“Please stand over there. Yes, right where there’s that 1 meter by 1 meter square narrow gap in the tiles.”
“Please ignore the sounds of large cats coming from beneath the floor. That’s just a soundtrack from the Lion King”
This mercenary was killed with a sharp knife . . .
According to this article the lower ranks in Wagner had no idea what the boss was planning.
That would hardly be surprising. Generals don’t include the privates in the planning stages.
For some missions in a well-run military there may be a point where somebody says “This mission is extraordinary and extraordinarily dangerous. We’ll take volunteers only. [Vague outline of mission]. Who wants out?” With the expectation peer pressure will limit the number of non-takers.
More typically there’s a pre-movement briefing for all the troops (or just all the leaders down to squad level) about like “[General outline of mission objectives and unit responsibilities]. We move out at 0800. Be onboard your transport at 0745.”
Theirs not to make reply.
Theirs not to reason why.
Theirs but to do and die.
“The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
War is nasty business. Perhaps the nastiest of businesses. Regardless of rank one is at the mercy of your own side’s skill, motivation, circumstances, and resources as well as those of your opponent.
For sure a battlefield general has a bunch more say and a lot better survival odds than does the tip-of-spear private under his command. But a general in the field is far more at risk than is a private working as a clerk or technician back at some depot or HQ in the homeland.
As numerous Russian generals have recently learned to their perpetual dismay.
Prigozhin isn’t a real general or even a soldier. He’s the guy who signs the paychecks and makes provocative tweets. When the paychecks stop, so does the loyalty. There is no tradition of military obedience to be adhered to. The officers leading the charge to Moscow must have been anticipating a big payday to follow those orders.
All true. But irrelevant to the question of whether any given Wagner trooper knew where they were going or why. Not his job to worry about such stuff.
I still find the story we have been told to not be credible.
The only action that was taken was Wagner removing itself from the battle in Ukraine and ending up in Belarus.
Ukraine is hitting Russian territory but not another outside nation. They did not fire upon the retreating troops because they were “rebelling” against Russia. In the meantime Russia changed the front line of war and bombed Odessa and the port.
Apparently to get murdered in the most obvious murder in history.
The only surprise is that it wasn’t a window.
Sometimes a window just isn’t high enough.
I found an article.
Ten people have been killed in a private jet crash north of Moscow - with the Russian Civil Aviation Authority saying Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger list.
I’m shocked. This is my shocked face.
Apparently Utkin on board the plane too. Nice.
Big question now (assuming this information is all true) is what dissenters do. Fall in line, try to leave, or try to do the coup correctly.
Probably dismantling/weakening Wagner first before killing its leader(s).
There’s video of the ‘crash’ over in the other thread.
What was the pilot thinking?
It should have been:
« Prigozhin is on the passenger manifest? I’m calling in sick. »