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Russian generals are similar to the US generals depicted in Catch-22, the jolly novel by Joseph Heller: quarrelling, arrogant, caring more about their position and reputation than about the war. They too make their fighters fly more missions, perhaps leading their careers to greater glory. Fighters get killed, but who cares? They were greedy, too, and ready to bomb their own airfields if the enemy paid them enough to do it. The Russian general Ivan Popov was very popular with his troops for his panache, but he was forced out by general Gerasimov, the Head of General Staff. Wagner PMC head Eugene Prigozhin, the hero of Bakhmut, needed ammo, but Shoygu from the MoD lusted after another medal (to add to the 60 he has already amassed), and ammo for the Wagner group was not a priority for him. Prigozhin marched with his army to the gates of Moscow to get Putin’s attention, which he got – along with his ammo after some delay. Some journalists accused Prigozhin of mutiny, but instead he was given millions in roubles and dollars, gold and guns that were taken from him in the aftermath of his escapade. Foreign minister Mr Lavrov described the event as peredryaga, meaning trouble, mess, or confusion. General Popov also wants to speak to Putin, to explain himself, but he has no soldiers to march with him.
Both Popov and Prigozhin openly criticized the way Mr Shoygu of the MoD, and General Gerasimov, his head of Staff, are managing the war in Ukraine. But some US officials and the Russian pro-Western opposition preferred to call their criticism a coup d’état. So many people wanted this coup to happen that now it is difficult to claim it was a nothing-burger. Let’s examine in detail what happened between the Russian state, the General Staff, the Ministry of Defence and the proprietor of Wagner PMC, Mr Prigozhin.
Prigozhin is a Russian billionaire and entrepreneur. He did some catering for the Kremlin (a position of great trust), then delivered meals to schools in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and lately has expanded into media operations. He established the so-called Troll Factory: a major source of influence in Russian social media. Before this, it was the Western intelligence services that ruled supreme in Russian social media, be it Facebook, Instagram or VK. Prigozhin’s Trolls were able to quickly counteract the efforts of Western propaganda warriors, and as a result he became close to Putin personally. Around 2015, he moved from commanding internet trolls to commanding real warriors: he established a private military company called Wagner, after the nickname of its co-founder. They fought for Russia in many countries – in Africa, in Syria, in Latin America. At some point, the Russian state turned to them for help. The head of the General Staff, General Gerasimov personally addressed Mr Prigozhin, and asked him to take part in the Ukraine War. Wagner initially participated in the battle for Popasnaya (Lugansk People Republic). Prigozhin was proud to fight a heroic war for the sake of victory and the glory so desired by men, but after more than a year of fighting Prigozhin could see that the Russian army was not in a hurry for victory. The war seemed designed to achieve a stalemate, not conquest.
The real reason behind the delay is that the Ukrainian resistance was a surprise for Russians. Before the war, they thought it would take a few days. That the Ukrainians won’t fight. That the West wouldn’t supply weapons. Even such knowledgeable and wise people as Anatoly Wasserman thought it will be over in a few days; they only wondered would it be a three-day war, or a four-day war? Putin also had unrealistic expectations of a rapid victory. When the Russian generals saw that this was not going to happen, they began to withdraw South, and they deliberately left expensive military equipment behind them as they retreated. I was told by knowledgeable people that this was a US trap set for Putin.
Here the big dichotomy of Russian politics began to play an important part. There are Yeltsinites and Patriots. An experienced man at the top of the administrative ladder, Shoygu was a Yeltsinite. He was close to Yeltsin, managed his re-election in 1996, led the ruling party, and became a minister in 1992 while Yeltsin was the president and Putin was as yet nobody in St Petersburg. Shoygu was a minister for Emergency Situations (EMERCOM), and later he was selected as Minister of Defence. At thirty-two years in the government, he holds an absolute record. Shoygu is a personal friend of President Putin. So is Mr Abramovich, the oligarch. Yet both Shoygu and Abramovich hold very different views from Mr Putin. Putin seeks Russia’s greatness and independence. On the other hand, Yeltsinites like Shoygu would prefer Russia to be defeated and quietly returned to the Neoliberal policies of Yeltsin’s days. Still, Putin is a man of his word and once upon a time he promised Yeltsin that he would safeguard the Yeltsinites, so he could not easily dismiss Shoygu, even if his war management was atrocious. There is a growing opinion that Shoygu assisted the US in their plans to mislead Putin and trap him in the quagmire of the Ukraine. In not entirely unrelated news, Shoygu is considering the run for presidency in 2024 to supplant Putin. Alternatively, the post of President might be occupied by other pro-Western officials: by the Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin, or similar figures. All the work done by Putin would be undone, and Russia would return to the days of Yeltsin. Prigozhin would prefer Putin do at least one more term, else he himself might compete for the patriotic electorate.
The role of PMC Wagner in this war has changed unexpectedly. Instead of acting as a special group of assault troops to provide victory in the most crucial battles, the Wagner group has more and more become an infantry unit, albeit a special one, but infantry assigned to trench warfare all the same. What was worse– instead of thanking them for this – they were turned into perpetual beggars for armaments.
In the logic of Prigozhin, this is very strange. If you were called up for military service and asked to shoulder the burden, one shouldn’t have to march to beg for ammunition, getting nothing but excuses and squabbles. In this sense, he considered himself deceived. Furthermore – not an unimportant aspect – is the question of profit. After all, the businessman (including the patriotic businessman) still understands that he must earn money to be able to feed his army. And this was the case for the Wagner group: Prigozhin made sure that his soldiers were fed and dressed. In contrast, the soldiers under the MoD were poorly fed and even worse clad. They had to apply to kind-hearted grannies for socks and underwear.
The generals had stolen the army budget and provided for themselves, while soldiers were unkempt and uncared for. Wagner group soldiers were well provided for, except when it came to Russian arms and ammunition. The MoD had no intention of sharing their armaments with the Wagner group, and Prigozhin began to worry that there was nothing left to share: he suspected that the generals had sold their stores of weapons to enlarge their profits. Moreover, Prigozhin understood (after his previous conflicts with MoD and their squabbles over armaments) that no matter what he did, he was going to be framed as the bad guy.
Next came the story of the new contract. The MoD tried to form a PMC of their own, but it was unsuccessful. Then the minister decided to appropriate the Wagner group. Prigozhin’s fighters were told to sign a contract with the MoD. Prigozhin recognized this as a blatant attempt to steal the Wagner group out from under him. His glorious force would be sent to die in the trenches, and Prigozhin would be kicked out. He complained that he did not apply for a position with the MoD. He rightly considered that his own Wagner group was a wonderful unit to be deployed strategically even in the most dangerous places, but it was not to be wasted in trench warfare. He felt he was deceived and misused by Minister of Defence Shoygu and by his Chief of Staff General Gerasimov.
It is not the first time Prigozhin had a problem with Mr Shoygu. In March 2016, in Syria, he was asked to help and take Palmyra, an important position in the desert. He took it, and passed it back to Syrian/Russian forces; but in December 2016, as a result of a surprise attack, a tiny ISIS force recaptured Palmyra, and the garrison placed by the Russian MoD fled the city, leaving huge stockpiles of weapons, ammunition and equipment – and even cooked food in the dining room! Russian forces could not retake Palmyra, and once again they turned to the Wagner group, which was able to recapture the city in March 2017.
Despite the fact that Wagner did not brag about his military successes, Shoygu was embittered with hatred. His opportunity for revenge appeared in less than a year. In February 2018, the Wagner group, with the consent of Assad, decided to “squeeze out” the pro-American Kurds from Conoco’s large refinery near the village of Hasham in the province of Deir ez-Zor. Knowing that the Kurdish defences were covered by the US Air Force, Prigozhin agreed in advance with the Russian command in Syria to have his operation covered by Russian air defence (armed with S-300 and Panzyr) and their full cooperation was promised to him. On the night of February 7-8, 2018, the Wagner group attacked the Conoco plant. The Pentagon immediately contacted Shoygu by direct special line: “Are these yours?” – to which the Americans received the unambiguous answer “No”. After that, the American HIMARS, Apache helicopters and the AC-130 flying battery attacked Prigozhin’s soldiers. The Wagner group suffered the largest (before Ukraine) losses in its history – 334 killed and about 700 wounded. According to Prigozhin, by Shoygu’s order the entire air defence unit was withdrawn and the liaison officers cut off their communication lines with the Wagner group.
Much later, when it was time for the generals to hand out medals to their troops, Prigozhin walked in. He asked Shoygu: “Can I talk with you about the situation that occurred on February 8 under Deir ez-Zor?” Shoygu turned, calmly and arrogantly answered: “Did you want to act a hero? All the heroes are here in this room” – and he waved his hands to indicate all the officers in their splendid formal uniforms – “and you just lost your bearings.”
This is the way Prigozhin told it. According to the Russian side, Shoygu could not hope to defeat the Americans and so he cut a deal with them. In the first Russian reports, all participation of Wagner group was flatly denied. In the Wikipedia, there are a few versions of the encounter. Yet another version is given in the New York Times. In any case, the Wagner group was badly beaten and relations between Prigozhin and Shoygu were permanently spoiled.
After the battle for Bakhmut it became even worse, if that were possible. The MoD did not reply to Wagner group telephone calls, and they were given none of the armaments they needed. Prigozhin worried that if the Wagner group was thrown onto the frontlines, it would now be only for suicide missions, beyond his normal issues with shells, lines of communications and other supply difficulties.
Thus, the rebellion of June 24, 2023 is not a sudden madness of Prigozhin, but only the next stage of an old confrontation. This feud is not just between Shoygu and Prigozhin (although here the personal factor takes precedence), but can be traced much deeper – between the Ministry of Defence and GU (Military Intelligence). Formally the GU is subordinated to the Ministry of Defence, yet practically it has always been and continues to be “a ministry within the ministry”, pursuing its own policies for its own ends.
Prigozhin, from his point of view, has completed his tasks, capitalised on his image, and attacked his adversaries. His was no rebellion; he planned no seizure of power from the start. He proved his loyalty to the president Putin. Though Putin’s enemies have trapped him in the Ukrainian quagmire, Prigozhin proved that his men are still the president’s storm troopers. Prigozhin has consistently completed all the tasks set before him brilliantly. Those on the outside who observe the implementation of Prigozhin’s operations, may (I suppose) differ on the correctness or incorrectness of his actions. I do not have any behind-the-scenes or secret information about the motivations of all the participants in these controversies, but I expect that, in addition to what we observe on television screens and on the Internet, each of these parties has his own private motive. For example, the battlefield tactics of respected generals like Surovikin or Alekseev were naturally constrained by preventive measures to avoid collusions with Prigozhin, and were not intended to influence or injure the Wagner group. Military delays are not always incompetence; often they are tactical moves designed to solidify positions. With any such complex behind-the-scenes gambits, each of the public participants (including those whom we cannot see) have their own reasoning and goals.
What do we mean when we say “Prigozhin went to Belarus”, asked Andrew Pinchuk, the author of Clausewitz and Emptiness, the book approved by Prigozhin? He removed himself from the controversy. Furthermore, he stepped up into international space. Tomorrow, the presidents and leaders of at least two or three dozen different countries – Asian, African, Latin American, Central American and, I think, some European will line up at the ASEAN conference. At the same time, because of all the news swirling around both Prigozhin himself and the agency headed by him, the Wagner group is now the most famous non-state paramilitary brand in the world. And what will it be called next? PMC Wagner? PMC Asia? PMC Global? No, we cannot say that Wagner ceased to exist. I think we need to say that Wagner got a new life.
The story of General Popov is quite different. This brave general has been squashed by the MoD. It was said the reason was his harsh critique of general Shoygu. But there is another plausible explanation. A unit under the command of general Popov succeeded in seizing intact one of Britain’s most prized missiles, called “Storm Shadow”. Instead of being congratulated, the unit was punished, and general Popov promptly retired. It is possible that the MoD intended to use the Storm Shadow in a different way. Popov’s soldiers had delivered it to a scientific institute for studies. Did Shoygu and Gerasimov want to return it to the UK? Or were they just upset that the missile went to the institute connected with Mr Rogozin, former head of Russian Space Research?
It could be; Russia is a new Byzantine Realm, full of complicated intrigues. Meanwhile, the rapidity of the Popov dismissal shows that Yeltsinites are as powerful as ever and President Putin continues to follow their disastrous advice. As he says, he does not want to act under pressure. But even the laughing-stock generals from Catch-22 won the war that is WWII. So will win the Russian generals, or rather Russian soldiers.
Edited by Paul Bennett.
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you know it’s funny, ever time prigozhin claimed they were out of ammo, the ukranazis shock trooper lemmings would throw themselves, into the mouth of the russian meatgrinder and wagner always had enough ammo to slaughter the lot of them. it’s almost as if he might have been playing them, hmmm… kinda makes you wonder. then he tells us he’s being attacked, by surovikin, and he’s marching on moscow with 25,000 troops (while he counted the billions in gold and cash, the cia was gullible enough to give him). then he announces lukashenko, called him and he’s going to end his mutiny and be banished to belarus, like those tactical nukes putin banished there a few months before (appearently feeling they were untrustworthy as well). then surovikin is reported to be arrested, for backing prigozhin (wait, i thought he started all of this by attacking wagner). how confusing, especially when he returns to st. petersburg, to collect his confiscated gold and cash. now is seems that surovikin, wasn’t arrested, but resting…. curiouser and curiouser. why if i didn’t know, that russians were incapable of higher thought and totally devoid of humor, i would suspect that putin, prigozhin, surovikin and lukashenko had planned the entire event and are now having fun, totally befuddling, the elmer fudd natzo forces, that really find themselves, “all out of bullets”. as the russians prepare to launch the counter offensive that will finish this sad (for the ukrainian people) chapter, my money would be on wagner shock troops from the north, desending on kiev, while surovikin pushes up from the south, kind of a zhukov, konev tag team (not that prigozhin is konev but surovikin is zhukov),
the west is now looking for a scapegoat for their never-ending incompetence, these zioneocon idiots, now tell ukraine, you got 6 months, to march on moscow or we’re then craving up what’s left of the rump.
so shoigu, prigozhin and surovikin worked with yeltsin, so did putin, whom he appointed prime minister in 1999, tell me they are all clones of this drunken buffoon. seems to me, they all came to the consensus opinion, that they must rescue the russian federation from the clutches of the bankster scum, hell bent on raping and dismembering russia. so tell me, if they are all agents of the zog octopus (with apologies to octopuses everywhere, they are amazing and incredibly intelligent creatures, in spite of not having a brain), why is russia now rising and eclipsing the west? tell me israel, why did putin sell 24 advanced su-35 fighters to iran, are the iranians zog agents as well? you will need to provide more than wikipedia and nyt sources to convince me.
He sold the jets, but he did not deliver them. You know, a Russian or a Pole would sell his granny for 10 bucks, but only a Jew would deliver.
Poor editing, bordering on incomprehensible at the end. Maybe editor Bennett is one of the secret villains of the story! Likely the truth is that Shamir doesn’t write well in English and is incompetent in selecting an editor for the same reason. Mr. Unz, therefore, ought to take better charge of Shamir and his potentially useful productions.
sez you israel, after a statement like that, i no longer trust you or your “editor”.
Anyone who thinks Putin is not genuinely trying to win this war is deluded. Whether Putin can overcome Russia’s inherent tendency toward public corruption (which is religious-theological in origin, as we have explained elsewhere on these pages) is entirely in the hands of God!
this is an distorted citation from Tadeusz Borowski’s work “Farewell to Maria (English title This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen) or We Were in Auschwitz, it is part of a collection of short stories, first Polish original published in 1948. In the original, instead of “a Russian or a Pole” one find the word “Jew” and instead of “granny” – the word mother… smells of plagiarism…
I’d shoot down Prigozhin if I were Putin.
Shifty fucking Jew cockadoodledooing on a pile of Russian corpses.
how do you know they were russians and how do you know they were dead? prigozhin is a cartoon character, playing the role of a military commander. he is complete a fiction, designed to mislead the western “intelligence” and doing a hell of a job of it. just today npr reported that lukashenko had announced, wagner was now training belarussian troops, geez i wonder why? figure it out people, these cagey bears, are totally playing the west, like a cat playing with a mouse, at some point they will bite the mouse’s head off.
I suspected all along that Russia was and is still heavily infiltrated, and despite all appearances to the contrary I suspected also that just like Noriega or Saddam, Putin himself was a foreign agent that has gone rogue and he and his country may share the same fate as Panama and Iraq. Saddam ‘s generals were ready to betray him as soon as the US.decided to move in (only his militias, the equivalent of Wagner fought bravely), and Saddam was identified by many in the know as a CIA agent when he came to power. He accomplished his mission by going to war against Iran but went rogue after he realized he was cheated. Putin hasn’t made any serious attempt, just as Yeltsin, to seriously advance Russia’s economy – only replacing one bunch of oligarchs with another. If what this article reveals about Shoygu is correct, it seems Putin may fear being betrayed by his generals just as Saddam was so he has to put up with Shoygu to avoid Saddam’s fate.
This article by Israel Shamir was easy to read for me, and I again found, as often with Shamir, a number of distinctive illuminating points, and tidbits of information, I hadn’t previously known.
Over more than a decade I have come to deeply appreciate Shamir as one of the great ones providing perspective on our times, and I am sure many others think the same.
The richness, and sometimes surprise, of Shamir’s thinking and info, does reward a bit of effort, if that is needed.
Tho I do feel Shamir is writing a bit more concisely these days – he’s now in his mid-70s, I think – and given his ability to match the complexity of reality with appropriate nuance in his reporting, I can see how his pieces are maybe not easy for everyone, when most writers today are rather predictable and have simpler modes of thought.
Mr Shamir and his editor Mr Bennett deserve our thanks for continuing to grace these pages.
Fantastic article. Some things just have the ring of truth.
In other words, Shamir has no idea either.
Isn’t it great not to know? Wikipedia has made people so certain and so shallow. For once in twenty years you have to figure things out on your own!
Twice if we count COVID.
This author is claiming certainty about things he cannot possibly know for sure. SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER at Substack has a long piece which is very much worth reading. As he says, we don’t have enough information yet about whatever happened with the “Coup”.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-71423-popovs-sound-and-fury
Mind blowing! Huge thanks, I.S.
I hope VVP reads this and gets rid of the Goo.
It is very smart job of Cut and Paste from the British The Sun and the German tabloid Bild Zeitung. Of course, the only thing missing is the naked girls on the front page.
Alternative views on The Ukrainian Civil War
MoonofAlabama.org (retired German Officer )
Sonar21.com (retired CIA officer)
smoothiex12.blogspot.com (retired Soviet Naval Officer)
Who is Israel Shamir after all? If you believe Norman Finkelstein ”He has invented his entire personal history. Nothing he says about himself is true”. Neither what he says in this ‘fantastic article’, actually a piece of fantasy regurgitating the tropes of Western/Ukrainian sewer propaganda which becomes more ridiculous by the day. The language gives him away. Its place would normally be the garbage bin, but must be kept for its comic qualities.
And who’s Paul Bennett? Might he be the real author?
This article is more like the good old Judas is at it again. What it claims Shoigu to be a Yeltsinite and therefore a member of the Neoliberal world Order or intentionally causing supply shortages etc. are opposite of the reality. Also the theory that Putin believed the war would be over in 3-4 days is another contradiction. The real reason Russia is dragging its foot in Ukraine war is the fact Russia and others including China, Iran …. understand very well that the current Ukrainian scenario much like similar ones in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen…. is just a small part of the ongoing struggle against the dollar and not an end by itself. Finishing the war in Ukraine quickly will allow the dollar empire to concentrate on other wars in various regions, so it would be wise to keep the empire busy and deplete NATO inside Ukraine while Russia can easily hold the upper hand in its nearby courtyard for long period. Shoigu is doing great by revitalizing Russian arms industries which is contrary to Yeltsin’s famous capitulation of the country’s industries/resources to western buyers. Him being a Yeltsinite is similar to what some pundits claim about Putin being a member of the Davos elite group led by Klaus Schwab just because once upon a time Putin attended the Davos meeting and took pictures there. Much of the problems with the Russian MOD seem they’re still sticking with the old technocratic administrative arrangement of the CCCP. The newer generation being more familiar with internet, social networks/chat rooms, video games, influence of western Neoliberal culture and a burning desire to earn lots and lots of money don’t like the slow pace of the older generation.
On the night of February 7-8, 2018, the Wagner group attacked the Conoco plant. The Pentagon immediately contacted Shoygu by direct special line: “Are these yours?” – to which the Americans received the unambiguous answer “No”. After that, the American HIMARS, Apache helicopters and the AC-130 flying battery attacked Prigozhin’s soldiers. The Wagner group suffered the largest (before Ukraine) losses in its history – 334 killed and about 700 wounded.
===========================================
With comrades like this who needs enemies?
Conoco doing well in Syria —today—stealing Syrian oil —-
Shoygu is a double agent??
I just live people that know what Russians are thinking, no matter how many times they have been proven wrong! And to put Prigozhin in the same level, or even higher with Shoygu and Gerasimov, as far as millitary is concerned, makes me laugh!
I see that you have not corrected your hideous, incompetent writing — still masses of run-on sentences mis-forming outrageously huge paragraphs, multiple grammar-atrocities, and utter absence of necessary capitalization.
This time, however, I shall eschew presenting a criticism of your writing. I shall not even present a thorough criticism of your many stupid assertions.
My criticism addresses solely your absurd assertion that
[My emphasis.]
Actually:
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/976359
Each octopus has more than one brain, though its principal brain is in its head:
https://piphd.com/articles/2018/12/3/the-brain-of-the-octopus
I agree. Well argued.
Mr. Shamir is one of the two best writers Unz Review publishes. The other is Laurent Guyénot — another man whose mother tongue is not English.
With his empty criticism of Mr. Shamir’s writing, Protogonus exhibits his low IQ or poor education (or both).
Protogonus seems to think Mr. Unz ought to give Mr. Shamir writing lessons. Mr. Unz is a mediocre writer, who treats his readers to exhausting, prolix displays of his narcissism, much laced with biased or false assertions — more than he tenders competent argument.
Interesting article. ( Israel Shamir; “The March on the Kremlin”; The Unz Review; 2023-07-16) https://www.unz.com/ishamir/the-march-on-the-kremlin/. Let’s assume its thesis is true, and not debate its truth or accuracy, just for this post.
First, the Russian MOD sounds a lot like the US DoD. Trillions of dollars spent, and DoD has inadequate munitions and raw material stocks. Also has no expeditionary force save the USMC (for short duration missions) and the 173rd Airborne Brigade (light infantry). The USAF has some nice systems, but its air fleet still includes (vastly upgraded) B-52s, and it has no weapons systems in several categories that match those of the Russian Federation, or even Iran (UAVs).
US DoD also seems to have been captured by the US equivalent of the “Yeltsinites”, and the “Yeltsinites and Patriots” sounds much like the “Uniparty and Trump/DeSantis” split (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/desantis-says-eliminate-four-federal-agencies-elected-president-rcna91733).
Are we looking at some common mode societal failures here?
Second, in Western society since perhaps AD 1500, defeat in war has, at least in some cases, resulted in societal reorganization (Japan too, Meiji Restoration, without even waiting for revolution). In 1917 the Russians attempted something similar, using Western Communist theory.
Putin appears to have the Russian population behind him. Putin also finds himself enmeshed in the Russian myth of a Tsar who has been deceived by his advisors, now knows the truth of the matter, and can either depose the lying advisors and reform the system or lose his legitimacy. Last time this happened was late AD 1917, during another war.
So far, Putin has not asserted control of the Russian MOD. Putin has a choice, as I. Shamir implies, between reforming MOD and Russian Yeltsinites and rejection by the Russian public as either too weak or too treacherous to rule Russia.
Much as Trump/DeSantis do with the Uniparty in the US. More common mode failure?
Third, Germany will be unwilling to ally itself with a country whose military establishment is not controlled by its government, and Europe will likely remain allied with the US, whatever the disadvantages or remaining allied may be. Alternately, if there really are no US elections in 2024, Europe might try becoming independent again.
The US/Yeltsinites try to replay The Triumph of the Oligarchs and find that the Oligarch bit won’t work this time around, unless they want to sell their country to India or perhaps China.
Archetypes:
Yeltsin appears to have a choice between conceding into a peaceful retirement (like Nikita Khrushchev) or to try reforming MOD in the middle of what he considers to be a life-or-death war.
“Hamlet” all over again. A society whose formal goals (embodied in Hamlet’s father, a just and wise King) are not matched by its informal goals (absolute power, achieved by the new King with poison, and by Polonius driving his daughter to suicide as a byproduct of Court intrigue, and by Hamlets’ mother with a betrayal of her marriage vows to remain Queen). Is there some way to escape this other than bringing down the entire system and bringing in a foreign conqueror (Norwegian Prince Fortinbras has conquered Denmark in the final scene of Hamlet)?
Action item:
Let’s hope things turn out better than in the play, the more so since the US and the Russian Federation seem to be in the same general situation. As to what to do personally, try to stay alive and back your faction, or don’t if it looks like it’s going to regard you as expendable. The common US/RF zeitgeist/pattern implies that we’re in for a major transformation.
The unhealthy interest in filling the media with silly propaganda to substantiate the evil of the supposed enemies.
Why doesn’t he dedicate himself to analyzing the causes of the street killings in the streets of the United States? Is it because it is not professionally profitable?
Nothing unites people like the interest of power: nothing divides like the interest of power. It is what all go to war for: it is what eventually brings everyone to the war they don’t want. Everybody expects victory. Sometimes it can be a long wait for defeat. What can be prophesied is WWIII – defeat for all.
https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/
You don’t hear about CENTO much anymore but it was a Treaty organization that Britain Turkey Pakistan Iraq Iran were signed up for. Dissolved in and around 1979 It was designed to hem in the USSR. All treaty organizations as wacky as NATO is becoming will fly apart.
The closest relate to Prigozhin events that i could find in the public domain is on voltairnet.org .
The egging for Putin: how to preserve the standing of Wagner who are deployed outer-territory [Africa, Syria, Venezuela and other], and squash Prigozhin at once, without hurting the former. The lucky strike as to call out other opposition elements [Surovikin?] is then a bonus and the events were not planned, were a surprise, an out of hand. Prigozhin was an accident in the waiting [see my earlier comments].
As for the West, it seems that the events show International Jewry and Finance Incorporated is loosing it’s footing. There was no acceleration by anything they consider their activists. They came out quite weak. This should show now to Putin that he can accelerate, apply a-symmetricals, take advantage of the window of opportunity that as things go, could be closing.
As to nuclear, bio-engineering as a more selective tool could in the near future surpass military maneuvering as we see now, hence the timeliness of Russia’s interactions is to be accelerated alas P.C.R. As things stand, if the Western Jew Elites do not want to be routed, they have no option as to perdure the belligerency. This is contrary to the logic as suggested by Douglas Macgregor, his vision for an America that minds it’s own business is flawed. The world is a global affair, an autonomous entity must fight for control of the “all of it”. Like-wise the crap of multi-polar is only public domain fodder on the side of China and Russia.
“People” should focus more on what happens [and this in our day and age is masked thoroughly as much as in Napoleon times] then on the bits and bites of “said” on the internet.
The article thus, as much as we appreciated Israel Shamir on some other occasions is mostly potatoe season page filler.
There is something very incomplete about this Wagner story. Nothing has really happened as a result of this bizarre incident that Putin first characterized as an act of deep disloyalty. Only Russian pilots have died, none of the mutineers.
I’d guess that much weighing and sifting of facts is still taking place. Putin waited weeks before sitting down with Prigozhin for a long talk to get the rebellious motivations clearly explained. What he was told was apparently deemed accurate because Prigozhin is still wandering around getting his stuff reorganized for his new role, whatever that may be.
Meanwhile, the USA is finding an opportunity to repeat the disaster of Vietnam by sending in a small group of “advisors”. I seem to remember that the number of US troops first sent to Vietnam by Kennedy was 3000. Biden wouldn’t remember, but somebody in the DOD has a grim sense of humor.
Just to ask readers to step cautiously bc not all Shamir says is reliable.
In fact, this looks like something the zio-masons might publish.
All Russia is corrupt but the Jews always deliver.
Right. Thanks Israel.
Remembering tsar Nikolai/family/various attendants shot by bolshevik on night July 16/17 1918. Shamir doesn’t mention them but a growing number in Russia do.
https://www.unz.com/article/the-last-tsar-how-russia-commemorates-the-brutal-communist-murder-of-emperor-nikolai-iis-family/
Video Link
Others, too. ‘Japan-U.S.A, mutual security treaty’ (very heavy popular opposition, almost brought the govt. down, only heavy U.S. interfence kept the govt. of then in power), SEATO, SWATO, five-powers treaty for Singapore and Malaysia, several moar.
Although, under the Monroe Doctrine, the more civilized parts of South America had to settle for ‘School of the Americas’ and ‘Operation Condor’, possibly even worse.
Instead of referencing WWII, WWI seems to be the pattern to see.
A nation of elites trying to reinforce their control by gaining more colonies, power in the local area, etc.
Is the plan of the west to drag Russia into an extended war, souring the public on the war, abetting the movement for a Populist government? That plan led directly to WWII if I remember correctly.
Well, I guess you told him. I shall henceforth take with a grain of salt anything notsofast has to say about octopi.
Good to see Israel Shamir spread some different views on Russia’s recent gang fight. I do wonder what is take is on the reports that some say half of Wagner is in Donbass, still holding its weapons post July 1st Tuvan traitors deadline, and refusing the frontline work? Also what does Israel Shamir say about the shadow Dimitry Utkin? Prigo also accused Shoygu of ordering falseflag attack on Wagner. Something Donbass militias who were Rus Nationalist have accused MOD of doing before.
Any reservations Putin and the Russians had in selling advanced military hardware to the Persians is quickly evaporating because of the reaction of the NEOCON controlled American government and its puppets in NATO to the Special Operation in Kievan Rus.
The Su-35’s are on order and hopefully they are operational quickly with the IIAF and the Iranians already have other Russian weapons, including SAM’s.
Mr. Shamir description and assessment of Russia’s military operations communicates a sad situation; a Russia that has not changed. I completely got it all wrong, thinking the Prigozhin saga was a distraction cooked up the West’s Intelligence/MSM power. I still think Prigozhin is a distraction that is, from an American perspective. Zionism embedded in and at every government level, local, federal, and foreign policy has been given unopposed power, like mathematics in science, as if there were radical intelligability in the Zionist people and their policies foisted on we the people. ‘Who’s doing who?’; is what we all need to know now. Putin may have stepped in it, yet he didn’t have much of a choice; there’s no talking to the present US leadership.
In the Ukraine Crisis there is the ‘divine’ plan to recreate the Khazar Khaganate Empire and that starts with negotiating a peace, where Israel plants its’ flag in the Ukraine, the Nord Stream pipes remain unuseable, and Ukraine becomes The Gas Hub, controlling the flow and price of Russian Gas streaming to Germany and the rest of the EU.
The Khaganate means perpetual war for the United States. What are we to do with a leadership that calls us white nationalists, supremists, and racsts, questions our right to exist, loots the nation for $Trillions of dollars while replacing us with the IMF/DNC/Democratic Party/Stalinist, forced relocation/invasion of Latin American newcomers? These newcomers will be conditioned to be slaves, Zionists, and soldiers ready to serve the Khaganate. That used to be our job; but we’ve become expensive and uppity. The American people have a vague idea of the dangerous predicament we are in; which is why Trump appears to be the only true, popular, national, political leader right now. However where, exactly we are, let alone the long game implications into the future, are not known.
While the Elite half heartedly attempt to communicate the ‘calculus’ to us spoilt, little people, the physics, that is our physical national economy goes wanting; our national infrastructure is in shambles. Poverty, caused by the Fed/Wall St. system, is the immediate national security crisis. Financialization and Perpetual War, has caused more damage to our nation and economy than nuclear missiles and the Invasion force. Chair Powell, as the anti-Labor, anti-American, Fed has always done, fights inflation with high unemployment and chronic homelessness. We’re not wining this war either. And we don’t know who the enemy is, or how to fight it.
It has been alleged that Prigozhin was free-lancing, unbeknownst to his employer. I am willing to consider that possibility.
This has been very interesting. I suspected the backstory was something like this. It is nice to have some commentary giving us the background info.
It kind of reminds me of the US Bonus Army incident:
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/07/28/when_federal_troops_swept_away_the_bonus_army_143819.html#!
Thank you Mr. Shamir
agree and all very good questions, especially the last.
QUOTE: You know it’s funny, every time Prigozhin claimed they were out of ammo, the Ukranazis shock trooper lemmings would throw themselves into the mouth of the Russian meat grinder, and Wagner always had enough ammo to slaughter the lot of them. it’s almost as if he might have been playing them, hmmm… kinda makes you wonder.
Then he tells us he’s being attacked by Surovikin, and he’s marching on Moscow with 25,000 troops (while he counted the billions in gold and cash, the cia was gullible enough to give him).
Then he announces Lukashenko, calls him and he’s going to end his mutiny and be banished to Belarus, like those tactical nukes Putin banished there a few months before (apparently feeling they were untrustworthy as well).
Then Surovikin is reported to be arrested for backing Prigozhin (wait, I thought he started all of this by attacking Wagner). how confusing, especially when he returns to St. Petersburg, to collect his confiscated gold and cash.
Now it seems that Surovikin wasn’t arrested, but resting…. curiouser and curiouser. Why if I didn’t know, that Russians were incapable of higher thought and totally devoid of humor, I would suspect that Putin, Prigozhin, Surovikin and Lukashenko had planned the entire event and are now having fun, totally befuddling, the Elmer Fudd natzo forces, that really find themselves, “all out of bullets”.
As the Russians prepare to launch the counter offensive that will finish this sad (for the Ukrainian people) chapter, my money would be on Wagner shock troops from the north, descending on Kiev, while Surovikin pushes up from the south, kind of a Zhukov, Konev tag team (not that Prigozhin is Konev but Surovikin is Zhukov),
The west is now looking for a scapegoat for their never-ending incompetence, these Zioneocon idiots, now tell Ukraine, you got 6 months, to march on Moscow or we’re then craving up what’s left of the rump.
So Shoigu, Prigozhin and Surovikin worked with Yeltsin, so did Putin, whom he appointed prime minister in 1999, tell me they are all clones of this drunken buffoon. seems to me, they all came to the consensus opinion, that they must rescue the Russian federation from the clutches of the bankster scum, hell bent on raping and dismembering Russia.
So tell me, if they are all agents of the zog octopus (with apologies to octopuses everywhere, they are amazing and incredibly intelligent creatures, in spite of not having a brain), why is Russia now rising and eclipsing the west?
Tell me Israel, why did Putin sell 24 advanced su-35 fighters to Iran, are the Iranians Zog agents as well? You will need to provide more than Wikipedia and NYT sources to convince me.”
Interesting!
I had made a similar but less detailed comment, also including some forms of squid as the most intelligent individual invertebrates.
I appreciated both Mr. Shamir’s article and the reply by notsofast. However, I think that the types of jellyfish which float around dangling long poisonous threads are a better analogy than octopoda.
The article was interesting and readable but I would think a capable editor could eliminate the basic grammar mistakes. I wonder if the so called editor actually read the article.
When Erdogen saw that Putin sided with Shoigay and that Surovikan was removed and arrested, he saw the shape of the future clearly. Russia is going to lose this war, which truly is exactly what Shoigay wants.
Erdogen always does what is best for Turkey, and this meant throwing in with the winning side, which is NATO.
Nice and concise summary of the situation.
Ben
“Octopus” might refer to a nefarious, nearly invisible to the naked eye, entity whose tentacles mysteriously control the workings of the refineries of hearty pea soups whose distilled dyes color everything from the paper currencies of the cash paying to the khakis of kakistocratic uniform garbers and mad hatter’s cummerbunds.
Bennett = Been tnt. Also Teen and ten and Bee and Be and Bet and net.
No idea. Just throwing it out there.
Paul … Pu al, La Pu. Similarly, suggestive, but I’m long off my meds. Have dice ray.
Has the makings of a post imperial cultus.
Not only a man crucified but an entire family massacred by shadowy Jews.
yes, i understand you want to dance around the true content of my comment, to try and discredit the message. this site is crawling with cowardly anonymous trolls like you, who want to split hairs and divert attention from true subject. another 50¢ for you, anonymous______(fill in the black, with whatever the fuck you are).
you’ll note i said, octopi were very intelligent creatures and i should have said, they lacked a centralized brain that one would normarly recognize as a brain, but that seemed a bit verbose, and for the sake of brevity, i said what i said. with that said, again i don’t want to cast aspersions on these amazing entities, by comparing them to the zioneocon empire, also known also as the vampire squid (no aspersions on squid either, i’m sure they’re fine people as well).
It’s certainly infiltrated but the Rooskies are all stars at that game so direct comparisons with the Sad Mad Madam Who’s Sane need proper skin care and conditioner.
The reality of Russia’s current positive economic and global diplomatic situation, in spite of western all out sanctions, renders the picture emerging from Shamir’s article, even after editing which does yield greater cohesion… wishful thinking!
Maybe more in fact like an attempt at propaganda… even calculated propagandistic mental confusion.. to try reflect Shamirs age while getting across the message of Byzantime Russia in corrupt decline as well…on the verge of Zog recapture shortly
Turkey is the largest army in Eurasian NATO.
Turkey has a population of 85,000,000 Muslims. Istanbul its commercial capital is the largest city in Europe.
What’s happening here is that NATO is throwing in its lot with Islamic Turkey. Not the other way around.
I’ve read very trivial critiques of Russia with its steadily Islamizing Moscow population by luminaries like John Johnson. What about Turkey? They squat on an area they stole off the Greeks no more than 500 years ago. What about Paris and London with their enormous and alien and utterly unnatural host of Pakistanis and Algerians?
The Kremlin-terrorist USEUNATO conglomerate’s business of choreographed “war” in Ukraine is helping the global goal, openly supported by the likes Bill Gates, whom Xi just hosted in China as a “friend” of the Beijing regime, of reducing population, so there’s that. Lying Jew Prigozhin never had anything to say about the whole thing, including his Wagner, being no more than a business deal for the Russky regime. And just like that, WW3 can be started for the taxcattle to be deployed as sovereign defenders of the fatherland and its “values”.
That’s fucking retarded to even posit there’s “new” Byzantinism to something the Kremlin rulership has been doing since long before Stalin teamed up with Rockefeller and Rothschild to set up the UN, IMF and Rothschild neocolony in Palestine.
It’s not a disaster & neither was Viet Nam to the owners of the arms industry & the Pentagon. The military itself needs to blood it’s troops period or become dysfunctional. Plus VN gave them their professional army, they were sick of drafting and alienating 70% of the country. Notice how no GI joes are getting hurt now? Hardly any did during the GWOT either. This Ukraine is a dreamboat casino of VD proofed hookers with great chow in Europe watching Ukrainians die for Blackrock, Cargill, Monsanto etc. Huge profits for the mercenary corporations too. And timing is superb – right smack dab immediately post Afghanistan, which threatened huge embarrassment in the eyes of the rubes who thought “oh no, 20 years down the drain for nothing.” It will force even larger budgets of arms through congress and ongoing permanent employment of soldiers etc while they’ve covered the entire Kent State rebellion issue not only with an all volunteer army but with the ultra far right domestic mass shooting policy which is by design. You don’t need a national guard contingent to shoot college students, because a mass shooter can arise as though out of nowhere and gun down thirty or more.
federation should be capitalized, lol…. but thanks for the effort, you’re a much better editor than paul bennett.
I was just about to dig urgently for the status of this issue.
Thanks! I trust this comment. Urgency gone will dig later when more time
becomes available for the full story
Where is the FSB in all this fiasco? Why is not there a coordinated effort to reign supreme by supporting President Putin? If the CCP can rule behemoth like China with an iron fist, surely the old KGB disciples can stabilize the situation in Russia.
I won’t be completely satisfied until I see that those jets are completely operational at dispersed bases throughout Iran.
But, the degree of Iranian military modernization by way of Russia, China and domestically is increasing rapidly now and the Zionists are getting antsy.
Very good links with informed views and intelligent comments. Thank you.
Sippin dry red vino ( Massandra) in Yalta and reading Mr. Shamir s article. Oh what a can he has opened ! Spacibo.
I think you have to bear in mind how long it takes to train a pilot in a jet fighter. From the little research I have done, at least two years.
Could be.
I’ll probably tune in Rus news after today’s anniversary.
First came in touch with this topic reading in the “Russian Revolution” abt ten years ago, then this talk by Matthew Raphael Johnson.
Bankster funded, no doubt, but could never have succeeded without the venality, egoism and treachery of many of aristocracy, even ROC.
MRJs comments on average understanding of history are interesting.
Video Link
I’ve been thinking the same thing.
Consider the French/British Storm Shadow missile. The thing is fast, stealthy, and very difficult to shoot down. Now the Russians have an intact copy, and I believe it’s a safe assumption that Iran will learn the results of the dissection of the missile. That’s why I’m altering the title of my link!
Get ready for a{n} {Iranian} copycat of British Storm Shadow missile
https://bulgarianmilitary.com/2023/07/07/get-ready-for-a-russian-copycat-of-british-storm-shadow-missile/
In my opinion the Apartheid state is itching to attack Iran. Our demented old POTUS is likely to approve such a venture, and may even drag us into it. There are several reasons I believe that the pissant state will quickly regret such an action, even if it uses its nuclear weapons in such an attack. Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapons program, but that doesn’t mean it is without A-bombs.
Even if that turns out not to be the case, the murderous little nation may learn that it cannot handle a massive and intelligent counterattack by conventional weapons.
I am now ready to vote for an octopus for Prez of the USA.
I was ready to press Agree when I read the above.
Octopus have a brain, actually they have the largest brain of all invertebrate animals, in relation to their size, and some biologists think they have nine brains, the main one behind their eyes and secondary ones in each of their eight arms. The number of neurons in the most common species of octopus is roughly similar to the number of neurons in a dog.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_intelligence
https://creaturechronicles.pages.dev/posts/how-many-brains-does-an-octopus-have-/
Ask em on a date
😏
They say Biden is a fool but I reckon he played several cards very well.
The basement shooting really is Jewish.
Byzantine is a swipe at the Orthodox Christian civilization.
It’s also a threat.
The Byzantines did not allow Jews like Progozhid into their banking politics religion and military. There is nothing Byzantine about that Jewish shit.
Total zionist propaganda and misdirection and Russian bashing.
First correction. The Ottomans conquered Constantinople 570 years ago.
Second and more important, let’s talk about “squatting” on land taken from others by force. Hope you’re not an American or someone who thinks that the USA should keep all of its current territory:
How long ago did the US seize Hawaii? It was forcibly made a US territory only in 1900, then a State only in 1959. Less than 150 years ago in both cases.
How long ago did the UK even start settling and colonizing now the US mainland territory? About 400 years.
So if the Turks’ claim to Istanbul is somehow illegitimate or questionable, then our claim to the US territory is even more illegitimate and short-lived.
Turkey has no reason to apologize for winning wars long ago.
“Prigozhin is a Russian billionaire and entrepreneur. He did some catering for the Kremlin (a position of great trust), then delivered meals to schools in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and lately has expanded into media operations. He established the so-called Troll Factory: a major source of influence in Russian social media. Before this, it was the Western intelligence services that ruled supreme in Russian social media, be it Facebook, Instagram or VK. Prigozhin’s Trolls were able to quickly counteract the efforts of Western propaganda warriors, and as a result he became close to Putin personally. Around 2015, he moved from commanding internet trolls to commanding real warriors: he established a private military company called Wagner, after the nickname of its co-founder.”
From reading the above in the article, it makes me wonder when some of the US billionaires are going to establish their own armies here in the US and recruit people to serve, etc. It has to be coming, with troops, tanks, artillery, etc. Since many of Prigozhin’s merc troops were former prison inmates, establishing billionaire armies here would reduce our prison population so the facilities can house the homeless. Just a thought.
Most of Mr Shamir’s writings are like the tales of a gossipy, mean-tongued grandma whose stories are to be taken with a big chunk of salt but are always entertaining.
(1) Wrong again. Octopi have “centralized” brains. Each octopus has a principal brain in its head. That cephalic brain controls, manages, remembers/accounts the perceptions, actions, and event-causations of the mini-brains set in its tentacles.
(2) Your term “normarly” is not an English word. Is it Martian, or Venusian — or Stupidian?
As always, beware the Power of The Cabal. (((They))) control the current administration, led by Dementia Joe. (((They))) control most of the opposition. (((They))) own most of the media. (((They))) manipulate the crazed zealots and heretic Fundamentalist Christian Zionists, who are a large block. And don’t forget the moneylenders, the Rothschilds and all their descendents.
So, an attack on Persia by Zion and its puppet, ‘us’, is not out of the question, in fact it’s a strong possibility.
First off, it seems that Mr Shamir had a stroke not so long ago and that his writing skills deteriorated as a result, hence the need for an editor now. I remember the first article Shamir wrote after his stroke, he was most definitely not the same man he was before. It was scary as something like that could happen to anyone of us.
Then this is an interesting article as it presents different perspectives from what I’ve read before. Russian action in Syria was definitely just to prevent Assad’s departure by forcing a stalemate, it was not to free Syria of all its enemies and secure all of Syria’s borders. A stalemate was sufficient for Russia’s purposes. According to what I think was Martyanov’s writings which I read on MoA, Wagner seemed to have greater intentions in Syria, Wagner wanted to kick the American’s out completely. Hence the attack on American held positions by Wagner which was not authorized by the Russian MoD which then resulted in Wagner losses when the Russian’s did not shoot the American aircraft out of the sky.
Then in Ukraine Russia’s objectives are a bit confusing, to me at least. Ukraine is Russian territory, so why would Russia want to achieve a stalemate there, Russia should just go for complete conquest. But Russia with its Special Military Operation (SloMO) seems to be on the stalemate agenda yet again. And once again, we have Wagner exceeding its orders and wanting to take Bakhmut, when the Russian MoD didn’t want that. Yet again I think this was from Martyanov, with the Russian MoD trying to curtail Wagner’s actions by limiting their artillery shells.
Anyway, Russia went into Ukraine and nearly secured a peace deal with Zelensky by threatening Kiev, as Putin himself said during the visit of the African leaders to Ukraine. Putin even said that the Russian forces withdrew from Kiev as a gesture of goodwill towards the peace deal with Ukraine. But alas the peace deal was not to be, and now we have the conflict in Ukraine which is claiming mostly Ukrainian lives.
Ukraine is an interesting place, you have a Jewish president there, a Jewish president who allowed all Jews to leave the country when the conflict started last year, but prevented the Goyim males from leaving as they were needed by the Ukrainian army. And now the Goyim in Ukraine are all keen to die for this Jewish leader by fighting Russia. Those Goyim in Ukraine are definitely very stupid. Notice its the Goyim dying in Ukraine, not Jews. Why Jews like Zelenky and Prigozhin always want Goyim to kill each other is a topic for another day, as is the topic of why physically inferior Jews always insist on knowing better than Goyim in Goyim countries and insist on being in charge of Goyim in Goyim countries 🙁
The enemy is the neurotic who needs to believe he is always solving 1- the urgent, critical problem and is in league with the various high officers of neurosis and various neuroses obsessional and otherwise. The officer corps constantly finds other problems than 1 – The Urgent problem in case the complete psychotic breakdown occurs when 1 The Urgent problem is either solved, or more frequently just goes away because it was never really there.
Now, according to some anthropologists, there is believed to be an ethnos in which the frequency of neurotic and delusional disorders far exceeds the sum total of all others combined and multiplied by ten. And that ethnos is believed to be …
Russia is trying not to be like the US.
They don’t care to have America’s worthless backstabbing reputation.
Stopped reading the ‘Moon’ when he went full Covid Nazi … I’d be reading this from a concentration camp if he had his way.
Don’t know Sonar21
Third guy is a fat, smartass, living in Florida for 32 years, and has been 100% wrong about everything since January of 2022.
These guys feed those in the West who support Russia (which I do as well), with an unending tide of feel-good crap, with not even a single word of criticism or even understanding of Russia.
Add the Duran and your list of no-nothing nitwits will be complete.
Shoygu … the Tuvan gangster.
MRJ identifies it as Jewish Ritual Murder. Rabbi etc.
Dismemberment, other grotesque details.
After hearing this file somewhere around 2017 or ’18, I checked up on what he said about land ownership. I did this because what he says about public knowledge of this era is correct and in my mind there was the image of all Russians eating magotty biscuit on Battlesip Potemkin while the aristocracy beat them with knouts.
What he says is correct. Loss of a great man. Loved by his people.
I knew about his very laudable attempts at arms limitations.
International Court. But wasn’t able to follow up the two Generals.
No surprise abt the Cadet Party being masonic.
This is an interesting account, a recent Orthodox hagiography.
Just from my reading.
Wagner (who are already a legend in Russia) is in Belarus, training the Belarusian Army. Lukashenko is no fool. In fact, it’s beginning to seem that Russia would have been better off with him as President.
Dimitry Utkin … seems like a Nazi, and knows how to fight like one as well. The real military leader of Wagner (Utkin’s call sign in Syria was … ‘Wagner’).
“Mr. Unz is a mediocre writer, who treats his readers to exhausting, prolix displays of his narcissism,…”
Oh c’mon! You’ve got to be kidding! A little thick perhaps? I have to assume from your comment that you yourself must have broken many more blockbuster stories in your career than Ron ever did!
Name one.
Utkin is the legend and because of his actions he has made Wagner and Prigo legends. A White man Warlord and a Jew Ceo Media/Hype man dangerous combo. Also I don’t think Belarus can afford Wagner.
Yes trust the plan. Jej
once again, look over here, not over there, another 50¢ for you… you’ll be rich in no time. too bad you don’t have anything to say about subject of the article, you fucking cephalopod troll. you and yours will be calamari, in no time.
how do you know iranian pilots aren’t already flying them, and picking up valuable combat training at the same time? the russians and iranians have been sharing technology for years.
This article is pure conjecture and I suspect Mr Shamir may have some dementia.
Pure garbage.
I knew Shamir about the time of the Iraq war. Shamir is a small c communist. Marx and Engels kind of person.
Anything he writes goes thru marxist filter.
Joe Webb
I first thought that this was a satirical piece but then saw the name of the author and then the tone of this ridiculous article was understood better – Russian soldiers didn’t have underwear? Has this guy seen any videos showing how well kitted the Russians are, the mess kitchens with meat and bread and everything fresh , the equipment that they are using ? Guess who you really are cannot be hidden even though you may pose as an anti liberal
Shamir deceives us, readers, with the naive division between patriots and Yeltsinites.
Putin in trouble as senior officers ‘turn on him’ while Russia army in ‘complete disarray’
By John Varga | Daily Express
July 14, 2023
The Russian army is in a state of “disarray” and “chaos” that could lead to a full blown mutiny and the end of Vladimir Putin’s 23-year reign, according to a top Kremlin critic.
His remarks come in the wake of a new crisis that has gripped the Russian army, and which the Putin opponent described as being of “tectonic magnitude”.
Earlier this week, a senior Russian commander claimed he had been given his marching orders after trying to tell his top brass about the real situation on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Major General Ivan Popov, who commanded the 58th Combined Arms Army in southern Ukraine, accused Russia’s high command of treachery earlier this week.
…
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1791087/russia-army-in-chaos-disarray-ponomarev-putin/amp
I tend not to criticize excellent journalism like Mr. Shamir’s. I might have stated his article’s propositions somewhat differently or presumed to elaborate on some of his article’s points. But I cannot fault the essence of any aspect of his article’s substance.
In another comment, I did address Mr. Shamir’s article — indirectly. See here: https://www.unz.com/ishamir/the-march-on-the-kremlin/#comment-6061297
With your comment to which this comment replies, you exhibit an apparent delusion that you can effect a rebuttal with foul language, inane/idiotic invertebrate-reference pseudo-imagery, and some incoherent, irrelevant drivel concerning small change — all packaged in hideous, incompetent linguistic structure.
All sorts of assumptions there. Stfu Abdul.
> “Yet both Shoygu and Abramovich hold very different views from Mr Putin. Putin seeks Russia’s greatness and independence. On the other hand, Yeltsinites like Shoygu would prefer Russia to be defeated and quietly returned to the Neoliberal policies of Yeltsin’s days.”
As Rolo Slavsky calls it, what a Z-Anon idea! Can one at all tell where the Yelstinites end the Putinists begin? There was no Machtergreifung. Putin was designated an heir apparent by the drunk himself. That the eastern pillar of Zion dressed itself in patriotic garments to domesticate and/or destroy Russian nationalism is not an argument for their being nationalist.
Anyway, an idea that has recently occurred to me is that the 22-02-22 invasion might have indeed been a black swan event, completely unforeseen, which comically put the CIA agent Putin in charge of a Russian cultural awakening. Because Russia is not just infested with America-worshipping liberals, but is also inept to hell. And this could be a moment of evil’s being self-defeating.
Mr. Unz is an excellent writer.
it’s been nice talking to you israel. another 50¢ for you.
Stop hallucinating. Putin is a Russian nationalist that cares about his country, unlike US corrupted presidents. Enter Washington poor, leave millionaires (Clinton, Obama, Biden). Trump 2024.
That is pure calomny. When Wagner’s weapons and ammunitions were transfered to the Russian army, it happened that a lot of them were stored far away from the front. Prigozhin is both a traitor and a liar.
This article by Shamir is a piece of shit.
I agree completely. Prigozhin is the son of a jew. Jewish solidarity I guess and jewish neocon policy to try to destroy Russia.
Would be interesting to see an actual live feed of everything that went in and out of Bakhmut tbh. The entire campaign is shady.
What was smuggled out and in via Prigozhin’s Wagner and Zelensky’s SBU
I’ve not heard of this Yeltsinism yet.
I’ve come to believe that Mr Unz is a light in the darkness. Where else is the town hall but here? Not mainstream platforms, that’s for sure. An acclaimed journalist with a free speech platform. Mr Unz’s biases are subject to change with better information.
Are yours?
It is actually a pile of it, hard to gauge its height.
Hi
I just came back from the Amazonas jungle where I took some visitors from Sweden. For some strange reason the guerrillas and criminal, narco groups don’t bother most Europeans, they mostly hate Americans.
My opinion on this subject is that this monster Putin killed a lot of kids in Chechnya and Syria so he’s probably getting his well deserved karma, same as his fuck-buddy Netanyahu who just barely made it cause last night he almost kicked the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream bucket.
God is doing it very slowly to these mfu*ckers same as he did to both Rumsfeld and Powell who where burning with cancer before they went to the opposite side of Valhalla.
And to Putin’s so called supporters here (troll factory, lol, good one Shamir 🤣) I say “grow up, this monster killed thousands and thousands of children”.
Have a heart and the balls to admit that Putin is Kaput! (Капут)
Like politicians, generals only become good people when they’re six feet under. Very few exceptions here.
Trolls become more and more ridiculous. Most of them are obvious imbeciles.
> “I suspected also that just like Noriega or Saddam, Putin himself was a foreign agent”
The cute Russian anarchist Sofa Legion Strategist is all about comparing Putin specifically to Noriega and Saddam, uncanny.
https://www.youtube.com/@user-ue7ud1fh8c/streams
Here’s a decent summary in English.
https://neofeudalreview.substack.com/p/how-real-is-the-russiaukraine-war
Although the even deeper conspiracy theories by miguel-kud go as far as to call the Russian Revolution of 1905 as planned by the Russian government to stop winning the Russo-Japanese war.
https://miguel-kud.livejournal.com/
Also, Turkey is broke. President Erdogan is a sly levantine merchant from Trabzon always looking for the best deal and he’s very good at playing his business partners off against each other. During his presidency, all his friends and family got filthy rich, that’s a common trait in muslim and communist countries. Since western societies have been hijacked by you-know-who, and nobody really knows who’s pockets the taxpayers money are eventually lining, there is no need to sneer about rampant corruption in the Russian Federation. At the end of the day, all systems based on nepotism are going to fail.
One doesnt need army of well organized members to defeat or defang Ukraine or NATO.Disarrayed army of Soviet is much better organzied than that of resistance fighters in Iraq and in Afghanistan. We know what happened .
A reader’s letter from Russia:
Thanks a lot for Israel’s thought provoking article. Two observations have come to my mind.
1. Israel is right in the sense that the conflict between the MoD and privately-run companies is universal, irrespective of the political orientation of the concrete state.
2. According to my information, the war has been initially presumed to continue until the end of 2022. Zorawar Daulet Singh’s ‘war of attrition’ is the right definition. Long and tiresome negotiations with the American side in the second half of 2021 are a proof to this argument.
Apart from this, general Popov’s case sounds like another ‘charade’ complementary to the ‘mutiny’. The ‘mutiny’ has been engineered by Putin himself to make Shoygu and other ‘eltsinoids’ leave the political scene. This conclusion could be deduced from Israel’s text. General Dumin, according to whispers here, has been playing a certain role in this scenario. The ‘mutiny’ was also a plausible excuse for relocating the Wagner group to Byelorussia to ‘pacify’ the electrified Poles.
Warm regards,
Andrey.
The Yeltsinites are called by Russians “The Family”.
I’ll have to say that I’ve read and listened to all those dudes and, say, Scott Ritter. In my recollection, last fall they all pretty much predicted that Russia was going to roll right over Ukraine during the winter months. “Soon as the ground freezes.” As Yogi Berra supposedly said….
Yeah, but he has one point, however unkindly he made it. It would be great if you’d try to style a little more carefully. I find your stuff very interesting but unnecessarily (to me) hard to read. Cheers!
Sorry. Wish I hadn’t written that. It’s none of my concern.
I may be simplistic, poorly read, something like that, but I think RC has a point. If Turkey, some centuries ago, “stole” a good deal of land from Greece, who cares? Everyone does it. I mean literally, actually. So when you say that Turkey sits on land that once was Greek, what’s your point?
This conspiracy theory was in the air hours after the mutiny and according to it Dumin would replace Shoigu.
And now 3 weeks later, Shoigu is still the MOD.
Putin, and Shoigu under the order of Putin, decided rightfully to disband the privatre armies inside Russia. Upon which the cook made a nervous crisis, not accepting the decision and be deprived from his toy. The march on Moscow was suggested to Prigozhin by Simyon Pegov.
I was mystified by the easy reversion of Palmyra to US-ISIS forces. Now I see.
Losing Palmyra a second time was an enormous psychological setback for the newly assisted Assad government.
Make Istanbul a Christian capital and an Orthodox Christian one at that, again. Simple enough.
Kill or chase out all the Turks in Thrace. It’s a Greek speaking province historically. So is Byzantion.
NATO is going to rubber stamp the expulsion of Russian ethnics in Crimea on much flimsier and stochastic grounds. Why does Western Europe sanction one and not the other act of massacre? Why not reverse the Muslim and Turkish conquest of a millennia old Greek and Roman capital?
Shoigu is looking more and more the likely successor to Putin. You are badly mistaken.
Sure thing! Ummm, but don’t forget that Russia couldn’t keep losing treasure in Afghanistan itself and after 10 years, had to tuck its tail and retreat back to the motherland.
Researchers have linked the illusion of knowledge to spurious claims. Forecasting is also a tricky business. Other people said the Kremlin wasn’t going to send troops across the border.
Ukrainian proxies were taught how to mount an insurgency in the event of a Russian occupation. Cautious politicians approved the delivery of heavy weapons after a quick victory failed to materialize.
Great set of comments. Excellent article. Terrific site.
Shamir’s reasoning sheds some light on the Wagner theatre. From there to suggest that Russia is not intent on winning is a stretch.
History, whether personal or collective, is always an invention. And what about Finkelstein, best to concentrate on his own fabrications as he lives in an imaginary leftist world which is never what it appears to be. Yesterday he voted Bernie Sanders while the next day he realises that Sanders is not what he thought he was. Painting a picture of Russians as having different and competing motives is not the same as ‘the tropes of Western/Ukrainian sewer propaganda ‘. Why don’t you focus on your own incompetence and ‘sewer’ productions, at that sticks out all the more, you are as cheap and transparent as it can get, focussing like a common gossip girl on what is most unimportant.
Agreed, like a Seraphim, a Notsofast, and etc. In fact, UNZ is the most curious mix of low life imbeciles and a few sensible people. Certainly mister Shamir is writing for the latter, and his public has to put up with the dirt of the former.
You joined the cohort of the former.
I wish someone would tell me what the he77 is going on. Why does Russia suck so bad?
Read I.I. Smirnov: he regards Khrushchev’s role as that of a patriot as well and asks why Russia’s supposed destroyer (Yeltsin) was the one who raised its supposed savior (Putin) to power.
It is safe to assume that the Chinese will be making copies of the Storm Shadow too, in massive quantities, far above the production capacity of the French and British.
Although the western assumption was Abrams tanks and Bradley AFVs are invincible weapon systems too.
Russia appears to be a huge garrison state that’s run out of utopias.
I feel a bit embarrassed that I am the one to tell you what everybody thinks: you are the one who sucks ‘so bad’.
Shamir is far off the mark in this one.
The sheer amount of arms recovered from Wagner (https://dzen.ru/a/ZK7oIvSNHwjLfT_I?utm_referer=yandex.ru; or here in English: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/12/russia-wagner-equipment-weapons/) is evidence enough that Prigozhin’s claims of being undersupplied etc. were no more than a PR stunt (disgusting as it was), part of his treasonous game that culminated in the armed mutiny against own army and country at war.
If the mutiny had not been abandoned very quickly (largely due to no army unit joining in), the damage to Russian situation at the front line would have been tremendous.
A widely popular (incl. in Russia) Russian-speaking Ukrainian blogger Anatoly Sharii ran his own PR campaign of Prigozhin, claiming for months that Prigozhin acts more presidentially than Putin etc. This was of course enemy propaganda. But a similar campaign was run by a lot of Russian “war bloggers”; whether they were paid by Prigozhin (who ran a media unit) or acted as “useful idiots” doesn’t matter very much. In any case it clearly looks as if there is a concerted PR effort aiming to undermine the Ministry of Defense and Putin, including from within the country.
Shamir has apparently been listening to these guys too much.
Nobody said Surovikin attacked wagner camp. After retreat from Kherson he was retired from army commander. Also he is arrested. Russian state propagandist ZERGULIO proved it
what yesman Yeltsin wrecked in fright,
sober Putin is putting back through fight.
Russia is back by God’s might,
let all of Christendom delight,
by the Star in the East so bright.
One of his main points seems to be that people of HIS RELIGION can rightly conquer territory and subjugate/absorb conquered people, while people of other religions aren’t allowed to do the same thing.
Another of his points might be that people of his RACE are allowed to conquer territory and keep it without guilt, but people of other races are not.
If his objection is that the ottomans and other muslim conquerors were needlessly cruel, that seems true. But it was also true of the RC church, the crusaders, and the professed christian rulers (catholic and protestant alike) of many countries over the centuries.
In other words, he supports adherence to moral and legal rules “for thee but not for me.” His intelligent and godly response was “shut the fuck up, Abdul.”
Then the British and the French can buy them from the Chinese.
One aspect I haven’t seen addressed yet, regarding the Prigozhin “mutiny”:
What can explain Prigozhin’s initial outburst of pro-Ukraine propaganda? When he said that Kiev never attacked the Donbas, and that Russia never had to invade.
That doesn’t quite fit with Prigozhin-as-super-patriot or Putin-as-chessmaster. If it was intended to fool the West into thinking he was serious, it seems like a superfluous but damaging detail. Part of Prigozhin’s brand seems to be his popularity with the Russian masses, and that outburst would seem to damage either his brand or the Russian war effort. And if he were a super-patriot, he would never say those things. So is it Prigozhin-as-scoundrel? Then why is he allowed to continue his activity? He could quietly be put to pasture without inflaming the Russian masses.
Pretty good! But was it primarily “fright” that animated Yeltsin? Or maybe egomania and false hopes at the start, followed by alcoholism and resignation or a feeling or powerlessness at the end? I have no idea, just curious.
He could have done so as deception.
By posing as an alternative to Putin, he would have attracted CIA attention who would have directed their “regime change” efforts towards him. This has two big benefits
1. it alerts the Kremlin as to the CIA’s plans
2. it absorbs the CIA regime efforts into a useless cul-de-sac.
IMHO what is very telling is that Wagner is allowed to continue operating in Africa with the Kremlin’s blessing.
After the recent coup in Niger, the new leader was posing prominently next to Putin during the Russia – Africa Summit.
And guess who was hovering in the background of that summit? That Academy Awards worthy actor named Prigozhin.
As the West continues to be transfixed by the magician’s distracting waving hand called Ukraine, the magician’s other hand is preparing his next trick….a fascinating new front in Africa
New Niger leader in desert camouflage fatigues at Africa Russia Summit
Prigozhin at Africa Russia Summit
I disagree. He could have just been a super patriot and complained that the war wasn’t being waged aggressively enough. That would have convinced the CIA that his mutiny was real. Anyway, you could be right.
this is based on my impression of the bombing of Serbia. yesman Yelstin’s govt were saying they would not start ww3 over Serbia. but the Americans are pragmatic people who love life and have a good life to risk ww3 for Albania. Ukraine’s fate was sealed back then when Yelstin became too scared (drunk too) to call their bluff.
this is only my opinion from my little brain, and not something from Holy Scriptures. i really hate wars, but sometimes you have no other choice than to fight in order to prevent a greater calamity. the sacrificing of little Czechoslovakia did not bring the desired outcome. the terrible lesson of Serbia is today destroying the Ukraine, but what will it bring tomorrow? there is still time to turn back from the brink. as Peter Lavelle of RT’s Cross Talk would say, it is time to negotiate! and i would very much encourage it.
yesman Yeltsin laughing off with his buddies while Little Serbia is bombed to smithereens …
Video Link
This article can only be characterized by a short and unambiguous definition. Israeli-Zionist nonsense, from a person with an inflated self-esteem of his personality.