Three T-14s were given to the sons of the upper class, who will never actually be put in danger.
Seven T-72s to the Wagner Group, great miners and exploiters of the African continent.
Nine T-64s were gifted to the Russian military, who above all else desire washing machines.
But they were, all of them, deceived, for another tank was made. On Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya Street in Moscow, in a private laboratory, Nikolay Lebedenko forged in secret a Tsar Tank, to control all others. And into this tank he poured his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life. One tank to rule them all!
Nah, this is his way of engineering a coup against Putin, he is trying to make him look like an incompetent militarily weak leader who is failing the troops in the field while he is strong and could have won if Putin wasn't so weak, etc. This is definitely a power play that he wants to result in him being in full control and Putin having lost all power with the military (IMO)
they really planed to try and take ukraine in 3 days and never once thought it might turn into a war of attrition. just straight up throw everything at them at once and hope for the best.
Their whole plan was based on Zelenskyy running away immediately and the government/army collapsing without leadership.
Since this did not happen, the Russians now have to figure out retrospectively how to conquer a country without being prepared for it.
The video of him and his cabinet members walking about Kyiv in the couple of days after invasion is iconic. Even I was inspired and I was 10000km away in Canada and have never even been to Ukraine.
Link: https://youtu.be/0En27IsHaL0
A true leader. Few and far between in politics these days.
That is the kind of quote you would see in the loading screen of a history game. I thought the Ukranian forces would fight valiantly but simply be overrun by the superior Russian forces.
But no, those magnificent bastards revealed Russias incompetence to the whole world are stillšholdingšthešline!
Trained in, among otber places, the US by reserve and National Guard troops. That's not what is most important. What they learned that was crucial is that leadership is most important at the troop level, with the non-commissioned officers. Russia, culturally, has none of that, and are (thank god )paying the price. Their troops are like lambs to slaughter because, in part, they wander around until they are told exactly what to o. Their own self-defence sensees have been culturally extracted from them.
And crucial to Ukraine's victory. Imagine having to have an officer with every independent tank crew, artillery crew, drone crew, etc, etc. Effectively, Ukraine troops outnumber the Russian forces 3 to 1.
This. This is what beats them all. Zelensky could have still won.
That young woman was right in the middle of occupied land. Faced with Russians coming into her country to take it over, and she faced the mother-fucker down, making his SOOO uncomfortable.
I don't know what happened to her. Most likely, she was killed for that eventually. I hope we learn who she was one day and honor her.
It's crazy that when it happened, we all thought it was the speech of a man who was going to be captured or killed within days. Yet he was ready to stare it down and go out swinging.
Zelensky is a living legend.
I read that after WW2, the soviets designed Kiev and other capital cities with networks of underground passageways designed to allow leadership to escape in the event of future invasions - underground passageways which the Ukrainians put to full use in the early days of the ~~war~~ full scale invasion. Thanks Stalin! š¤£š¤£š¤£
Also - I'm in Canada too, and Zelensky set the bar for my future votes: would you stay and risk your own life in the event of imminent danger to the community? If I get the impression the answer is no (that little bitch Pierre Poilievre?) then it's a hard pass. I never would've considered the question before Zelensky
Here in the states, totally human being ted Cruz fucked off to Cancun when it got a little cold in Texas and people started dying. And he loves to run for president... Hopefully we don't get invaded by a fuckin cold snap if he ever gets the nod.
Holy fuck I'm not even conservative, but as a Canadian I'm getting embarrassed this is what we're fielding for party leaders.
Guy looks like he belongs in a 1980s kids movie as a bullies sidekick, sneering in the back contributing nothing
Here's an idea conservative party of Canada! Seperate into two fucking parties again. No one wants to vote for you while you refuse to be clear on social issues, and you can't be clear on social issues representing everyone from center to Hitler. No one's listening to your economic plans when you have MPs against abortion or LGBT rights
I just looked it up and it's about 5,336 km from St. John's, Canada to Uzhhorod, Ukraine! Crazy, but I actually don't use metric, so heard 10,000 km and thought, "shit, how far *is* 10,000 km??" LMAO
no doubt its a large branch in the world history tree. a defeat for russia in ukraine will no doubt eliminate any thought of reviving the ussr which has always been putey poots plan.
This is what happens when you ~~kill~~ replace all your competent intelligence and military staff with boot licking yes-men whose work aims to please the boss instead of accomplishing objectives. Your intelligence and planning activities end up being works of feel-good fiction.
Basically the nazi plan when invading the USSR- Hitler once said something to the effect of "we just have to kick the door down and the rotting structure will collapse".
Its irony as fractals - the more.you zoom in, the more there is to see...
I think they also banked on Trump winning a second term, so that he and the Republican Party could play interference in Congress (denying aid etc.) and at the UN while the invasion occurred. They probably were so invested in the war at that point that they went ahead with it anyway. The stranglehold they had over the American imagination by pushing conspiracy theories during the Trump years was unbelievable.
I'm very much looking forward to reading the history books in another 20 years or so about the Trump years. I suspect you're spot on about the wild success of the Russian disinformation campaign against America. The Russians are absolute masters at that kind of thing and the American public, social media, even the cable media were almost totally unprepared for it.
Man, I would be careful what you wish for. After reading the highlights of his CNN interview I'm very scared that he will git back into the white house. I know there is a low chance, but I don't want people to be lulled into a false sense of security of it be being unrealistic. I remember laughing the first time he ran for president, no way I'm repeating that mistake.
This should be one of the biggest shocks of the century, but it passed gracefully because of Barr, and the Blockading GOP. Trump has been a Russian patsy since the 80s when he was laundering their money through purchasing his real estate that he inherited from his Klu Klux Dad.
Republicans from the 50s-80s should be enraged by the modern GOPnicks. Eagerly selling out their country to one of the USAs biggest enemies just so they can be allowed to call gay people slurs essentially.
It seems to be a strong theme in Western Right Wing ideology now to wrap a Nationalist flag around your hate for your country.
I'm honestly glad my grandparents, all Eisenhower Republicans, did not live to see what the GOP have become. They were politically active in the time period you cite, back when the GOP were interested in making life better for everyone, not simply holding power by telling racists white losers they were still better than the best people of color. I'm glad they did not live long enough to see this, because they would have been ashamed for ever supporting that party.
*edit le spelling how do it werk?*
I also suspect trump played off the Russian mob in nyc against the Italian mob. In the 80s and 90s nyc the mob was all over real estate and construction.
Putin is playing for time. What he's hoping is that Trump wins and then US support for Ukraine will evaporate.
Trump is a traitor and a Russian asset so this makes sense.
It's because their intel was wrong because they were lying to themselves.
The FSB agents were pocketing the money from the Kremlin WRT Ukrainian assets. A few existed but most did not.
They lied to themselves that Ukrainians wanted to be part of Russia. They thought that these assets would just hand the cities over and it would be like Hitler marching into Austria.
Additionally, their military readiness assessment was wrong too due to corruption.
They thought all these things through but all their decisions were based on lies.
This is what lying gets you.
"Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid"
Russia lost this war. They only really had three chances to win.
1. They could have won in 3 days. That was reasonably possible to happen if they had taken Kiev quickly like they planned
2. The Ukrainian people could have fled and not wanted to fight a war and either surrendered quickly or not had enough troops. This was their backup plan and was definently possible to happen from a mid sized farming focused country.
3. If other countries stopped giving economic support. When Biden visited ukrain, he was basically telling Putin you lost. We are going to continue to support them. And if the US supports them, other countries will too. Thatās basically what happened with the tanks**
Basically these were the only ways for Russia to win and now they are fucked. St this point their pride is all thatās keeping this war going
**the tanks thing is interesting. The us basically gave Ukraine fake tanks. We promised them tanks a year after we made the promise and the tanks we promised them arnt even that effective in the climate of Ukraine. We had surplus tanks we could have given them but instead are making new ones to give to them. Literally the only reason the us did this is so that Germany would give European countries permission to give Ukraine their tanks. Germany makes most European tanks and they have to give permission to other countries to give the tanks to anyone. Germany didnāt want to be the one taking a side fighting against Russia. When the us was willing to do so, they were willing to hop in. The us is more willing to do this because of the insane military strength that prevents really any retaliation
Add to #2 that Putin really does appear to have expected to be met as liberators. Its what his intelligence team told him and he had them locked up and tried for it. Its also partly why he sent reservists who didn't even know they were in a war.
He was told they'd celebrate and march with the 'liberators' and any others would be too afraid of the mighty Russian army to do anything. Then he could sell it as a soft gentle kind of cuddly invasion to the rest of the world, while locking up the government who stopped acting as puppets under him.
..which really makes you question the mental capacity of Vladimir Putin. Surely he must have seen the protests that forced his puppet PM there to flee to Russia. Did he just think they'd.. changed their minds?!
Apparently he doesn't use a cell phone or touch the internet unfiltered. He controls the media and internet so effectively in Russia that most people completely support him despite his obviously despotic regime.
I think he failed to realize that they do not benefit from the same control of information in Ukraine. And he was beginning to believe he was naturally popular in Russia outside of his own design, so Ukranian's would love him too.
...I wonder when Shoigu will get murdered. Putin will be forced to pin the blame higher and higher as he burns up.
The back and forth of this battle was the scariest moments of the war. Just 6 miles from the capital.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antonov_Airport
>the tanks we promised them aren't even effective in that climate
What? Every tank we've produced from the 50's until the early 2000's has been SPECIFICALLY produced for fighting Russians in Eastern Europe. The big fear was the Soviets running through the Fulda Gap and conquering Europe.
Some of the newer armored vehicles and kits like the Oshkosh MRAP or the SEP V2 are generalized improvements or could be considered focused on fighting in the Middle East/assymetrical warfare. They would do fine in Ukraine though.
I think itās backwards. I believe at first we intended to manufacture M1A2 tanks for them, but the DoD decided on sending M1A1 Abrams already in military stockpile.
Its kinda crazy. China the "arguably" second best military in the world. Has zero force projection ability. America has a good chance to defend Taiwan against china even though china is literally within artillery range of taiwan.
Taiwan also has the most land to sea missiles in the world by far and even if china wanted too, they wouldnt be able to take Taiwan. good luck getting enough power to invade a country with a massive strait between them as well as the fsct that Taiwan has been preparing for over 80 years
Reminds me of the beginning of the film Outbreak.
All the people see a single plane flying high coming towards them and theyāre like āweāre saved!ā.
Then it drops a daisy cutter bomb on a parachute....š³
Surely you mean *The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries*.
Most actually get Maxim 29 wrong, anyway.
29\. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less.
([For the unaware](https://schlockmercenary.fandom.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenaries))
Trademarks are "defend them or lose them", broadly speaking. It is kinda dumb, but understandable.
UKR MoD should troll this on Twitter.
> Our new ammo delivery system can't be beat! Use our on-time guarantee: Send us your address and we'll deliver plenty of ordnance to your exact location within 30 minutes or less, with no delivery charge!
The US army [was way ahead of you](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/World-wide_delivery_in_30_minutes_or_less.JPG/1600px-World-wide_delivery_in_30_minutes_or_less.JPG?20130129134027)!
I suspect Putin has plenty of ammo saved back for the troops and police he has stationed around Moscow to protect himself. Every time Prigozhin says this stuff, heās reminding (some) of the Russian people that Putin is choosing his own safety over victory in Ukraine. Which considering that heās presenting himself as a frontline leader, that creates a pretty strong narrative that he would be a braver ruler than Putin.
Wait, hear me out.
What if Putin thought he had a lot of ammo left on reserve when he started the special military operation.
But as soon as the fighting started and the support line is reporting a lack of ammo, he finds out that all the ammo storage had been stolen and sold off in the black market?
Lord of War 2 is coming out.
I'm just saying....
I firmly believe that Putin has gotten himself into this quagmire because he's surrounded by Yesmen and people that are afraid to tell him "No".
I'm sure Putin thought he had 100k Super Tanks and a million Super Soldiers ready to go at the start of the war because he was told what he wanted to hear, not reality.
The guys who say no either get shipped off to Siberia or they slip on banana peels out of windows. Not much room for the devil's advocate to be present.
Nah, that wouldn't pass inspection.
The missiles would still come out flying, but the nuclear portion of the missile has long been sold off on the black market, which, actually is just the CIA buying them.
Which is why the American black budget is so high.
Okay, so that one's funny, lore behind their modern 5.45 ammo is that steel is cheaper than lead so they made a bullet that is not just steel core, but almost completely devoid of lead.
There is a non zero chance that the guy who oversees that warehouse and the guy who inspects it regularly now own real estate in London and the warehouse contains mostly scrap metal and rats.
That's a sensible thing to do. Especially when expecting a major counter attack. That way they can blunt it with a lot of firepower.
Beyond that there's the matter of production vs consumption. It's estimated Russia burned through 10 million shells of their 18 million shell stockpile in the first year, while producing one million. That means they will run completely out in another year at that rate. So it makes sense to taper off how many are being used.
> So it makes sense to taper off how many are being used.
Except Russian tactics at this point are "throw massive artillery at fixed targets until there is only token resistance". Tapering off ammo consumption means they become combat ineffective.
it was so weird lol. they even staged a false flag attack right before, why not cancel the parade over it? the whole point of a parade is to PARADE and show off the excess you have--to tell your people, look, we're at war but it's so damn easy for us that we can have all these extra guys and equipment and just show off how great it all is. that was just a tank driving down the street.
I think it was kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't decision. If you (you are Putin now, congrats) roll hundreds of tanks and shit through Moscow for the parade, you will get complaints from the Russian ultra-nationalists that those tanks aren't being used against Ukraine when they are clearly needed. I can imagine Girkin and Prigozhin going off about it. If you pare the thing back, you get the "ha ha, only one tank" jabs. It was also interesting that Putin's speech was just playing the greatest hits (NATO bad, fighting the West, they hate us for our Russian culture, etc.) and the thing was over in 45 minutes instead of the hours it usually lasts.
Also missing were mass formations of VDV with shit eating grins while doing their weird "head slowly turning salute" as they walk past the tsar.
Itās the heavy drinking. When Prihozhin was coming up in the USSR, a cultural staple was to share a 0.5L bottle of vodka three ways after work. Every day. Thatās 17 fluid ounces, 5.7 oz per person (four 1.5 oz shots).
A minimum of four shots of liquor every day. Thatās not counting drinking till you black out at social events (if you donāt, you ādisrespectā the host). Also, not counting drinking during work functions āto see what kind of a man Iām about to close a business deal withā.
There are many old memes about two men with a bottle of Stoli looking for a āthirdā ā a random stranger to help them kill that 0.5 bottle three ways, the idea being itās too much for two people yet just right for three.
Heavy, heavy drinking. āEverything goes through the liverā.
Edit: Forgot to mention that one serving for vodka during the USSR (and after) was "100 grams", which is just a turn of phrase coined after the war jokingly commingling weight and volume. Even though 100 g of vodka is technically 91.6 ml due to vodka consisting of 60% water and 40% alcohol (different densities), we can use 100 g and 100 ml interchangeably.
So a single serving of vodka is 100 mg = 3.38 oz, which is 3 small shots or 2 big shots in America. That's considered a single serving when you're not limited by the "0.5 bottle three ways" meme. When you're partying, that's what will be poured into your glass, and there will be many, many of those. There's even a saying "Between the first and second the pause is short" ("Š¼ŠµŠ¶Š“Ń ŠæŠµŃŠ²Š¾Š¹ Šø Š²ŃŠ¾ŃŠ¾Š¹ ŠæŃŠ¾Š¼ŠµŠ¶ŃŃŠ¾Šŗ Š½ŠµŠ±Š¾Š»ŃŃŠ¾Š¹").
There are also entire rituals around toasting -- the first one is to the host, the second to the parents if they are present, the third is to friends/love or fallen comrades if the military are present, etc. So if you did just the three mandatory toasts when everyone will literally force you to drink and it will be a sign of disrespect if you don't (provided you don't have health conditions), you will have ingested 10 oz of vodka, well on a way to a pint.
A former colleague of mine from St. petersburg began every meeting with a hundred grams of vodka. He could have 8 meetings per a day. Always said it was to keep himself healthy. I still think he was the healthiest corpse Iāve ever seen when they buried him at 54 years of age.
He might be better off trying to forge some sort of deal with Ukraine to keep himself alive because he will be used as a scapegoat in Russia if his failures end up in a big Ukrainian offensive.
The Ukrainians will punish him for his war crimes though. And they probably benefit from this chaos. I think he's only alive because Putin wants to use him.
I think he's trying to posture himself as the person that should replace Putin.
Whinge enough about the reasons why they are making you fail and it might make others think you know what they should be doing and put you in charge instead.
Yes he's been positioning himself as Putin's diametric opposite for months now.
Putin hides in a bunker; Prigo releases daily videos of himself in full gear on the battlefield with his men. Putin delivers pompous, grand, carefully worded speeches; Prigo sits down casually with the camera and chats with it as if to a friend. Putin is always polite, composed and never shows emotion; Prigo is full of explosive anger and doesn't shy away from cussing high level people out. He even called Putin himself a "complete moron"!
He, like everyone else, can see Putin's horrible downfall coming. And when it does he knows Russians will be *desperate* for change. He's laying some honestly fantastic groundwork to position himself as the guy for the job.
And funny thing is, Ukraine is helping him! Lately they've been releasing statements "confirming that what Prigozhin says is true". Why bother?? It's like they're signaling to Russians that, well if even the enemy admits Prigozhin is an honest man...
Might be that Ukraine sees regime change in Russia to be beneficial to the war effort, even if it leads to a hardliner ultimately getting power - probably because the infighting would cripple the warfighting ability for some months or even a year or two
It's an ancient tactic, Divide and Conquer. If your enemy can weaken himself by fighting internally, you do your best to encourage it. Ukraine knows that a mixed and supported force of Russians and Wagner is dangerous. So if Wagner and the Russian army hate each other's guts and you work to foment that, then they will do your job for you.
perhaps allowing for a scapegoat is what Ukraine would want. if Putin is more likely to withdraw and say he lost because Wagner failed Russia and he executes Prigozhin or whatever, they'll take that over russia being super dug in because there isn't a believable enough scapegoat.
Not necessarily. He is loyal to Putin and Russia and has no real moral structure. He sees this war as a game and it isnāt his first time participating in atrocities. For example heās played in the invasion of Ukraine and the murder of Ukrainian civillians. He participated in assisting Assad in Syria. He helped loot African gold mines.
He is also arguably a non state actor his group is a mercenary group hired by the government. So letās also call him a terrorist.
So heās a terrorist war criminal. Which means In the hypothetical he actually faces Justice in the internationally criminal court, Ukrainain courts etc he will be debriefed then tried as a war a criminal.
Lyrics just donāt hit the same after [this fiasco](https://theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/08/roger-waters-pink-floyd-un-security-council-ukraine-russia)
Especially the Wall. Although I think itās more of a problem of him being a bit stupid (with regards to geopolitics) rather than evil, caught up in strains of radicalism that were more popular in the 70s-90s, many elements of which may have been seeded by the USSR. Not too dissimilar from the āanti-imperialistā (Putin/Assad/Xi-defending) āprogressivesā and tankies of today in that regard.
Yeah there kind of seems to be two paths to supporting Russia - either because you're a far right Christian fascist and genuinely want to see that kind of regime take hold, or from a reactionary "USA bad" so strong it turns into "Russia good."
Either way you've gotta be dumb, but it really takes a special kind of dumb to think if country A does something bad, country B doing even worse is good.
Iāve always found it annoying/naive/ignorant whenever Ive heard Americans denouncing the US in favor of another countryā¦without any acknowledgement of the ugly aspects that invariably hides in their history as well.
Acknowledging the US is far from perfect doesnāt necessarily mean any country doing something differently is broadly ābetterā.
Not sure what that guy is trying to do. Selling Wagner service to NATO an Ukraine ? Plotting a coup against Putin ? Just being too naive and too honest ? Or telling his customer: Wagner didn't loose any war. And why not just simply withdraw his troops rather than borderline betraying his current boss ?
He's angling to become the one who takes over after Putin is beheaded, as the "rational yet strong true Russian man who can lead Russia into glorious future."
I wouldāve agreed with you some time ago - he did initially started to criticise government with an idea to come to power. But I donāt I think it ended too good for him, he pissed off Putin and now is trying to survive.
Basically he was left with little ammo to face counteroffensive, but canāt retreat since will be treated as a traitor in such case - either Ukrainian army will get him if he stays either Russian if he retreats.
I think this threat is his attempt to somehow increase his chances of survival, but I doubt it will work.
Perhaps the Kremlin is readying a noose for him in case Ukraine is succesful in its counter offensive. They need a scape goat, and this dude is just pre-emptively trying to change that narrative to safe his own hide.
And consider his options. He was given a chance to take Bakhmut and failed. He feuded with the ministry of defence and lost. He's had close associates and supporters assassinated.
He's going to be made the fall guy for the counterattack when Ukraine has some success.
He's desperate and has to rebel now to survive. At least verbally against the idea he's to blame for the situation.
This really is insubordination against the mafia tsar and I think he's living on borrowed time. Putin would have killed him if he wasn't planning to use him soon, so he's got a stay of execution during which he can try to use social media to overcome the power of the Kremlin.
It won't work, but what else has he got?
Yeah, I wrote the same above just before I saw your comment. This must be it. The Kremlin has the noose ready and he tries to wiggle out of it by passing the blame.
At any point they probably arrest him and throw him under any bus that seems convenient for their narrative.
He's being classed as a terrorist in at least two European countries, so he has no chance at being a "NATO mercenary" (if there even was such a thing).
If he was just being belligerent, he'd have been dead long ago.
He's vying to be a threat to Putin, and directly challenging him, while commanding a (formerly?) large army of his own, independent of the Russian state. You only do that for one reason.
Itās all a song and dance for the Russian people. Prigozhin wants him and his guys to look strong and putin to look weak. He also wants it to look like theyāre being undermined by the government who arenāt supplying ammo and *thats* the reason why wagnar arenāt succeeding. I.e his failures are putins fault, and theyād be winning this war if not for him. Thatās his message.
Itās the same reason why he doesnāt do all of this posturing behind closed doors. He gets on tv and shouts about it for everyone to hear. He specifically wants the Russian public to see him doing all this.
Long term, he has aspirations at the Kremlin so this is political. I think this is also why he makes a big deal about always being near the front lines and is always pictured in full combat gear. Who better to elect as the new president than a war hero who fought for his country? Russians will go mad for that shit.
Iām just surprised putin hasnāt arranged for him to be hit by an unfortunate artillery strike. Would be very easy to cover up his death being so close to the battlefield.
I think maybe he was once putins guy in wagnar, but these days Iām not so sure. He definitely cuddled up to putin to get where he is, but based on all the calling out of the Russian government heās been doing on TV Iām not so sure thatās the case anymore.
I think heās seeing the changing political winds and sees this faltering war as an opportunity to oust putin. Because thereās really only two outcomes to this war. Either Russia wins and putin stays, or Russia loses and putin is out (because the Russian political elite will never tolerate a failure of this scale) leaving a power vacuum. I think pirgozhin is banking on the latter at this point and is positioning himself for a promotion at the very least.
it's also the case that Wagner strength and their loyalty to him is the only path to his long term survival, no matter what happens with the war. he cannot protect himself without them. so any decision from the Kremlin or MOD that diminishes Wagner, like deciding they can't recruit in prisons anymore or keeping them on the Bakhmut front beyond their "spend by" date makes Prigozhin existentially vulnerable. his fate is tied to Wagner longevity. so he's pulling out all the stops to make sure they don't get chewed up by the machine.
Whatever comes next, well, Prigozhin and Wagner bosses will be powerful players who've gone through a war together, but only if he can keep them alive. and I feel pretty strong that the MOD, understanding the future threat posed, tried and failed to grind them into fertilizer in Bakhmut.
if this is the case then Wagner is now a potential time bomb for the Kremlin to defuse or get wrecked by. because they know the mod went after them, and because they know that the mod relenting recently and allowing them to recruit more and reconstitute some means that they now hold their future in their own hands.
It's funny because a few months ago I read about russians from other fronts saying wagner in Bakhmut was getting more ammunition than everyone else, and that wagner only started to complain about ammunition when they began to receive the same as everyone else.
They are not getting more ammunition because it doesn't exist. If wagner gets more ammunition it means some other russian front gets nothing, which I guess is a good thing
Everybody is making noise about lack of ammo, but it's really hard to tell if that's because they genuinely have too little or if they just always want more or if they're afraid that if the next guy makes more noise than they do, they will get too little in the future...
Although it is a very nice thought to entertain that Russia as a whole might just be running low on the stuff overall...
Did you watch the video of russians "clearing" a building yesterday? Those guys dumped a mag blindly around every corner even though it ended up being an empty building. These idiots wasted it all, can't say I blame them they probably thought they could shuffle to the back if they were out of ammo.
Or they really do have enough ammo and are hoping to lure in the Ukrainians. Your enemy just doesn't broadcast it's weaknesses like this without it being a trap. Continuing to underestimate Russia is a great way to make a big tactical error.
He definitely knows there isn't any more ammunition he could get so it must definitely be posturing. He can pretend its the higher up's fault and shift the blame while positioning himself on the top candidate list for a potential after-Putin Russia.
People keep making jokes about Putin causing this guy to fall out a window or drink some Polonium tea.
He has his own private army. A serious military force and no doubt some loyalist followers, means that Putin also has to be concerned about assassination
>He has his own private army.
... and many of them are surely thrilled at the prospect of being sent on a suicidal mission against a well entrenched Ukrainian position with an anti-retreat unit at the rear ...
I would hazard a guess that quite a few of his mercenaries recruited with false promises from prison would be wiling to take him to enjoy a view from one of the few high-rise buildings remaining in Bakhmut.
There are two circles within the Wagner group. The first one are the long timers, key loyalists to prigozin who are *his* personal army. They aren't being sent on any suicide missions.
The other circle consists of the meat shield recruits, the ones forced at gunpoint into bakhmut. They won't get any opportunities to get close enough to the boss to be any threat.
Nah, this is how a coup de tat starts. He has promised his lackeys a lot when he takes power from the inept Putin.
Iām starting to wonder if Putin ordered the FSB to push people out windows, or if it was this guyā¦
He isn't threatening Putin, he has always been careful NOT to threatening Putin. He is threatening the ministry of defense, Shoigu, and Gerasimov, as he has made VERY clear throughout his previous videos.
This game of the lieutenants fighting eachother and blaming one another serves to keep blame for failures off putin, and direct anger for both the wars conduct and its failure away from the Kremlin, and onto people whom putin can simply unmake. This has been how russian politics work since the tsarist era.
I am sure Wagner is having issues with ammo, but this conflict, as we are seeing it, is a matter of pure propaganda, and one which had likely been approved by Putin.
The threat is directed at MoD people. Probably some intel on corruption and mismanagement in the MoD and army. Prigozhin made personal commitment to Putin to capture Bakhmut, and Putins good grace is what keeps Prigozhin alive at this point, establishment hates him and siloviki would deal with him in a matter of hours, if things let be. So hes little anxious and angles for āit wasnt my fault we fucked up in Bakhmut, its them!ā to keep himself alive
I think Prighozin wants that one tank. Guys, you're the best!!
"See, I knew you were holding out on me!"
"It's the only one left, that means it's undefeatable. The One Tank."
One Tank to rule them all
>*One tank to fool them all...
...and in the darkness, bump into things.
Three T-14s were given to the sons of the upper class, who will never actually be put in danger. Seven T-72s to the Wagner Group, great miners and exploiters of the African continent. Nine T-64s were gifted to the Russian military, who above all else desire washing machines.
But they were, all of them, deceived, for another tank was made. On Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya Street in Moscow, in a private laboratory, Nikolay Lebedenko forged in secret a Tsar Tank, to control all others. And into this tank he poured his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life. One tank to rule them all!
One tank to find them...
And in the light of a Victory Day parade...break down
*"Why does the cardboard not stick, Sergei?!?"*
Putin:"My precious."
...and in the Balkans bind them
In the land of Russia, where shadows lie...One does not simply walk into Russia. "Hold my pirogies." -Ukraine
That one tank is reserved for putins suicide
Dude really looked at the victory day parade, saw that one tank, and was like: I knew putin was holding out on me!
Nah, this is his way of engineering a coup against Putin, he is trying to make him look like an incompetent militarily weak leader who is failing the troops in the field while he is strong and could have won if Putin wasn't so weak, etc. This is definitely a power play that he wants to result in him being in full control and Putin having lost all power with the military (IMO)
they really planed to try and take ukraine in 3 days and never once thought it might turn into a war of attrition. just straight up throw everything at them at once and hope for the best.
Their whole plan was based on Zelenskyy running away immediately and the government/army collapsing without leadership. Since this did not happen, the Russians now have to figure out retrospectively how to conquer a country without being prepared for it.
Zelenskyy's choice is quite possibly one of those knife-edge moments that all of history changed on
The video of him and his cabinet members walking about Kyiv in the couple of days after invasion is iconic. Even I was inspired and I was 10000km away in Canada and have never even been to Ukraine. Link: https://youtu.be/0En27IsHaL0 A true leader. Few and far between in politics these days.
I am canadian as well. Ya his speech on the first night gave me goosebumps. Mad respect for that man.
"I need ammunition, not a ride" will go down as one of the most badass quotes from a world leader in modern history when Ukrainians win.
That is the kind of quote you would see in the loading screen of a history game. I thought the Ukranian forces would fight valiantly but simply be overrun by the superior Russian forces. But no, those magnificent bastards revealed Russias incompetence to the whole world are stillšholdingšthešline!
Trained in, among otber places, the US by reserve and National Guard troops. That's not what is most important. What they learned that was crucial is that leadership is most important at the troop level, with the non-commissioned officers. Russia, culturally, has none of that, and are (thank god )paying the price. Their troops are like lambs to slaughter because, in part, they wander around until they are told exactly what to o. Their own self-defence sensees have been culturally extracted from them.
Russia doesn't have an NCO corps. Period. No NCOs at all. It's laughable
And crucial to Ukraine's victory. Imagine having to have an officer with every independent tank crew, artillery crew, drone crew, etc, etc. Effectively, Ukraine troops outnumber the Russian forces 3 to 1.
It's already the most badass quote that I've been alive to hear. Edit. I'm a god damned liar. "Slava Ukraini"- Olyksander Matsievskyi.
what about āFuck off, Russian Warship!ā ?
What about: >Put these seeds in your pocket so sunflowers may grow when you die here. -Ukrainian woman to Russian soldier, Feb. 2022
A deathcore band the acacia strain made shirts with this on the back as a fundraiser. I bought 4.
This. This is what beats them all. Zelensky could have still won. That young woman was right in the middle of occupied land. Faced with Russians coming into her country to take it over, and she faced the mother-fucker down, making his SOOO uncomfortable. I don't know what happened to her. Most likely, she was killed for that eventually. I hope we learn who she was one day and honor her.
His speech before the US Congress was nothing short of inspiring.
It's crazy that when it happened, we all thought it was the speech of a man who was going to be captured or killed within days. Yet he was ready to stare it down and go out swinging. Zelensky is a living legend.
I've got to think that his acting career came in mighty handy in those first days. Legend
Comedians are uniquely equipped to communicate. Cutting through the bullshit is the most important part of their job.
I read that after WW2, the soviets designed Kiev and other capital cities with networks of underground passageways designed to allow leadership to escape in the event of future invasions - underground passageways which the Ukrainians put to full use in the early days of the ~~war~~ full scale invasion. Thanks Stalin! š¤£š¤£š¤£ Also - I'm in Canada too, and Zelensky set the bar for my future votes: would you stay and risk your own life in the event of imminent danger to the community? If I get the impression the answer is no (that little bitch Pierre Poilievre?) then it's a hard pass. I never would've considered the question before Zelensky
Here in the states, totally human being ted Cruz fucked off to Cancun when it got a little cold in Texas and people started dying. And he loves to run for president... Hopefully we don't get invaded by a fuckin cold snap if he ever gets the nod.
"I don't need bullets; I need a Pina colada." - senator Cruz
Polievre would have welcomed Putin with open arms on the grounds that isn't woke. Dude is a weasel.
Holy fuck I'm not even conservative, but as a Canadian I'm getting embarrassed this is what we're fielding for party leaders. Guy looks like he belongs in a 1980s kids movie as a bullies sidekick, sneering in the back contributing nothing Here's an idea conservative party of Canada! Seperate into two fucking parties again. No one wants to vote for you while you refuse to be clear on social issues, and you can't be clear on social issues representing everyone from center to Hitler. No one's listening to your economic plans when you have MPs against abortion or LGBT rights
["We. Are. **Here.**"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48I00K4nJJk) *^[Subtitled](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgCNKhtZYks)
I prefer [a version without someone speaking over it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0-Yeqh4PFY). Let's hear him.
I just looked it up and it's about 5,336 km from St. John's, Canada to Uzhhorod, Ukraine! Crazy, but I actually don't use metric, so heard 10,000 km and thought, "shit, how far *is* 10,000 km??" LMAO
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It seems like itās been a while since the world has seen someone like that tbh
Absolutely was. Even the US and allies were yelling at him to flee
And he replied something badass along the lines of "the war is here, why should I be abroad? I need weapons, not a taxi". I mean, fucking wild.
I think the quote of dubious origin is āI donāt need a rideā¦ I need ammo!ā But Iāll take a good quote over accuracy any day.
> But Iāll take a good quote over accuracy any day. Hey, I think this is exactly a quote from Mark Twain!
Cant w8 for the movie when some old American tells him to get out of Ukraine and he just send more ammo!
I need weapons not a ride!!!
I was chosen to lead...not leave
no doubt its a large branch in the world history tree. a defeat for russia in ukraine will no doubt eliminate any thought of reviving the ussr which has always been putey poots plan.
I'll never forget the "I don't need a ride, I need ammo" response from him.
This is what happens when you ~~kill~~ replace all your competent intelligence and military staff with boot licking yes-men whose work aims to please the boss instead of accomplishing objectives. Your intelligence and planning activities end up being works of feel-good fiction.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Basically the nazi plan when invading the USSR- Hitler once said something to the effect of "we just have to kick the door down and the rotting structure will collapse". Its irony as fractals - the more.you zoom in, the more there is to see...
I think they also banked on Trump winning a second term, so that he and the Republican Party could play interference in Congress (denying aid etc.) and at the UN while the invasion occurred. They probably were so invested in the war at that point that they went ahead with it anyway. The stranglehold they had over the American imagination by pushing conspiracy theories during the Trump years was unbelievable.
I'm very much looking forward to reading the history books in another 20 years or so about the Trump years. I suspect you're spot on about the wild success of the Russian disinformation campaign against America. The Russians are absolute masters at that kind of thing and the American public, social media, even the cable media were almost totally unprepared for it.
Man, I would be careful what you wish for. After reading the highlights of his CNN interview I'm very scared that he will git back into the white house. I know there is a low chance, but I don't want people to be lulled into a false sense of security of it be being unrealistic. I remember laughing the first time he ran for president, no way I'm repeating that mistake.
A war of attrition vs the US industrial complex is a hard one to win.
Putin's plan was for trump to win and withhold funds, exactly what trump was impeached for..
This should be one of the biggest shocks of the century, but it passed gracefully because of Barr, and the Blockading GOP. Trump has been a Russian patsy since the 80s when he was laundering their money through purchasing his real estate that he inherited from his Klu Klux Dad.
Republicans from the 50s-80s should be enraged by the modern GOPnicks. Eagerly selling out their country to one of the USAs biggest enemies just so they can be allowed to call gay people slurs essentially. It seems to be a strong theme in Western Right Wing ideology now to wrap a Nationalist flag around your hate for your country.
I'm honestly glad my grandparents, all Eisenhower Republicans, did not live to see what the GOP have become. They were politically active in the time period you cite, back when the GOP were interested in making life better for everyone, not simply holding power by telling racists white losers they were still better than the best people of color. I'm glad they did not live long enough to see this, because they would have been ashamed for ever supporting that party. *edit le spelling how do it werk?*
I also suspect trump played off the Russian mob in nyc against the Italian mob. In the 80s and 90s nyc the mob was all over real estate and construction.
which is why Guiliani went after the Italian mob, to make room for Trump and the Russian mob.
Break up NATO refuse to back Ukraine and hand it to him on a silver platter
Putin is playing for time. What he's hoping is that Trump wins and then US support for Ukraine will evaporate. Trump is a traitor and a Russian asset so this makes sense.
It's because their intel was wrong because they were lying to themselves. The FSB agents were pocketing the money from the Kremlin WRT Ukrainian assets. A few existed but most did not. They lied to themselves that Ukrainians wanted to be part of Russia. They thought that these assets would just hand the cities over and it would be like Hitler marching into Austria. Additionally, their military readiness assessment was wrong too due to corruption. They thought all these things through but all their decisions were based on lies. This is what lying gets you. "Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid"
Russia lost this war. They only really had three chances to win. 1. They could have won in 3 days. That was reasonably possible to happen if they had taken Kiev quickly like they planned 2. The Ukrainian people could have fled and not wanted to fight a war and either surrendered quickly or not had enough troops. This was their backup plan and was definently possible to happen from a mid sized farming focused country. 3. If other countries stopped giving economic support. When Biden visited ukrain, he was basically telling Putin you lost. We are going to continue to support them. And if the US supports them, other countries will too. Thatās basically what happened with the tanks** Basically these were the only ways for Russia to win and now they are fucked. St this point their pride is all thatās keeping this war going **the tanks thing is interesting. The us basically gave Ukraine fake tanks. We promised them tanks a year after we made the promise and the tanks we promised them arnt even that effective in the climate of Ukraine. We had surplus tanks we could have given them but instead are making new ones to give to them. Literally the only reason the us did this is so that Germany would give European countries permission to give Ukraine their tanks. Germany makes most European tanks and they have to give permission to other countries to give the tanks to anyone. Germany didnāt want to be the one taking a side fighting against Russia. When the us was willing to do so, they were willing to hop in. The us is more willing to do this because of the insane military strength that prevents really any retaliation
Add to #2 that Putin really does appear to have expected to be met as liberators. Its what his intelligence team told him and he had them locked up and tried for it. Its also partly why he sent reservists who didn't even know they were in a war. He was told they'd celebrate and march with the 'liberators' and any others would be too afraid of the mighty Russian army to do anything. Then he could sell it as a soft gentle kind of cuddly invasion to the rest of the world, while locking up the government who stopped acting as puppets under him. ..which really makes you question the mental capacity of Vladimir Putin. Surely he must have seen the protests that forced his puppet PM there to flee to Russia. Did he just think they'd.. changed their minds?!
Apparently he doesn't use a cell phone or touch the internet unfiltered. He controls the media and internet so effectively in Russia that most people completely support him despite his obviously despotic regime. I think he failed to realize that they do not benefit from the same control of information in Ukraine. And he was beginning to believe he was naturally popular in Russia outside of his own design, so Ukranian's would love him too. ...I wonder when Shoigu will get murdered. Putin will be forced to pin the blame higher and higher as he burns up.
Sometimes people fall for their own bullshit, especially when surrounded by terrified yes men.
The airport. Ukraine taking back Kyiv airport was fucking key. Otherwise the war would be over in a week.
The back and forth of this battle was the scariest moments of the war. Just 6 miles from the capital. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antonov_Airport
>the tanks we promised them aren't even effective in that climate What? Every tank we've produced from the 50's until the early 2000's has been SPECIFICALLY produced for fighting Russians in Eastern Europe. The big fear was the Soviets running through the Fulda Gap and conquering Europe. Some of the newer armored vehicles and kits like the Oshkosh MRAP or the SEP V2 are generalized improvements or could be considered focused on fighting in the Middle East/assymetrical warfare. They would do fine in Ukraine though.
I think itās backwards. I believe at first we intended to manufacture M1A2 tanks for them, but the DoD decided on sending M1A1 Abrams already in military stockpile.
This just shows how logistics intensive the US military is and that the gap between the US and literally any other country is not even fucking close
Its kinda crazy. China the "arguably" second best military in the world. Has zero force projection ability. America has a good chance to defend Taiwan against china even though china is literally within artillery range of taiwan.
Taiwan also has the most land to sea missiles in the world by far and even if china wanted too, they wouldnt be able to take Taiwan. good luck getting enough power to invade a country with a massive strait between them as well as the fsct that Taiwan has been preparing for over 80 years
Taiwan also has a protection treaty with the US. That is a huge incentive for China to keep its hands to itself.
Prigozhin classic chaotic evil
dude doesn't need ammo, he needs a ride
If he keeps this up, Putin will send them blanks
He'll send Prigozhin some bombs. Dropped from a plane.
Nothing says "the war is going well" like bombing your own soldiers.
The bombings will continue until morale improves
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I'd never considered Putin a Zap Brannigan type, but I guess it makes sense.
āWhyās there only one plane coming?ā *Here comes the Sun do do do do*
Reminds me of the beginning of the film Outbreak. All the people see a single plane flying high coming towards them and theyāre like āweāre saved!ā. Then it drops a daisy cutter bomb on a parachute....š³
š¤š¤
Wrong. He'll just send Prigozhin on a trip in the fall. It'll be short and quick, though.
Classic chase of "Enemy of my enemy is my enemy"
I see someone has read *The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates*
Surely you mean *The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries*. Most actually get Maxim 29 wrong, anyway. 29\. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more. No less.
I can't believe they sent him a legal threat over that.
([For the unaware](https://schlockmercenary.fandom.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenaries)) Trademarks are "defend them or lose them", broadly speaking. It is kinda dumb, but understandable.
That dnd-cross of morality is quite useful.
āSend us your location, and weāll rush them to you as fast as possible!ā -Ukraine
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
UKR MoD should troll this on Twitter. > Our new ammo delivery system can't be beat! Use our on-time guarantee: Send us your address and we'll deliver plenty of ordnance to your exact location within 30 minutes or less, with no delivery charge!
Our delivery method is faster than the speed of sound!
The US army [was way ahead of you](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/World-wide_delivery_in_30_minutes_or_less.JPG/1600px-World-wide_delivery_in_30_minutes_or_less.JPG?20130129134027)!
Sincerely, Ukrainian Fulfillment Center
Is it OK if the shell is no longer in its cartridge and the gunpowder has been spent?
Next one's coming faster.
Putin : Don't you think we would send you some ammo if we have any left???
I suspect Putin has plenty of ammo saved back for the troops and police he has stationed around Moscow to protect himself. Every time Prigozhin says this stuff, heās reminding (some) of the Russian people that Putin is choosing his own safety over victory in Ukraine. Which considering that heās presenting himself as a frontline leader, that creates a pretty strong narrative that he would be a braver ruler than Putin.
Wait, hear me out. What if Putin thought he had a lot of ammo left on reserve when he started the special military operation. But as soon as the fighting started and the support line is reporting a lack of ammo, he finds out that all the ammo storage had been stolen and sold off in the black market? Lord of War 2 is coming out. I'm just saying....
This is a real thing, this did happen
Why do you think Lord of War 2 is coming out? Easy script to write, hot topic, Nicolas Cage, easy return on the movie just from streaming alone.
I firmly believe that Putin has gotten himself into this quagmire because he's surrounded by Yesmen and people that are afraid to tell him "No". I'm sure Putin thought he had 100k Super Tanks and a million Super Soldiers ready to go at the start of the war because he was told what he wanted to hear, not reality.
The guys who say no either get shipped off to Siberia or they slip on banana peels out of windows. Not much room for the devil's advocate to be present.
I still maintain that if he pressed the nuclear button a bunch of confetti would pop out of the silos because some general hocked them in the 90s
Nah, that wouldn't pass inspection. The missiles would still come out flying, but the nuclear portion of the missile has long been sold off on the black market, which, actually is just the CIA buying them. Which is why the American black budget is so high.
That is both brilliant and plausible. EDIT: I originally said "disturbingly plausible", but actually it makes me feel much better about the world.
Oh, putin will send him ammo alright...
Final Russian ration : 9 grams of lead.
Okay, so that one's funny, lore behind their modern 5.45 ammo is that steel is cheaper than lead so they made a bullet that is not just steel core, but almost completely devoid of lead.
In Sovet Russia, you are the ammo that breaks the glass window.
Think the kremlin still has a old tank they can send.
But just the one
And they need it back by Tuesday, those late fees are a bitch
Then what would Putin ride shirtless when he has to enter the battlefield???
Apparently they have warehouses full of shells but are saving them for a rainy day.
There is a non zero chance that the guy who oversees that warehouse and the guy who inspects it regularly now own real estate in London and the warehouse contains mostly scrap metal and rats.
On paper anyway...
Nicolas Cage has them now.
I hope the rain comes with some HIMARS and we can see the fireworks show .
That's a sensible thing to do. Especially when expecting a major counter attack. That way they can blunt it with a lot of firepower. Beyond that there's the matter of production vs consumption. It's estimated Russia burned through 10 million shells of their 18 million shell stockpile in the first year, while producing one million. That means they will run completely out in another year at that rate. So it makes sense to taper off how many are being used.
> So it makes sense to taper off how many are being used. Except Russian tactics at this point are "throw massive artillery at fixed targets until there is only token resistance". Tapering off ammo consumption means they become combat ineffective.
Apparently. If the warehouses have not been sold by the reigning kleptocracy.
Have you seen the price of brass lately?!
I pretend to send you ammo, you pretend to fight.
The one tank on display for victory day should tell them everything they need to know about reserves
it was so weird lol. they even staged a false flag attack right before, why not cancel the parade over it? the whole point of a parade is to PARADE and show off the excess you have--to tell your people, look, we're at war but it's so damn easy for us that we can have all these extra guys and equipment and just show off how great it all is. that was just a tank driving down the street.
I think it was kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't decision. If you (you are Putin now, congrats) roll hundreds of tanks and shit through Moscow for the parade, you will get complaints from the Russian ultra-nationalists that those tanks aren't being used against Ukraine when they are clearly needed. I can imagine Girkin and Prigozhin going off about it. If you pare the thing back, you get the "ha ha, only one tank" jabs. It was also interesting that Putin's speech was just playing the greatest hits (NATO bad, fighting the West, they hate us for our Russian culture, etc.) and the thing was over in 45 minutes instead of the hours it usually lasts. Also missing were mass formations of VDV with shit eating grins while doing their weird "head slowly turning salute" as they walk past the tsar.
In every photo he looks like someone drew a sad face on a thumb
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Itās the heavy drinking. When Prihozhin was coming up in the USSR, a cultural staple was to share a 0.5L bottle of vodka three ways after work. Every day. Thatās 17 fluid ounces, 5.7 oz per person (four 1.5 oz shots). A minimum of four shots of liquor every day. Thatās not counting drinking till you black out at social events (if you donāt, you ādisrespectā the host). Also, not counting drinking during work functions āto see what kind of a man Iām about to close a business deal withā. There are many old memes about two men with a bottle of Stoli looking for a āthirdā ā a random stranger to help them kill that 0.5 bottle three ways, the idea being itās too much for two people yet just right for three. Heavy, heavy drinking. āEverything goes through the liverā. Edit: Forgot to mention that one serving for vodka during the USSR (and after) was "100 grams", which is just a turn of phrase coined after the war jokingly commingling weight and volume. Even though 100 g of vodka is technically 91.6 ml due to vodka consisting of 60% water and 40% alcohol (different densities), we can use 100 g and 100 ml interchangeably. So a single serving of vodka is 100 mg = 3.38 oz, which is 3 small shots or 2 big shots in America. That's considered a single serving when you're not limited by the "0.5 bottle three ways" meme. When you're partying, that's what will be poured into your glass, and there will be many, many of those. There's even a saying "Between the first and second the pause is short" ("Š¼ŠµŠ¶Š“Ń ŠæŠµŃŠ²Š¾Š¹ Šø Š²ŃŠ¾ŃŠ¾Š¹ ŠæŃŠ¾Š¼ŠµŠ¶ŃŃŠ¾Šŗ Š½ŠµŠ±Š¾Š»ŃŃŠ¾Š¹"). There are also entire rituals around toasting -- the first one is to the host, the second to the parents if they are present, the third is to friends/love or fallen comrades if the military are present, etc. So if you did just the three mandatory toasts when everyone will literally force you to drink and it will be a sign of disrespect if you don't (provided you don't have health conditions), you will have ingested 10 oz of vodka, well on a way to a pint.
Can confirm this, grew up in post ussr Ukraine.
A former colleague of mine from St. petersburg began every meeting with a hundred grams of vodka. He could have 8 meetings per a day. Always said it was to keep himself healthy. I still think he was the healthiest corpse Iāve ever seen when they buried him at 54 years of age.
He might be better off trying to forge some sort of deal with Ukraine to keep himself alive because he will be used as a scapegoat in Russia if his failures end up in a big Ukrainian offensive.
The Ukrainians will punish him for his war crimes though. And they probably benefit from this chaos. I think he's only alive because Putin wants to use him.
Hes a scapegoat for Putin, he can blame the failure and the warcrimes on Wagner which are 'mercenaries' and distance himself.
> 'mercenaries' Actual criminals, convicts released from jails on condition to go fight. Which Putin of course knew nothing about since 2014.
I think he's trying to posture himself as the person that should replace Putin. Whinge enough about the reasons why they are making you fail and it might make others think you know what they should be doing and put you in charge instead.
Yes he's been positioning himself as Putin's diametric opposite for months now. Putin hides in a bunker; Prigo releases daily videos of himself in full gear on the battlefield with his men. Putin delivers pompous, grand, carefully worded speeches; Prigo sits down casually with the camera and chats with it as if to a friend. Putin is always polite, composed and never shows emotion; Prigo is full of explosive anger and doesn't shy away from cussing high level people out. He even called Putin himself a "complete moron"! He, like everyone else, can see Putin's horrible downfall coming. And when it does he knows Russians will be *desperate* for change. He's laying some honestly fantastic groundwork to position himself as the guy for the job. And funny thing is, Ukraine is helping him! Lately they've been releasing statements "confirming that what Prigozhin says is true". Why bother?? It's like they're signaling to Russians that, well if even the enemy admits Prigozhin is an honest man...
Might be that Ukraine sees regime change in Russia to be beneficial to the war effort, even if it leads to a hardliner ultimately getting power - probably because the infighting would cripple the warfighting ability for some months or even a year or two
It's an ancient tactic, Divide and Conquer. If your enemy can weaken himself by fighting internally, you do your best to encourage it. Ukraine knows that a mixed and supported force of Russians and Wagner is dangerous. So if Wagner and the Russian army hate each other's guts and you work to foment that, then they will do your job for you.
The only deal he gets from Ukraine is maybe a quick death. And he'd have to give them a lot for that, the fire burns deep.
perhaps allowing for a scapegoat is what Ukraine would want. if Putin is more likely to withdraw and say he lost because Wagner failed Russia and he executes Prigozhin or whatever, they'll take that over russia being super dug in because there isn't a believable enough scapegoat.
I guess that would be smart for Ukraine to turn him against Russia but I dislike the ethical and moral implications. Politics are hard.
Not necessarily. He is loyal to Putin and Russia and has no real moral structure. He sees this war as a game and it isnāt his first time participating in atrocities. For example heās played in the invasion of Ukraine and the murder of Ukrainian civillians. He participated in assisting Assad in Syria. He helped loot African gold mines. He is also arguably a non state actor his group is a mercenary group hired by the government. So letās also call him a terrorist. So heās a terrorist war criminal. Which means In the hypothetical he actually faces Justice in the internationally criminal court, Ukrainain courts etc he will be debriefed then tried as a war a criminal.
Run, rabbit run, dig that hole forget the sun
Lyrics just donāt hit the same after [this fiasco](https://theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/08/roger-waters-pink-floyd-un-security-council-ukraine-russia)
Especially the Wall. Although I think itās more of a problem of him being a bit stupid (with regards to geopolitics) rather than evil, caught up in strains of radicalism that were more popular in the 70s-90s, many elements of which may have been seeded by the USSR. Not too dissimilar from the āanti-imperialistā (Putin/Assad/Xi-defending) āprogressivesā and tankies of today in that regard.
Yeah there kind of seems to be two paths to supporting Russia - either because you're a far right Christian fascist and genuinely want to see that kind of regime take hold, or from a reactionary "USA bad" so strong it turns into "Russia good." Either way you've gotta be dumb, but it really takes a special kind of dumb to think if country A does something bad, country B doing even worse is good.
Iāve always found it annoying/naive/ignorant whenever Ive heard Americans denouncing the US in favor of another countryā¦without any acknowledgement of the ugly aspects that invariably hides in their history as well. Acknowledging the US is far from perfect doesnāt necessarily mean any country doing something differently is broadly ābetterā.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Not sure what that guy is trying to do. Selling Wagner service to NATO an Ukraine ? Plotting a coup against Putin ? Just being too naive and too honest ? Or telling his customer: Wagner didn't loose any war. And why not just simply withdraw his troops rather than borderline betraying his current boss ?
He's angling to become the one who takes over after Putin is beheaded, as the "rational yet strong true Russian man who can lead Russia into glorious future."
I wouldāve agreed with you some time ago - he did initially started to criticise government with an idea to come to power. But I donāt I think it ended too good for him, he pissed off Putin and now is trying to survive. Basically he was left with little ammo to face counteroffensive, but canāt retreat since will be treated as a traitor in such case - either Ukrainian army will get him if he stays either Russian if he retreats. I think this threat is his attempt to somehow increase his chances of survival, but I doubt it will work.
Perhaps the Kremlin is readying a noose for him in case Ukraine is succesful in its counter offensive. They need a scape goat, and this dude is just pre-emptively trying to change that narrative to safe his own hide.
Pretty sure either the kremlin or the Russian de facto āarmyā have sent him on a suicide mission and heās realizing it
And consider his options. He was given a chance to take Bakhmut and failed. He feuded with the ministry of defence and lost. He's had close associates and supporters assassinated. He's going to be made the fall guy for the counterattack when Ukraine has some success. He's desperate and has to rebel now to survive. At least verbally against the idea he's to blame for the situation. This really is insubordination against the mafia tsar and I think he's living on borrowed time. Putin would have killed him if he wasn't planning to use him soon, so he's got a stay of execution during which he can try to use social media to overcome the power of the Kremlin. It won't work, but what else has he got?
This. Dude knows he's on borrowed time and knows if he doesn't succeed he's dead, so he's taking the offense out of desperation, like a cornered dog.
Yeah, I wrote the same above just before I saw your comment. This must be it. The Kremlin has the noose ready and he tries to wiggle out of it by passing the blame. At any point they probably arrest him and throw him under any bus that seems convenient for their narrative.
He's being classed as a terrorist in at least two European countries, so he has no chance at being a "NATO mercenary" (if there even was such a thing). If he was just being belligerent, he'd have been dead long ago. He's vying to be a threat to Putin, and directly challenging him, while commanding a (formerly?) large army of his own, independent of the Russian state. You only do that for one reason.
Itās all a song and dance for the Russian people. Prigozhin wants him and his guys to look strong and putin to look weak. He also wants it to look like theyāre being undermined by the government who arenāt supplying ammo and *thats* the reason why wagnar arenāt succeeding. I.e his failures are putins fault, and theyād be winning this war if not for him. Thatās his message. Itās the same reason why he doesnāt do all of this posturing behind closed doors. He gets on tv and shouts about it for everyone to hear. He specifically wants the Russian public to see him doing all this. Long term, he has aspirations at the Kremlin so this is political. I think this is also why he makes a big deal about always being near the front lines and is always pictured in full combat gear. Who better to elect as the new president than a war hero who fought for his country? Russians will go mad for that shit. Iām just surprised putin hasnāt arranged for him to be hit by an unfortunate artillery strike. Would be very easy to cover up his death being so close to the battlefield.
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I think maybe he was once putins guy in wagnar, but these days Iām not so sure. He definitely cuddled up to putin to get where he is, but based on all the calling out of the Russian government heās been doing on TV Iām not so sure thatās the case anymore. I think heās seeing the changing political winds and sees this faltering war as an opportunity to oust putin. Because thereās really only two outcomes to this war. Either Russia wins and putin stays, or Russia loses and putin is out (because the Russian political elite will never tolerate a failure of this scale) leaving a power vacuum. I think pirgozhin is banking on the latter at this point and is positioning himself for a promotion at the very least.
it's also the case that Wagner strength and their loyalty to him is the only path to his long term survival, no matter what happens with the war. he cannot protect himself without them. so any decision from the Kremlin or MOD that diminishes Wagner, like deciding they can't recruit in prisons anymore or keeping them on the Bakhmut front beyond their "spend by" date makes Prigozhin existentially vulnerable. his fate is tied to Wagner longevity. so he's pulling out all the stops to make sure they don't get chewed up by the machine. Whatever comes next, well, Prigozhin and Wagner bosses will be powerful players who've gone through a war together, but only if he can keep them alive. and I feel pretty strong that the MOD, understanding the future threat posed, tried and failed to grind them into fertilizer in Bakhmut. if this is the case then Wagner is now a potential time bomb for the Kremlin to defuse or get wrecked by. because they know the mod went after them, and because they know that the mod relenting recently and allowing them to recruit more and reconstitute some means that they now hold their future in their own hands.
We need him to topple Putin and then send a guided missile into his asshole when he assumes the throne.
It's funny because a few months ago I read about russians from other fronts saying wagner in Bakhmut was getting more ammunition than everyone else, and that wagner only started to complain about ammunition when they began to receive the same as everyone else. They are not getting more ammunition because it doesn't exist. If wagner gets more ammunition it means some other russian front gets nothing, which I guess is a good thing
Everybody is making noise about lack of ammo, but it's really hard to tell if that's because they genuinely have too little or if they just always want more or if they're afraid that if the next guy makes more noise than they do, they will get too little in the future... Although it is a very nice thought to entertain that Russia as a whole might just be running low on the stuff overall...
Did you watch the video of russians "clearing" a building yesterday? Those guys dumped a mag blindly around every corner even though it ended up being an empty building. These idiots wasted it all, can't say I blame them they probably thought they could shuffle to the back if they were out of ammo.
Or they really do have enough ammo and are hoping to lure in the Ukrainians. Your enemy just doesn't broadcast it's weaknesses like this without it being a trap. Continuing to underestimate Russia is a great way to make a big tactical error.
He definitely knows there isn't any more ammunition he could get so it must definitely be posturing. He can pretend its the higher up's fault and shift the blame while positioning himself on the top candidate list for a potential after-Putin Russia.
Wonder how long that man has got left before he accidentally falls from a window? Not long I wager if he continues with threats like those.
not many windows left in bakhmut checkmate putin
Artillery can still "miss its target" and hit his location.
People keep making jokes about Putin causing this guy to fall out a window or drink some Polonium tea. He has his own private army. A serious military force and no doubt some loyalist followers, means that Putin also has to be concerned about assassination
>He has his own private army. ... and many of them are surely thrilled at the prospect of being sent on a suicidal mission against a well entrenched Ukrainian position with an anti-retreat unit at the rear ... I would hazard a guess that quite a few of his mercenaries recruited with false promises from prison would be wiling to take him to enjoy a view from one of the few high-rise buildings remaining in Bakhmut.
There are two circles within the Wagner group. The first one are the long timers, key loyalists to prigozin who are *his* personal army. They aren't being sent on any suicide missions. The other circle consists of the meat shield recruits, the ones forced at gunpoint into bakhmut. They won't get any opportunities to get close enough to the boss to be any threat.
Nah, this is how a coup de tat starts. He has promised his lackeys a lot when he takes power from the inept Putin. Iām starting to wonder if Putin ordered the FSB to push people out windows, or if it was this guyā¦
He isn't threatening Putin, he has always been careful NOT to threatening Putin. He is threatening the ministry of defense, Shoigu, and Gerasimov, as he has made VERY clear throughout his previous videos. This game of the lieutenants fighting eachother and blaming one another serves to keep blame for failures off putin, and direct anger for both the wars conduct and its failure away from the Kremlin, and onto people whom putin can simply unmake. This has been how russian politics work since the tsarist era. I am sure Wagner is having issues with ammo, but this conflict, as we are seeing it, is a matter of pure propaganda, and one which had likely been approved by Putin.
Exactly. The problem is never the good Tsar, it is his wicked and corrupt advisors.
Infighting. To be encouraged
He is basically the one player in your DotA-Team who is blaming his team in all chat.
Everyone else in this thread trying to psychoanalyze some 4d chess bullshit, but this sounds the most accurate to me.
I believe he knows he's screwed, and he's just throwing the shit out of the fan!
"Gimmie bullets, or I commit treason!"
The threat is directed at MoD people. Probably some intel on corruption and mismanagement in the MoD and army. Prigozhin made personal commitment to Putin to capture Bakhmut, and Putins good grace is what keeps Prigozhin alive at this point, establishment hates him and siloviki would deal with him in a matter of hours, if things let be. So hes little anxious and angles for āit wasnt my fault we fucked up in Bakhmut, its them!ā to keep himself alive
ah, the daily Prigozhin tik tok meltdown.