The owner of the Wagner private military contractor Yevgeny Prigozhin says his forces have driven into the Russian city of Rostov, facing no resistance.
Rostov holds the HQ of the Russian ministry of defense, and is also a major logistics hub.
Oh, I agree. I think this will fizzle out before long. However, on the off chance this does blow up into a full-blown civil war, who knows whose hands the nukes are going to fall into?
That's what I was thinking. Push out all the Russian soldiers (or convince them to switch sides, which seems remarkably easy at this point) while Putin is otherwise occupied. That would end the war, and with so much else on his plate, Putin might think twice about restarting it.
Wow. Last I read, Prigozhin was talking shit, but the Russian government wasn’t actually after him yet. I’d feel bad for him if he wasn’t such a scumbag.
No one knows who or what would come out of a power vacuum, but history tells us it’s usually a more hardline and extreme result. With some of the reports coming out of more hawkish elements within the Russian government adding more and more pressure on Putin to take further measures in mind, it can be a major cause for concern.
I would doubt most russians, even the ones who want revolution, would be interested in siding with Wagner. And that's what Prigozjin would need.
Just consider how the lack of logistics in Ukraine screwed Wagner over, who's to say they get any better cooperation fighting on Russian soil? It's not like the guy at the local refinery or fuel depot is going to just start sending them trucks of fuel. They'll have to loot and pillage to sustain any momentum I think.
The only hopeful improvement is that his reign would be more unstable and maybe the oligarchs don't support him. Like always, that means that innocent Russian civilians will take the brunt of the actual consequences.
It would be hilarious (for us) if the Russian army attack on Wagner was actually orchestrated by Ukrainian Special Forces! "Here is a pallet of vodka, now please fire on these coordinates"!
I have a feeling he made it up as some sort of power grab, but it's hard to tell whats the truth out there. The fog of war is all over this chaotic situation. But if this chaos helps Ukraine take back territory, or even just breathe for a moment, that would be great.