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"...the West’s most potentially destabilizing “useful idiot” in history."

Potentially, yes, as you so clearly explain. (Good analysis, thanks.) But thankfully, NOT.

Sometimes it's difficult to avoid idolising Putin, isn't it? Best not to, though, of course: he's just a man — a very lucky one, true; so, not wise to feed (under)currents which might seek to take some of his luck for themselves.

And, about idiocy: not really fair — anyone who's faced the dogs of war, as Prigozhin has, particularly if not specifically and adequately trained and prepared for it, should find their heart and mind in such confusion in the fog of war and its aftermath... It's not idiocy to be human. Taking advantage of humanity, however... Well now, that's got 'Vampire', with a capital 'V' in hope of victory, just written ALL over it. It was so kind of Putin to give him some space, in the hope he may penetrate the fog and find some clarity between heart and mind. Wisdom, like that, can't be planned; it comes by reaction, from the soul, enabled by the man and his experience; and witnessing it, as we do, should inspire; if nothing more than how to read gut feeling.

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As much as I dislike former US President Trump, I must admit he was spot on when he called President Putin a genius. I just read this piece today, 23 July, and it is the first analysis of all this that made sense. By made sense I mean both why Prigozhin stopped his advance to Moscow when and where he did but more importantly why President Putin handled things the way that he has. He has continued to handle it brilliantly. And it explains why Prigozhin and Wagner ended up in Belarus. MSM in US have not alluded to the possibility of a coup in Belarus in connection with all this, but they have from time to time intimated that Lukashenko was vulnerable to being overthrown. So this analysis is very illuminating.

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