Just because President Putin averted the large-scale bloodshed that his country’s existential enemies wanted to see and then turned this crisis to the Union State’s advantage doesn’t mean that the whole thing was “maskirovka” like the Alt-Media Community’s “sixth columnists” claim.
Jul 1, 2023·edited Jul 1, 2023Liked by Andrew Korybko
"...it’s wise to utilize the outcome of last week’s deal that Lukashenko mediated to that end. Russia won’t have any problem with this..."
It's all just a bit too good to be true, though, isn't it? I mean, if you didn't understand why Putin at least pays lip service by going to church every now and then, it would be hard to understand how Бог все видит. You can understand why so many can't see past the psycho-emotive conspiracy theory hurdle. After all, they got to Prigozhin, it would seem.
"...Russia blocked Prigozhin’s “Patriot media group” network, after which it chose to shut down its activities in the country...."
Yeah well... I can't think of a better place to be better safe than sorry. You never know, after all, береженого бог бережет (https://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/).
"...Taken together, Wagner can become a national security asset for Belarus with full Russian approval...."
Wow, what a win-win-win! Теперь только надо Украину привлечь!
Typo klaxon: "...as suggested my him..."
"...President Putin didn’t stage a 'false flag coup' and colluded with Prigozhin to shoot down Russian pilots as part of a '5D chess master plan' to deploy Wagner to Belarus...."
Yeah, but if you don't go to church and believe in God... That's gotta be real tough for some.
"... divorced from reality and thus become even easier for Western intelligence services to manipulate..."
F*ck 'em... Dumbasses!
"...their most destabilizing “useful idiot” in history had his coup not been stopped. ..."
I think he stopped it himself; I think, among all the horrendous and beguiling voices shouting their heads off with the dogs in the thick of the fog of war in Prigozhin's head one voice was louder and more insistent than all the rest, and it just got louder and louder the closer he got to Moscow; it just kept shouting and whispering на все голоса, 'Don't be a dumbass.'. And he heard it and listened and turned around. That's why Putin didn't have to hurt him: because he knew him and knew he would eventually heed the call of reason. Слава Богу! (Хрен с Украиной.)
"...they’re betraying the trust that their followers have placed in them by lying..."
Don't be too hard on them. They can't help it. They've set themselves up with feeble narratives. Cognitive dissonance and all that... Dumbasses!
"...this refers to what was previously written..."
Don't pick at it; you'll only make it worse; just leave it alone — don't scratch!
"...doesn’t mean that the whole thing was “maskirovka” like the AMC’s “sixth columnists” claim...."
Yeah, but they can't see that. They don't believe there's anything they can't see; they don't believe Бог все видит because they believe they can see everything, so if they can't see it, it can't be there. Just leave them alone. If they get better, they'll get better; and if they don't, they won't. You can't change that; they've got to do it themselves, you can't do it for them.
You've got to have faith in people, in humanity, like Putin had in Prigozhin: you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
But, I must say, I'm so glad you try (to change them, that).
"...or they’re lying...."
Yes, it IS lying, but it's a special kind of lying: it's delusion. They've deluded themselves because they can't feel comfortable in their feeble narratives otherwise. They'll come around; or not, as the case may be. F*ck 'em, dumbasses!
I am not a knowledgeable person but I have followed the Russian Special Operation closely since it began. I was very supportive before the [war] of Mr Putin’s desire to keep Ukraine in the Russian sphere of influence and in 2014 was happy when he annexed Crimea. I was watching the Sochi Olympics when the Maidan revolution began and I said to my husband “I bet the US was behind this!” The when they overthrew a lawfully elected Russia-leaning President (Yanukovych) when he backed out of a deal with the EU I felt sure that was partly the US doing also.
Now to the events of a week ago. I happened to be on Twitter when Mr. Prigozhin’s “mutiny” began, and in the way of twitter was able to view his speeches and the videos from Rostov in almost real time. I do not speak Russian but Mr Prigozhin has a very expressive face, and there were some cognate works like “No ammunition” after which his two listeners sort of nodded. They were all like “what can you do? - kind of fatalistic in their body language. I saw the video of the cheering when Mr. Prigozhin drove off. I was worried sick when I went to sleep but when I woke up on Saturday the news was that Mr Prigozhin had got almost to Moscow but then stopped. I watched the video with subtitles of his speech saying why he stopped and that Mr. Lukashenko had invited him to Belarus and he had accepted. So I was able to get a vivid impression of what was going down as it unfolded. So here’s the deal:
I believe that Mr. Prigozhin never waved in his loyalty to Mr. Putin. In the face of the directive to essentially sever his connection with the Wagner group and fold them into the MoD forces, and what he believed was a deliberate attack on his Wagner troops by the MoD forces (I saw the video where he is pointing to the bodies) he was doing this mutiny to get the message through to Mr. Putin that in his opinion Mr. Shoigu and General Gerasimov were managing the war in a catastrophically inadequate way and needed to be removed from their positions. I think Mr Prigozhin was so carried away in the moment (with the background that he had been kvetching about these two guys for weeks according to ISW which I follow although I believe them to be pro-Ukraine) that he actually thought if he could get to Mr Putin in Moscow he could persuade him that to win the war he needed to make those personnel changes. Then when he got almost to Moscow he had heard Mr. Putin’s morning speech and realizing how the mutiny looked to Putin Prigozhin finally came to his senses, spurred by the mediating efforts of Mr. Lukashenko. Some day history will tell us whether the idea came from Putin or from Lukashenko. So in my mind Prigozhin is not a traitor he is a patriot plus however the war started it now is extremely important that Russia not be defeated. To make a peace treaty more likely Mr. Prigozhin feels that Shoigu and Gerasimov need to be replaced. We shall see if ultimately Putin agrees with him. But obviously Putin can’t make that kind of change in his command structure now that Mr.Prigozhin has sort of backed him into a corner.
"...it’s wise to utilize the outcome of last week’s deal that Lukashenko mediated to that end. Russia won’t have any problem with this..."
It's all just a bit too good to be true, though, isn't it? I mean, if you didn't understand why Putin at least pays lip service by going to church every now and then, it would be hard to understand how Бог все видит. You can understand why so many can't see past the psycho-emotive conspiracy theory hurdle. After all, they got to Prigozhin, it would seem.
"...Russia blocked Prigozhin’s “Patriot media group” network, after which it chose to shut down its activities in the country...."
Yeah well... I can't think of a better place to be better safe than sorry. You never know, after all, береженого бог бережет (https://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/).
"...Taken together, Wagner can become a national security asset for Belarus with full Russian approval...."
Wow, what a win-win-win! Теперь только надо Украину привлечь!
Typo klaxon: "...as suggested my him..."
"...President Putin didn’t stage a 'false flag coup' and colluded with Prigozhin to shoot down Russian pilots as part of a '5D chess master plan' to deploy Wagner to Belarus...."
Yeah, but if you don't go to church and believe in God... That's gotta be real tough for some.
"... divorced from reality and thus become even easier for Western intelligence services to manipulate..."
F*ck 'em... Dumbasses!
"...their most destabilizing “useful idiot” in history had his coup not been stopped. ..."
I think he stopped it himself; I think, among all the horrendous and beguiling voices shouting their heads off with the dogs in the thick of the fog of war in Prigozhin's head one voice was louder and more insistent than all the rest, and it just got louder and louder the closer he got to Moscow; it just kept shouting and whispering на все голоса, 'Don't be a dumbass.'. And he heard it and listened and turned around. That's why Putin didn't have to hurt him: because he knew him and knew he would eventually heed the call of reason. Слава Богу! (Хрен с Украиной.)
"...they’re betraying the trust that their followers have placed in them by lying..."
Don't be too hard on them. They can't help it. They've set themselves up with feeble narratives. Cognitive dissonance and all that... Dumbasses!
"...this refers to what was previously written..."
Don't pick at it; you'll only make it worse; just leave it alone — don't scratch!
"...doesn’t mean that the whole thing was “maskirovka” like the AMC’s “sixth columnists” claim...."
Yeah, but they can't see that. They don't believe there's anything they can't see; they don't believe Бог все видит because they believe they can see everything, so if they can't see it, it can't be there. Just leave them alone. If they get better, they'll get better; and if they don't, they won't. You can't change that; they've got to do it themselves, you can't do it for them.
You've got to have faith in people, in humanity, like Putin had in Prigozhin: you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
But, I must say, I'm so glad you try (to change them, that).
"...or they’re lying...."
Yes, it IS lying, but it's a special kind of lying: it's delusion. They've deluded themselves because they can't feel comfortable in their feeble narratives otherwise. They'll come around; or not, as the case may be. F*ck 'em, dumbasses!
I am not a knowledgeable person but I have followed the Russian Special Operation closely since it began. I was very supportive before the [war] of Mr Putin’s desire to keep Ukraine in the Russian sphere of influence and in 2014 was happy when he annexed Crimea. I was watching the Sochi Olympics when the Maidan revolution began and I said to my husband “I bet the US was behind this!” The when they overthrew a lawfully elected Russia-leaning President (Yanukovych) when he backed out of a deal with the EU I felt sure that was partly the US doing also.
Now to the events of a week ago. I happened to be on Twitter when Mr. Prigozhin’s “mutiny” began, and in the way of twitter was able to view his speeches and the videos from Rostov in almost real time. I do not speak Russian but Mr Prigozhin has a very expressive face, and there were some cognate works like “No ammunition” after which his two listeners sort of nodded. They were all like “what can you do? - kind of fatalistic in their body language. I saw the video of the cheering when Mr. Prigozhin drove off. I was worried sick when I went to sleep but when I woke up on Saturday the news was that Mr Prigozhin had got almost to Moscow but then stopped. I watched the video with subtitles of his speech saying why he stopped and that Mr. Lukashenko had invited him to Belarus and he had accepted. So I was able to get a vivid impression of what was going down as it unfolded. So here’s the deal:
I believe that Mr. Prigozhin never waved in his loyalty to Mr. Putin. In the face of the directive to essentially sever his connection with the Wagner group and fold them into the MoD forces, and what he believed was a deliberate attack on his Wagner troops by the MoD forces (I saw the video where he is pointing to the bodies) he was doing this mutiny to get the message through to Mr. Putin that in his opinion Mr. Shoigu and General Gerasimov were managing the war in a catastrophically inadequate way and needed to be removed from their positions. I think Mr Prigozhin was so carried away in the moment (with the background that he had been kvetching about these two guys for weeks according to ISW which I follow although I believe them to be pro-Ukraine) that he actually thought if he could get to Mr Putin in Moscow he could persuade him that to win the war he needed to make those personnel changes. Then when he got almost to Moscow he had heard Mr. Putin’s morning speech and realizing how the mutiny looked to Putin Prigozhin finally came to his senses, spurred by the mediating efforts of Mr. Lukashenko. Some day history will tell us whether the idea came from Putin or from Lukashenko. So in my mind Prigozhin is not a traitor he is a patriot plus however the war started it now is extremely important that Russia not be defeated. To make a peace treaty more likely Mr. Prigozhin feels that Shoigu and Gerasimov need to be replaced. We shall see if ultimately Putin agrees with him. But obviously Putin can’t make that kind of change in his command structure now that Mr.Prigozhin has sort of backed him into a corner.