Russia - threadbanned users in OP

There were lots of stories of 20 to 25 thousand wagnerites involved , could that be grossly exaggerated? , Definitely a small number on the charge to moscow ,

And honestly the push on Moscow seems an afterthought ,

Its all very odd - in one push Wagner had their boot on the neck of the Russian Army , by controlling the main RU supply lines into Ukraine ,

Then they pushed to moscow , and seemed to give up ( obviously didnt get the support they needed/ expected )

And then just gave it all up -

I read somewhere on Twitter that there closer to 10k than 25k as claimed by prigo. Some say he didn't get required support for a coup, some say his family was threatened.

What was the talk about rus-belarus union in pre-putin days? Luka as president? Can this be all lukas idea to get wagner on his side in the end and stop being putins puppet? I know its silly, but all this press cancelation at the last minute and he did kinda become a hero of russia in the end. Aaand.... He has nukes now!

Many international analysts think this is the beginning of the end for Putin. His prestige and power took a hammering on Saturday - he already looks a much weaker figure and far from secure in his role. It is noted that there was no show of support for Putin in Russia or outrage that someone might launch a coup against him. People were looking on passively and not even that pushed that he might be deposed.

Apologies, I thought you were implying that Western media were making Serbs out to be Putin supporters, like this BBC report for example.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60630351

As regards articles that show Serbs in a positive light, I've looked around and found these, do they count 🙂 ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WetOYfJ1fGM&t=15s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03OPcn80Uzs

https://www.nsa.gov/portals/75/documents/news-features/declassified-documents/cryptologic-spectrum/is_yugoslav.pdf

Getting back on topic, the amount of mines and booby traps that the Ukrainians are having to deal with seems horrendous. I stumbled across a graphic mine video I wish I hadn't seen, but the courage it must take to work through a mined/booby trapped area is unreal.

I have a whacky theory about the weekends drama.

I consider you a very knowledged poster.

Do you think this could happen

The folling is my whacky theory:

Prigozhin may topple Lukashenko to get back to budding up to Putin, seen as Lukashenko was not so keen as to having Putins nukes in his country.

Maybe this was the contex of whole drama by Prigozhin and Putin that they schemed up together.

Operation Mincemeat.....Russian style

A decorated Russian pillar of society, this is the reason no one can ever civilise this bastard state.

A true Russian nazi

Everyone seems to be getting their crystal ball out but if the last year and a half have shown one thing repeatedly, it's that really no one has a clue what will happen and what all this really means. All that seems certain is more drama is assured

Getting a bit Game of Thrones there but thats how mad things are in Russia... like something from Rome or medieval times.

Putin is known to have a vast entourage of personal staff (in February last year it's alleged he had 1,000 staff replaced).Apparently he is extremely paranoid of being assassinated, so I would suspect he has personal cooks and multiple tasters.

Airport was cirtical to Russian success however. If they secured the airport they would have landed thousands of highly trained troops into Kyiv.

Luckily brave Ukranian defence and ability to shoot down incoming helicopters and Russian transports, then they blew up the runway, preventing Russian re-enforcements probably helped save Kyiv.

Think the Russians held it for around a month, but never able to use the airstrip, just as a forward base.

Very possible if Flavahans Jumbo flakes are used to make it - otherwise they would be spotted !

He is clearly diminished in his authority and a weakened dictator. That was a serious and direct challenge to his monopoly of violence in Russia - by far the most serious of his time in power - and, instead of crushing it mercilessly he has effectively let the perpetrators off the hook. That sends a clear message and that message is 'I am weak'.

I agree that no-one knows how it plays out but, for the first time, Putin looks vulnerable. It was very noticeable on Saturday how few Russian figures popped up in the media to support the regime. They all kept their heads down and waited to see how it played out.

I agree with this - there was clearly no co-ordinated scheme here. It was a badly planned, and apparently quite reactive, act of defiance where the instigator didn't really have any clear objectives.

It was cockeyed and chaotic on the part of both the mutineers and the dictatorship. Almost comedic.