Play Nice The NM Devils Chessboard thread.

[the big lebowski]

So it’s not a Russian strategy?

 

[Chadwiko]

So it’s not a Russian strategy?

Shocking, isn't it?

I really really hope no one here had been using this thread as their main way of staying informed about the conflict, because it has been absolutely dominated by pro-Russian propaganda, with a notable 6 month~ gap.

 

[Val Keating]

True, but a destabilised large nuclear state still scares me.

Back to the good old post soviet days of gangsters selling nuclear weapons to terrorists

 

[Chadwiko]

 

[the big lebowski]

It might just be a “special military operation”

 

[Val Keating]

The scary thing is what Putin will do to show that he’s still the strongman

 

[Val Keating]

 

[ferball]

Why would he leave Moscow?

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

 

[Hojuman]

Why would he leave Moscow?

Needs a holiday ? Been a rough 16 months.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

Wagner chief agrees to halt advance on Moscow after striking deal with Putin

Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin has called off his paramilitary insurrection against the Kremlin’s armed forces just hours before a potential assault on Moscow.

www.smh.com.au

Madrid: Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin has called off his paramilitary insurrection against the Kremlin’s armed forces just hours before a potential assault on Moscow, which had threatened to be the first coup attempt in the country for three decades.

Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner group, said his convoy of troops, weapons and tanks would stop their journey towards Moscow on Saturday evening and return to their bases. In return, he has agreed to leave Russia for Belarus as part of a deal to end the uprising, while charges against him for organising it will be dropped, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

It followed 24 hours of crisis in which the Kremlin scrambled to turn the capital into a fortress to fight off the rebels, who had threatened to overthrow President Vladimir Putin and take charge of the military.

Putin, whose enemies say he’s been weakened and humiliated by the events, had asked Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a long-time ally, to mediate in the hope of avoiding any further bloodshed because after the group seized control of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and shot down multiple Russian aircraft as part of the insurgency.

Prigozhin said his troops would turn back after advancing within 200 kilometres of Moscow despite Putin’s condemnation of Wagner’s uprising as “treason” and warned that the country risked tipping into civil war.

Putin had vowed to crush the rebellion, which he said was comparable to the 1917 revolution that led to the collapse of imperial Russia. He said he had given “necessary orders” to tackle the Wagner paramilitary group and for “decisive measures” to recapture Rostov from the militia.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said Wagner’s fighters would not be charged “because of their deeds on the front”. He said some Wagner fighters who “came to their senses” and had not taken part in the uprising would sign contracts with the Russian defence ministry.

Prigozhin’s attempted mutiny followed months of increasingly bitter infighting between the warlord and the leaders of Russia’s armed forces, exacerbated by 16 months of war against Ukraine.

The conflict, launched in February last year, has failed to achieve its aims, hamstrung the country’s economy, cost tens of thousands of lives and created a dangerous patchwork of competing militias and security forces.

Lukashenko, who said he spent most of Saturday negotiating on the phone with Prigozhin and Putin, said an agreement was reached “that unleashing a bloodbath on the territory of Russia was unacceptable”.

He said the deal offered to Prigozhin was “absolutely advantageous and acceptable”, and would involve unspecified security guarantees for Wagner. Lukashenko is Putin’s closest ally and allowed the Kremlin leader to use Belarus to launch part of Moscow’s war against Ukraine last year.

Prigozhin’s key demand for the past several months was the removal of the Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, who he blamed for mismanaging the war in Ukraine.

European nations and the United States were scrambling on Saturday to gain a clear picture of events inside Russia, trading information and analysis in hastily arranged video meetings as the political stability of a global nuclear power hung in the balance.

Prigozhin, the founder of the private army of mercenaries that has been fighting alongside the regular Russian army in Ukraine, said on his Telegram channel that he has agreed to “stop” the advancement of his troops towards Moscow.

“Right now the moment has come when blood could be spilled. Therefore, understanding all the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be spilled on one side, we are turning our convoy around and going back to our basecamps, according to the plan,” Prigozhin said in a voice memo.

He had previously said his Wagner forces no longer wanted to live “under corruption, lies, and bureaucracy”.

The agreement to dramatically de-escalate the situation came after Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko held talks with Prigozhin, according to Russian TV channel Rossiya 24. Earlier, the Wagner group said it had taken the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and seized military facilities in Voronezh. Troops had also started to march toward Moscow after crossing the border from Ukraine.

There was speculation that Putin had fled the capital for his hometown of St Petersberg, although his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has said the Russian president remained in the Kremlin. Two aircraft, typically the only jets used by Putin for air travel, had both departed Moscow and were tracked headed toward the northwestern city of St Petersburg.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media it was clear there was “full scale weakness” in Russia.

“The longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain, and problems it will have for itself later,” he said in a post on Twitter.

“Everyone who chooses the path of evil destroys himself.”

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

Mercenary troops withdraw from Rostov as Prigozhin calls off rebellion – as it happened

The mercenaries’ chief said he had halted his troops to avoid ‘Russian bloodshed’, and he is not facing charges

amp.theguardian.com

Wagner chief Prigozhin will move to Belarus under deal​

The Wagner group chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, will move to Belarus under a deal to end the armed mutiny that Prigozhin had led against Russia’s military leadership, the Kremlin said on Saturday night.
The deal was brokered by the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Lukashenko had offered to mediate, with Vladimir Putin’s agreement, because he had known Prigozhin personally for about 20 years.
Peskov said the criminal case that had been opened against Prigozhin for armed mutiny would be dropped, and that the Wagner fighters who had taken part in his “march for justice” would not face any action, in recognition of their previous service to Russia.
Although Putin had earlier vowed to punish those who participated in the mutiny, Peskov said the agreement had had the “higher goal” of avoiding confrontation and bloodshed.
Prigozhin and all of his fighters vacated the military headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don that they had previously taken over, the RIA news agency reported.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

Seized good leverage via an armed insurrection, scared the shit out of the Russian leadership, then blinked, got many of his men integrated into MoD, didn’t get his rivals immediately sacked, and then flew to Belarus to live in exile.

What a 24 hours for Prigozhin.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

 

[travelli]

Seized good leverage via an armed insurrection, scared the s**t out of the Russian leadership, got his enemies in the Russian ministry of defence, and then flew to Belarus with a likely big payday.

What a 24 hours for Prigozhin.

I doubt that pardon will stick though.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

I doubt that pardon will stick though.

Probably.

It’s a fancy word for comfortable exile while most of his men get screwed over.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

 

[krakouers]

This is extremely bizarre

 

[Chadwiko]

Definitely sounds like Prigozhin has secured a quiet assurance that Shoigu and other leaders are being replaced, which was his stated goal right from the start. But I also suspect we won't get a public confirmation of that any time soon.

What a massive strategic setback this has been for Russia though, and what an embarrassment this has been for Putin.

 

[Del191229]

This guy is very pro Ukraine and even he gets it

 

[Del191229]

LOL

 

[Chadwiko]

This guy is very pro Ukraine and even he gets it

For what it's worth I'm familiar with that account and calling him "very pro Ukraine" is hilarious.