Russia - threadbanned users in OP

a few grenades in the porridge ?

My point exactly. It's just prediction bingo at this stage

If nothing else it seems like Russia have lost their best troops in the Wagner mercenaries. Who knows what went on behind the scenes but overall that is a win for Ukraine.

It must have been well over a year ago that Lukashenko was reported as having asked Putin if Belarus could have its nukes back, the ones that were transferred to Russia under the same circumstances as the Ukrainian nukes years ago.

Normally I just throw a few blueberries in myself😂

Agreed. Whether it's one thug in charge, or another, nothing really changes for Ukraine.

At no stage during this coup was there even a debate about ending the war. The argument was all about how to kill Ukrainians most efficiently.

And Putin knows his environment 100% inside out too, its how he has survived. There are layer upon layer of intermediaries' between him and any source of "Contamination", be that food or Covid. The Cooks who prepare his food will also have to eat it before it gets to Putin. He has a special detail who look after all his toilet requirements, even to transferring the "by-products" back to the Kremlin for disposal, lest any foreign power take some samples, have them analyzed, and gain an insight into his state of health. A wee bit paranoid is our Vladimir.

Or maybe it was as Progozhin is now claiming, that after countless appeals to Shoigu and Gerasimov, and reporting them to Putin and getting no response, he decided take matters a stage further and personally take out his two arch enemy's himself. Hence the military convoy. But Putin was not taking any chances, and promptly bailed out, leaving an awful lot of fence sitters waiting to see which side would take the upper hand. And so Prigozhin go to within 200 klms of Moscow, easily overcoming any opposition ( seemed like most actually supported him en-route) and there was reports that after he shot down several Russian aircraft, the Pilots refused to attack him again. Seems like they were hedging their bets too. Had he taken the Kremlin, would that have been enough to collapse Putin? Well, we wont ever know now. (unfortunately) But one way or another Putin feared that it would, hence his inaction or rather panic in the first crucial hours. Another Leader would have destroyed Prigozhin's convoy the minute it left Rostov for Moscow, or maybe even after it had crossed over the border back into Russia. Putin could not at that point depend on his own military, and that's how it made such progress. And then for reasons we are still unsure about, Prigozhin did his by now famous U turn.

And remember this is just the tip of the iceberg that the UN was about to document.

People following the thread for some time will remember the denials on this thread of Russian executions and sexual abuse of civilians.

Russia has summarily executed 77 civilians being held in arbitrary detention during its war in Ukraine, according to a United Nations report released this morning. Since Russia began its invasion in February last year, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has documented 864 individual cases of arbitrary detention by Russia, many of which also amounted to enforced disappearances...

"Russian armed forces, law enforcement and penitentiary authorities engaged in widespread torture and ill-treatment of civilian detainees," said Ms Bogner. Most of those we interviewed said they had been tortured and ill-treated, and in some cases subjected to sexual violence," which included rape. Torture was used to force victims to confess to helping Ukrainian armed forces, compel them to cooperate with the occupying authorities, or intimidate those with pro-Ukrainian views."

https://www.rte.ie/news/ukraine/2023/0627/1391346-ukraine-russia/

Yes, they're are positive examples of Serbian activities' out there for sure, especially in the field of sports etc. But also many like the BBC one's you mention. Just bring the Serbs up in any casual conversation over a few beers or any other circumstances, and see the reaction's you will get.

I shared a house with a demining team in Libya, ( amongst other places) and occasionally they brought their work home with them. A new or unusual type of trigger etc. They also took pictures of the destruction of their daily "haul", usually a massive explosion. I've been in minefields myself, ( not on purpose, I assure you!! ) but didn't know it until I getting out the far side , which was clearly marked "MINES" , but no such signage was on the entry side. ( mainly because it was on the "Other" side. I've recovered several vehicles ( and injured / dead) from mine incidents, and only for the Guardian Angel on my shoulder, I'd have been long gone by now myself. Like the incident where the mine was remotely triggered a fraction of a second too soon, and blew just as the vehicle approached it and not when it was directly over head. Or where the explosive had been placed in a dried up river bed, and lightly covered over. Fortunately, it had rained the night before and the main charge failed to go off, and the muted explosion only covered the underside of the vehicle is a fine white powder. But 20' away, there was another on, and this one worked 100%.

He hasn't let them off the hook. The organisation has effectively been disbanded, is handing over its heavy weapons and its leader exiled to Belarus. Who knows, he might be bumped off in two weeks.

So yes, Putin was humiliated and looked weak is one valid interpretation. Another is that the only organisation with the military means to threaten his grip on power has been swiftly rendered toothless. I mean, there's no sign of a democratic, peace-proposing Wagner substitute ready to seize the moment.

Like I say, no one has a clue. Putin might be vulnerable now, or he might still be there in 5 years.

They're alive and not under arrest. In a dictatorship built on fear and coercion, where the State maintains a monopoly on violence that is the very definition of being 'off the hook'.