Yeah, but he was stripped of all of his power. Wagner group is being rolled into the state military. The opportunity for Wagner to push back and or give Putin the boot has passed.
And, this dude was also an evil corrupt piece of shit. If he overthrew Putin, Russia would’ve still been an authoritarian disinformation state.
He was a straight-up Neo-Nazi and named the group after Hitler’s favorite composer. So yeah, he would have been infinitely worse than Putin… and that’s saying something.
Anything you hear from Russia, you can just as well forget, it’s nothing but propaganda, lies, spin, and disinformation. They use Nazi guys like Wagner to fight what they call “Nazis” in Ukraine. It’s the “we fake it so hard that people couldn’t believe it someone would lie that bad” tactic. Never engage with Russia / Russians who aren’t publicly opposed to Putin and the status quo. You can only waste time.
When the short insurrection by Wagner was going on, I had hoped so much that Prigo and Putin somehow annihilate each other, or at least the hardliners in military and mercenaries perish in infighting. Sadly, all we got was confusion on that day.
At least if Prigo’s death now ends up being confirmed, there won’t be that much confusion on why it happened, only some details will remain unclear.
Wagners are straight up fleeing into neighboring countries and Africa. They must have read the history books about what happens when one warlord assimilates another’s forces (they kill them quietly and easily now that they’re disarmed).
Seems like most reasonable folks didn’t think he’d reform Russia. The only “good” he’d cause would be unrest that would force Russia to pull out of invading their democratic neighbors.
But it would have been a comparatively bloodless coup by a powerful military figure that would likely have ended the current war in Ukraine. As opposed to the likely outcomes of
putin finally loses it and hits the red button (which is actually a lot harder in russia, to my understanding, but is still a threat)
Some less powerful individual(s) attempt a coup and we end up with warlords vying for control of russia’s nuclear arsenal
Like, there is no good outcome of this. But prigozhin probably would have been the lesser of the evils as it would start another cycle of russia preparing for war (and ravaging The Global South but… nobody cares about them) and allowing The West to try and prop up a more palatable person to take control in a future coup.
There would be no clean replacement. It would get very bloody and chaotic. Not a bad hypothetical scenario. But that ship has sailed when Prihozhin surrendered (he didn’t stand much of a chance anyway).
It’s not like Putin and his closest cronies are in any way competent. They are removing anyone who dared to criticize. Before the coup Prigozhin, Girkin were allowed to say whatever they wanted as long as they did not undermine the general effort. Now Putin’s inner circle will ultimately disconnect themselves from reality: govern the country and the war from a bunker filled with scared yes-sayers with no alternative voices.
The most surprising thing here is that nine people were willing to get on a plane with Prigozhin. That's arguably much closer to actual suicide than any of the convenient window deaths that keep happening.
All that means is that Wagner has infiltrated the Russian military… while pooty might get lucky and get a few knuckleheads, trust and believe the hardcore of the hardcore have gone to ground and are dead set on putting Vlad’s head on a pike
The body of a man who is believed to have died more than 20 years ago has been found on a rapidly melting glacier in the Austrian province of Tyrol.
There have been several similar discoveries in rapidly shrinking Alpine glaciers this summer as the melting ice reveals long-held secrets.
In June a climber found human remains and bones on the same glacier in Tyrol, in the Venediger group of mountains.
In Switzerland, the body of a German climber - missing since 1986 - was found on a glacier close to the Matterhorn mountain last month.
Switzerland and Austria have been experiencing very hot conditions this summer and there are fears for the future of the Alpine glaciers which are key to Europe’s environment.
The winter snow stored by the glaciers fills European rivers such as the Rhine and the Danube, providing water for crops, or for cooling nuclear power stations.
The original article contains 457 words, the summary contains 151 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
His plane has crashed and he’s on the passenger list, but it’s not proven yet that he was on the plane. He’s the person, who faked his death in the past.
It seems like oddly coincidental timing that Russia also officially relieved Surovikin as head of the airforce today (he still hasn’t been seen since the mutiny): theguardian.com/…/russia-removes-sergei-surovikin…
Not saying he’s definitely dead, but I doubt this is him faking his own death so much as him slipping an assassination attempt if he’s alive.
bbc.co.uk
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