“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
A merc is loyal, until the last payment clears.
Or until Riddick is chasing them.
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.
Can you explain the significance of these buildings?
Are they the head offices of those departments, or the offices that are in that city?
How powerful are these departments?
Rostov is the admin centre of Rostov Oblast (state capital city). I would assume the main offices are in Moscow and these are the regional headquarters.
So while it is big if they have taken them it is not as big as if they had done so in Moscow.
The city is apparently the base for the Russian southern military district command which is key to the war efforts in Ukraine - according to the Institute for the Study of War via the Guardian
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.
I doubt the people in Rostov are the ones who were in Czechoslovakia in 1968.
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.
Especially when you then allow that mercenary group to release and recruit 30,000 prisoners
Especially if you send the mercenaries on a nonsense mission to die a pointless death…
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.
Judging from the address to the nation, this doesn’t seem the case now.
The situation is still very confused.
This is what I’m worried about. I hope they all tear themselves to pieces, but if Putin gets out scot free, I’ll be disappointed
I mean i hear what you’re saying, but if it means less death and destruction for innocent Ukrainians then I’m all for letting Putin live.
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.
True, it’ll be interesting to see what the hell happened once the dust settles.
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.
According to Forbes, the number of billionaires in Russia has increased from 99 in 2022 to 105 in 2023.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/04/20/billionaires-a80889
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.
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.
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.
25,000 troops marching on Moscow. How many does the Kremlin have not already in Ukraine?
How many do they have not in Ukraine… Who are also willing to kill fellow Russians? If the average Russian military sentiment is, “Eh, let them through” this could be huge.
Plus a lot of the “Royal Guard” may be well-connected rich kids who are even less inclined to fight.
Way too soon to know for sure, but. 🍿
I would like to submit “Putin panics and nukes his own people to stop the advance” for my Bingo card.
the latest resolution from NATO didnt say Russia cant nuke itself…
Any nuke west of the Urals is likely to provoke radiation that reaches NATO, and nukes east of the Urals would be, uh, insignificant most likely.
The Ukraine counter-offensive sure is effective.
my mind is so blown. i didn’t have wagner turning against russia on my bingo card
I mean Prigozin has been advertising his eventual turning against Putin for a while, but I didn’t think it would happen as a full on military coup
My personal theory is that he never intended it to get this far (previously he never called out Putin directly), but a failed assassination attempt made him decided he has no choice.
I’ve also go “nuclear civil war” on my card.
ohno
Anyway
My father who is Russian has been talking about Wagner turning on Russia for the past 2 months. Dogs of war. So my bingo card has been stamped.
I didn’t either, but history has plenty of examples of mercenary armies turning against their employers.
Ukrainian army called …they need fresh supplies of popcorn…
Breaking
„Ukraine runs out of popcorn“https://twitter.com/war__online/status/1672535209038827521?s=20
We need to start sending popcorn bags to Ukraine
Send Putin thoughts and prayers and send Ukraine guns and bombs.
If they would merely keep Rostov, a city with one million citizens, this would already be an enormous problem for Russia. But the Wagner group is going all-out, and I strongly doubt whether they’ll be able to oust the Russian government.
People are tired of this war. Putin wanted to secure food reserves and have an open access sea port for his military; however he wasn’t honest as to his reasons why; understandably so. Given this the Russian public doesn’t see the actual geopolitical value of the conflict. This was inevitable. If Russia couldn’t play nice with the rest of the world as their money mostly comes from oil and gas; which we are moving away from. Let them pay for their crimes.
If Kiev has been saving something up for a special occasion, this occasion is starting to look pretty special.
I think this is a good time to continue what they’ve been doing, interfering with Russian logistics and pressing forward on the front lines.
They could make an attack on Russian territory (e.g. drone strikes against airbases, oilfields, bridges, or other suitable targets), but right now might be the right time to hold off on anything that might distract Russia and Wagner from fighting with each other. Nothing unifies squabbling factions quite like a serious external threat.
I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if Ukraine ops to antagonize Russia as much as they can, while leaving Wagner mostly alone. That would also be a sensible strategy.
Almost feels a little too special.
