RANT: UPDATES

 

RE: CONCERNING the strange case of Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, former head of the Russian private militia group Wagner that saw action in Ukraine's Donbass region, and who ran afoul of Russia's president Vladimir Putin when he staged a "coup" attempt near the end of June this year, seems still to be alive and well, and traveling regularly between St. Petersburg and Belarus. Originally, he and those Wagner troops who'd accompanied him on his bizarre "March for Freedom" road trip to Moscow to demand the sacking of the army chief of staff and defense minister (who he claimed were providing insufficient support for his fighters in Ukraine) were given the option to join the regular Russian army, go to Belarus to help train troops, or go home.

There are a number of Wagner troops in Belarus currently and Prigozhin has apparently visited them. Both Wagner and Prigozhin remain popular in Russia, as many see the group and their leader as patriotic defenders of the nation, which may explain Putin’s handling the insurrection with kid gloves.

It's interesting to note that on June 29, Putin met personally with Wagner commanders and Prigozhin to discuss their concerns and outline the future roles they will play as part of Russia’s defense forces.

SOME commentators view Putin’s low-key handling of the “coup”* attempt as a sign of weakness and his inability to control various factions within Russia’s political and military establishments. But the fact that he nipped in the bud a potential confrontation on Russian soil between Wagner forces and the regular military, neutralized the private militia as cohesive fighting unit, while still acknowledging their role in the Ukraine conflict (something that would play well with the Russian public), suggests instead a leader who is in control and one who has a great deal of public support.

 

Re: NUKES. Russia has now installed tactical nuclear weapons (TNW) in Belarus. (Installed. Not transferred. Russia retains command/control over the missiles.) “Tactical” nukes are ‘smaller’ than strategic nuclear weapons and designed to be used in battlefield conditions. Size is relative because some come with a payload two to three times (or more) the destructive force of the 1945 Hiroshima bomb! Definite buzz kills. They can be launched from sea vessels, land and airplanes. When Ukraine began using British-supplied depleted uranium munitions into the conflict, Russia upped the ante by green-lighting the deployment of TNWs in neighboring Belarus. 

 

It’s an unnerving escalation during a time when things can quickly go pear-shaped  if somebody decides to do something really stupid.¹

 

Re: Cluster bombs. Russia and Ukraine, along with the United States, China, India and a number of other countries have not signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CM) which prohibits the stockpiling or use of these types of weapons. Russia may have used such munitions during the early stages of the war. And when the United States supplied Ukraine with CMs last month (because it was running low on 155mm artillery shells), Russia stated it would respond in kind. And so it goes.

  

Re: Offenses.  Ukraine’s much-touted “counter-offensive” which began several weeks ago, has more or less fizzled out, with little gains and the usual, horrific levels of casualties and destruction we’ve unfortunately come to expect. AND there is evidence that it's Russia’s turn to go on the offensive. In the NW border region of Ukraine, in the Kharkiv area, Russian troops are advancing in large numbers. This is the area bordering Russia where Ukraine previously launched both drone attacks and raids on villages in the Belgorod Oblast inside Russia. The plan, I guess, is to push the Ukrainians further from the Russian border to stop the attacks. Time will tell how much further back Ukraine will have to go. In a recent blog post, James Howard Kunstler says it like only he can:

 

“The Ukraine operation is not proceeding according to plan. Do you know why? Answer: because it was a stupid plan concocted by purblind Neocon idiots. Russia has been insulted to the degree that it deems America unworthy of negotiation — meaning Russia will bring the Ukraine mess to a conclusion on its terms. They will take care to do it gingerly, so as not to further inflame the psychosis afflicting America and tempt us into even grosser stupidities. Namely, they will insist on a neutral Ukraine with no foreign operators in it and some rearrangement of Ukraine’s borders. America will have to lump it. The Blob Neocon faction will blame the whole lamentable affair on “Joe Biden,” who, by then, will be gone from the White House.” (Kunstler)

 

And not to leave out Ronald Regan who, in 1985, declared: “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”

 

Words to live by.

Cheers, Jake

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* Was it a real coup attempt ? Or was it grandstanding on the billionaire's part? (Though it must be said that several Wagner and regular Russian army troops were killed during the event.)

 

1. "The weapons were first transferred to the United Kingdom in 1954, and later to Germany, Italy, France, Turkey, the Netherlands, Greece, and Belgium. Today, U.S. tactical nuclear weapons remain at six bases in five NATO member countries, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey."

 

[UPDATE: UPDATE: In recent weeks, President Putin has sacked or transferred several top generals, giving credence to the theory that the Prigozhin mutiny at the end of June may have been used by Putin to suss out those commanders who weren't 100% behind his decisions vis-à-vis  the war in Ukraine. American Colonel Douglas Macgregor (retired) suggests that the firings are signs of a healthy military command, one where soldiers are held accountable for their actions. He suggests that, possibly, the commanders let go may have wanted to be more aggressive in the special military operation in Ukraine, with Putin acting as a voice for restraint.]     

 

 

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the-purple-hour/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh-bV0pWDdY (A SONG TO REMIND US WE HAVE FEET MADE OF CLAY.)

 

 

  

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