World war 3....

"When, to kill thy king, thine sword be drawn,
then must thy scabbard discard be,
for thou hast crossed the Rubicon
and death will come to him or thee..."

Extract from a recently-discovered (coincidentally, at RCB Towers) lost play by Shakespeare, entitled "The Two Gentlemen of Petersburg."

There was no good way out of this for Putin -- he orders his army to eliminate the Prig and his soldiers, meaning Russians killing Russians, he gives in, meaning he is shown to be weak to all the nation, or the Prig succeeds, meaning Mr. P. dies.

Now we have a weakened and humiliated President -- even more so as a third party had to broker the settlement, a bottle-job mercenary leader whose lifespan must be very limited now, unhappy mercenaries having to be subordinated to and distributed amongst the regular army, where if nothing else their pay may well take a serious hit and the regular soldiers may not appreciate the rebellious behaviour -- or, of course, become (more) rebellious themselves under Wagner influence, and the apparent elimination of the one army (Wagner) that was to some degree effective.

All in all, not bad results for Ukraine and its army.

RCB

 

Had any other world leader managed to quell a military coup and deport its leader within 24 hours, they'd be deemed quite the opposite.

 

Perhaps in somewhere like Libya but this is Russia, supposedly one of the worlds super powers who let a mercenary group down multiple helicopters and jets and let them within 300 miles of Moscow.

 

A useful preliminary summing-up here by a reputable historian:

https://snyder.substack.com/p/prigozhins-march-on-moscow?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

That also makes a few points about Putin's weakened state.

I'd say that, in general, dictators don't get to their positions without a certain degree of ruthlessness -- which Putin has proved to have in abundance in past actions. To come to a deal with the leader of a mutiny that could have developed into a coup (attempt) that leaves the leader and his followers alive (and possibly pardoned) doesn't project the 'Putin stronk' image that this dictator needs. To not order in airstrikes on the column(s) of mutineers, progressing along known roads, when the bulk of your air force is intact and capable, is another glaring omission. Could they not be trusted? Another sign of weakness. Surely Putin didn't also have a huge attack of conscience about killing fellow Russians? Tyrant and usurper having the same warm fuzzies about each others sides would be something new!

No, no one comes out of this looking good. But, long may the internal chaos continue, as that's going to be good for Ukraine.

RCB

 

Superb analysis

 

Yes; his writings, I've found, are well worth reading. For those who don't know him, he's an american historian, Balliol-educated and currently a professor at Yale, specialising in Central/Eastern European history.

RCB

 

Or something a bit more humorous...

In particular "all that shouting at Gerasimov and Shoigu for 20 m2 flat in Minsk!

 

With the expansion of conflict and military interventions on the Middle East, I'm wondering if we're actually already in it.

https://news.sky.com/story/middle-east-latest-us-iran-jordan-attack-israel-hamas-gaza-news-live-12978800

 

There is never peace in the world at any given moment it’s only called a world war as such when the west is directly affected. The biggest thing I fear is a civil war which I think we are accelerating towards.

 

Where in the UK ? there certainly could be civil unrest at what were seeing more and more.

 

Yeah UK. Look how fed up and frustrated the silent majority is now. It won’t be silent for much longer.

 

Put me down for Todmorden. Bloody Lancastrians trying to lay claim to bits of Yorkshire...

 

Listened to the interview with Putin and Tucker Carlson in Moscow last night. Very interesting and informative hour or two. Putin nothing like the deathbed bound and deranged individual the western media pointed him out to be.

 

Not deranged..? are you sure..? when he's responsible for the deaths of many tens of thousands of people most of which are his own....

 

There's a common denominator to any conflict around the world Tone, that being the USA. I thought Putin made some very good points which showed the bigger picture. To paint Putin as a lunatic is typical western bullshit.

 

Say what you like but without the backing of the U.S.A we'll be gone with the rest of the west, no one else could/would save us .....

 

Historically, maybe. But now? The US is the biggest shit show on the planet. Look at their political landscape (which ours is now mirroring), look at the sort of mindset and behaviours coming out of their Uni/College campuses, look at the branding their big corporations are centering themselves around.

 

Gone from what exactly? What exactly are the US saving us from? Don't believe the media over here Tone.