• lewis6991@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    This is not a “war”, it is a “special military operation”.

    This is not a “coup”, it is a “march for justice”.

    • sudneo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • Thepinyaroma@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      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. 🍿

  • green_dragon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.

  • 𝐘Ⓞz҉@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    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?

    • certain_people@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • UniquesNotUseful@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      The head of Wagner was unhappy with Russian military leaders and thought he’d take matters into his own hands as Putin was going to support him. Putin did not. Now there are 10,000 men heading to Moscow.

      • SuddenDownpour@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

    • Thepinyaroma@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Launching a nuke would have to be the dumbest thing Putin could do. A huge chunk of NATO must already be salivating at the internal chaos.

      I bet Polish social media is on fire right now.

  • andrei_chiffa@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Generally, I don’t like to gloat, but I did call that one ~ June 5th over on Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/france/comments/140qkwu/destructions_incursions_évacuations_dans_la/jmyndp3/?context=3; in French because it was on r/France).

    It actually is much worse than it seems - I did a write up over on Mastodon to explain why and how (https://mastodon.social/@andrei_chiffa/110599724720727202). The TLDR is that cities taken by Wagner mercs will be hard to retake without leveling, all internal protection troops are either tied or were lost in Ukraine, and mercs themselves have nothing to loose and all the revenge to take.

    • YuYuHunter@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Tu avais raison.

      It’s very strange how things are going right now. The fact that they are quite effortlessly moving hundreds of kilometers through Russian territory is quite telling.

  • boilingpenguin@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my history classes it’s that power vacuums (or even perceived power vacuums) and the ensuing instability always end well for everyone involved…

    /s

  • SquishyPandaDev@yiffit.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • Arbiter@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • DrElementary@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        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

        • LanternEverywhere@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          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.

      • sudneo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Judging from the address to the nation, this doesn’t seem the case now.

        The situation is still very confused.

      • Ertebolle@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        12
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

    • Aux@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • Arbiter@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

  • assassinatedbyCIA@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • 💡dim@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Especially when you then allow that mercenary group to release and recruit 30,000 prisoners

    • Double_A@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Especially if you send the mercenaries on a nonsense mission to die a pointless death…

    • Bucket_of_Truth@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

  • JerkyIsSuperior@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    “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

    • zeppo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      “Windows are dangerous. Also, radioactive umbrellas” - zeppo, a Lemmy Member