Why should we consider any photograph allegedly featuring Putin as evidence for anything? There are also photos of Putin with rabbis; does that imply he serves Judaism? Some individuals base their inductive arguments on this manner of thinking and have gained significant platforms as a result. It is important to remember that any photo can be easily manipulated.
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that’s what is tried with, you, so you won’t even accept the facts.
“Facts are hard things.”
Vlagyimir Iljits Uljanov aka Lenin
I would like to hear some discussion on Merks. The government retains the right to terminate. And you never want the merks to get too powerful. It will be interesting to see how Wagner ‘autonomy’ will be managed.
Well Kalamona, I believe Prigozhin was close to Putin. And he is described as a “media oligarch” by some sources. Photos can be doctored, but some evidence is years old. And yes, I once knew a great man, rich, who loved serving people food - he was from India. He was no one’s servant in one sense, but everyone’s in another.
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No, I guess that is off topic of the Russian Coup Thing.
The photo shown above is actually from a restaurant in St Pete that Prigizhin ran and which Putin visited when he was Mayor of St Pete. George W Bush also ate there so that would make him close to Prigozhin too I expect. 
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Bush may thank him of not getting killed.
I think that is quite much.
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Wagner had long-standing conflicts with the Defence Ministry bureaucracy which cost them many lives in Bakmut, Prigozhin spoke forcefully about it at the time. Those issues phps came to a head in some extraordinary theatre, (perhaps unexpected and undiscussed, phps not). But the ‘theatre’ was mixed in with a genuine passion, imho. He’d visited families at the graves of Wagner dead the week before, a widow told him that they had no car - he quickly gave them his own, right here and then. However, the ‘Coup’ has now passed, all is well and the ‘fog of war’ has cleared, Prigozhin and and a substantial proportion of ‘Wagner’ - an excellent brand but phps necessarily renamed in future have, due to this rather ‘oculted’ palaver, been banished to a portion of Belarus only 100 miles from Kiev. All under the fog of this ‘insurrection’. If so, smart move. The whole thing also likely ‘coloured the water’ as the Byzantine Court used to refer to it. When Putin spoke promtly and passionately about ‘traitors’ he did not specifically refer to Prigozhin. We shall see ~
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The West certainly had the money, they may have lost a bundle in the space of 24 hrs. But then they simply don’t have a clue, none of them. Easily played, imo. This is a function of decades, centuries (et al) of complacency. If you’ve had it all your own way forever it tends to dull the mind a tad. The US State Department recently announced that they ‘fat-fingered’ 6.2 Billion to ‘Ukraine’. However, Prigozhin himself is very wealthy and likely doesn’t need it. He strikes me as a very passionate man and loyal. He’s a bit of a loose cannon and has certainly made his frustrations with the military bureaucracy very public. He and President Putin go way back - and they met in person only shortly prior to this event. Perhaps some necessary but otherwise difficult changes to the military bureaucracy will now be set in train, some fifth-columnists exposed and a broad litmus-test achieved at a time of war-stress, both with the public, the military professionals and the extensive administrations various. We’ll see ~
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Because, imo, President Putin likes people and has an intuitive feel for them. I guess he’d be dead otherwise…
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Well… then there is this opinion of what just happened, this Russian Coup thing, and what they are planning next… and I mean the psychopaths of NATO:
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Another brilliant analysis in this Blog using all the correct analogies. The problem the Wagner Group encounters is how Putin, and his loyalists foresaw this very situation and developed an intricate plan where the Wagner group was used in the initial military campaign to liberate the occupied regions of the Ukraine that voted overwhelmingly [98%] in a referendum to leave the Ukraine and rejoin with their motherland. The referendum took place over five days, from Sept. 23 through Sept. 27, 2022. Of course, the ‘collective’ West was furious those folks would dare stand up for their own best interests to re-join their motherland.
The Wagner Group was used in the conflict instead of the regular Russia military units. They did suffer many deaths, and injuries during the liberation of the occupied Ukrainian regions. That weakened them as a fighting force, and caused many of them a great amount of mental stress. Their Russian ‘betters’ used and abused the Wagner Group. They may be in a weakened state to wage a civil war, but they have been ‘battle’ tested, and will be difficult to subdue.
occupied Ukrainian . Think back to the banking sanctions the collective West imposed on Russia just a couple of years ago and Western nations agree to disconnect Russian banks from SWIFT (Western nations agree to disconnect Russian banks from SWIFT - Business & Economy - TASS). Russia’s response was to shut down several of the minor Russian banks, bought 400 tons of gold on the open market, consolidated Russia’s finances in its Central Bank, and ‘pegged’ the ruble to the price of gold. Next on the agenda it the BRICS summit in South Africa the August. Putin will deliver the keynote address via telecommunication from an unknown location instead of traveling to South Africa for fear of a repeat of another MH 17-like downing incident that occurred over the Ukraine many years ago.
As always it is ultimately about gold, and who has the most.
Being the chef of the President is no small task, Putin obviously trusts him enough not to kill him with poison.(Or at least the ones tasting his food beforehand)
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If you do your own research you will find that Prigiozhin was never Putin’s cook and never held a position in the Kremlin or anywhere near. He always pursued his own businesses, mainly in St Pete.
The real military leader of Wagner was always Dimitri Utkin who always keeps a very low profile and is never mentioned, He has a strong military background, unlike Prigozhin. He is originallyUkrainian and has been involved in the Donbass since 2014. He is the one with close connections with the military and the GR.
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Thanks for the additional information, honestly im not very well read on him.
Just trying to put together something with what i know.
But i do find it strange that Putin ever would let P into this position if he ever was in the risc for a coup?
I read on Twitter that Prigozhin was involved in making Russian war movies?!
Sounds like he has some major experience in disinformation and being a frontman for various operations that needs a legal person in place.
Maybe he was supposed to be bribed by NATO and play along until the time was right.
Because the CIA usually pulls these things off, the one in Turkey at least had some action and took a little while to settle.
But if NATO/CIA/MIC etc would have been doing this it should at least last longer then a day.
Unless the whole op got infiltrated a long time ago i think…
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Personally, I think the fact that Putin and Prigozhin are friends should not be dismissed. Putin is all seriousness- Prig the over-actor. Look at the dispersal of troops as a result of this “coup”. 6-8k men went with Prig to Belarus where Ukr-Poles have been planning to invade to push Russia to act with nuclear arms. That’s now out. The fact that there was no punishment for treason suggests that there was none to begin with.
I love these KGB action novels.
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I apologize for the Slavic language used here,and for the Cyrilic alphabet of the this comment.See knowing languages is treasure.
My Russian is good enough to understand a 3 year old speaking distinctly. No captions makes this a tough one to follow.
Knowing languages IS treasure which is why I started learning Russian about 6 months ago and between the Cyrillic alphabet and the rolling consonants, this is a tough one. German or French- not as difficult.
Truth is that while Russians often take English as a second language, Americans not only don’t take Russian, but they know nothing of the history, the diversity of cultures, nor anything ELSE about 2023 Russia. This includes the idiots in the alphabet agencies and government.
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