him an out by saying that he’s OK but he’s been given bad advice. Which also means if you do take over you can keep him around as a figurehead who now listens to better advisers like yourself.
It won’t terrify Putin. It all goes according to the plan. Different forces are fighting between themselves to show who’s more loyal to Putin, those who are not loyal enough are either falling out of windows or being killed on the battlefield. And those who are loyal are getting ludicrously rich. The amount of billionaires in Russia has increased fivefold during the first year of the war.
Army generals got too corrupt and too complacent since their success in Crimea in 2014, this war is a tool to put them into place and Prigozhin talks a lot so that Putin can put generals’ noses into their shit to teach them a lesson or two while the public fully supports this. Prigozhin gets his piece of the pie in the process.
what is Wagner group?
The Wagner Group, is a Russian paramilitary organization. It is seen as a private military company (PMC), a network of mercenaries, or a de facto private army of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s former close ally Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The group operates beyond the law in Russia, where private military companies are officially forbidden. Because it operates in support of Russian interests, it receives equipment from the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and uses MoD installations for training, the Wagner Group is said to be a de facto unit of the MoD or Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU.
While the Wagner Group itself is not ideologically driven, various elements of Wagner have been linked to neo-Nazism and far-right extremism.
Gotta be a special brand of stupid to be a Slavic neo-nazi.
While the Wagner Group itself is not ideologically driven, various elements of Wagner have been linked to neo-Nazism and far-right extremism.
It’s literally named for Hitler’s favorite composer.
Here’s a pic of the founder Dmitry Utkin whose call sign is Wagner. He can be seen with nazi eagle, swastika, SS Schutzstaffel. This isn’t just runic imagery. He chose that call sign and the name for his company because he is a fan of the 3rd reich. And it was Adolf Hitlers favorite composer. Not just actual nazis. But an actual nazi leader. Leading a war for conquest and nazi glory.
Utkin hasn’t been really relevant for Wagner in recent years and is definitely not leading it. While their involvement in Ukraine might be for glory, their usual interests are monetary, their control over various oil fields, lumber, and gold mines in Syria, CAR, Mali providing a steady sanction-proof revenue stream. They also further the Russian’s state geopolitical interests while maintaining plausible deniability.
They are nationalistic, opportunistic whatever, but not “Leading a war for conquest and nazi glory.”.
They do have neo-nazis/ultranationalists elements of course though, especially Rusish Group.
