Propaganda misquote. Someone else spoke between those two sentences. https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-condemns-us-senator-grahams-comments-death-russians-2023-05-28/
Looks like the Wagner Kremlin spats are inching closer to outright fighting. https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-shoots-down-russian-cruise-missile-barrage-9d9da03a
Moscow locking down. Wagner Group attempting a coup?!? There is a lot of smoke floating around the internet and major news outlets.
I wasn't convinced early the Wagner group mini-rebellion would lead anywhere, but they've, apparently, gained two cities in southern Russia and, more importantly, some of the Russian army folks are said to be joining them. Putin addressed the country to note the Wagner head's treason and has a situation on his hands. I have to wonder if there are enough Russian troops who are fed up being thrown into the meat grinder in a war of questionable purpose, often hamstrung by lack of weaponry. Or, is this just a blip and Putin puts it down in the next 24-48 hours with Prigozhin sent to Siberia or a very dangerous high rise building? There also seems to me to be the possibility this is some kind of staged event, it's simply really odd. Perhaps there is some kind of misdirection planned here or appearing to fight internally to have Ukraine delay their offensive while allowing the supposed coup to play out. I don't know what to make of it all, yet, but my level of intrigue went from a 2 yesterday evening to a 7 now. I wonder where I'll rate tomorrow.
Allegedly the Wagner mercenaries were told that they would be executed if they disobeyed the orders for the coup. A whole lot of noise for sure.
I don’t see a scenario where Wagner succeeds but can also see a situation where they cause enough trouble to thwart all of Putin’s plans.
I am not sure what his definition of success is. I also doubt there is enough Russian trained Military left to go up against his trained fighters. Reported that he is meeting little resistance as he barrels towards Moscow. Putin has fled Moscow.
I was souring a little bit on all the aid we’d continued to give Ukraine but this makes it all worth it
People may not like money spent in theory, but, realistically and practically, this has always been a huge bargain to have your one of your main adversaries flail about in Ukraine for a year and a half without the loss of a single American soldier.
Maybe without the shadow of Russia to prompt him up, he knows the whole Belarus gov will get tossed out like trash.
They (NATO) said they would back in July, 2023. They just did not give timetable. From 2023 - "In a communiqué agreed to by all 31 NATO nations, the alliance said that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO,” and it will be allowed to join when the member countries agree that conditions are ripe — but it did not offer specifics or a timetable. It promised to continue supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia and to engage the alliance’s foreign ministers in a periodic review of Ukraine’s progress toward reaching NATO standards — in both democratization and military integration." The recent interwebz furor/grievance is over the NATO president (or whatever he is called), saying "when, not if" in a recent speech.
