The head of the Russian private military company was on the passenger list of 10 people who died.
  • Takios@feddit.deEnglish
    64·
    1 year ago

    In German we have a saying that’s quite fitting in this situation I think:

    “Tja.”

    • DarkThoughts@kbin.social
      24·
      1 year ago

      Edit: Three separate sources confirmed Prigozhin and Utkin dead. Not only Wagnerites but also ultranationalists are calling for blood.

      🍿

    • tal@kbin.social
      7·
      1 year ago

      Wagner Channels already announced another March of Justice™ in case YP ate shit.

      My understanding is that they had their heavy weapons taken away and were moved out of Russia, maybe specifically to guard against this scenario. And some people signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense. I don’t think that there’s much of an intact independent Wagner organization in Russia right now.

      • A2PKXG@feddit.deEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        If you were Wagner, would you have kept some guns for later? I would have

        • tal@kbin.social
          3·
          1 year ago

          So, if you’ve got the population involved, I could believe that you could do an uprising with small arms, sure.

          But this isn’t “the Russian public is pissed to the point of fighting”, but “some people in Wagner are pissed”. Wagner’s got military-trained people, but they aren’t that big.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_Group

          Largest number there was 50K, and I don’t think that they’re anywhere near that big any more, because they don’t have convicts on short-term contracts any more. I think I remember seeing something like 5k in Belarus. Some Wagner people are in Africa or elsewhere. My impression is that the Kremlin wanted them out of Russia as an independent organization – the people there had to sign on with the military, and I assume that they probably dispersed those. So, a lot of that isn’t an internal threat.

          I think that they weren’t likely to pull off the first march if it came to a serious fight, and that was before a significant portion of the organization was dismantled, and people who agreed with them, like Surovikin, were removed. What was notable then was that a lot of the people in the public, local Russian military, didn’t really care, weren’t aiming to resist, and they had some level of support from the public, so maybe they could have just rolled into Moscow in some sort of a coup situation and supported that. But if their patrons are gone, I assume that that cannot happen either.

          My guess is that if Putin is at risk, it’s more because now he’s more-dependent now on the military, and maybe someone in the military could perform a coup. He doesn’t have Wagner as an independent force to play off against them. Lots of countries have leaders that have been deposed by the military if military leaders think that they can get a better deal with the leader gone.

          • A2PKXG@feddit.deEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            I don’t expect another uprising. I just think that prigoshin told himself: putin won’t dare kill me, because then XYZ will happen.

            XYZ might also just be a revenge murder, perhaps Putin, perhaps one of his mistresses, whatever…

    • A2PKXG@feddit.deEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      I would expect him to have some contingencies. He must have believed that none would dare mess with him.

  • Diplomjodler@feddit.deEnglish
    301·
    1 year ago

    Well. Who would have thought. Then again, that seems a pretty cliche way to go. I would have thought he’d make it harder for them.

    • Flipper@feddit.deEnglish
      12·
      1 year ago

      According to an American agency, he stayed in a hotel without windows. So he made it hard for them.

    • tal@kbin.social
      2·
      1 year ago

      I would have thought he’d make it harder for them.

      The guy is on the West’s shitlist and then got himself on Putin’s shitlist too. Where is he going to go?

      The West probably isn’t going to assassinate him, but I suspect that he’d likely be heading for a courtroom and later jail cell over some of the things that Wagner did.

      https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2023/02/03/ukraine-prosecutor-general-prigozhin-wagner/1181675434937/

      Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General has filed charges against Wagner mercenary group head Yevgeny Prigozhin. The organization is accused of war crimes in Ukraine, Syria and Mali.

      Maybe you can hide somewhere, but that’s a lot of parties out there who would like to get ahold of you.

  • Rhabuko@feddit.deEnglish
    14·
    1 year ago

    A bullet in the head or a heroin overdose would have been cheaper and had costs fewer lives, but Russia is Russia. They love their “accidents”.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    131·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger list of a plane which crashed in Russia, killing all 10 on board.

    Earlier, a Wagner-linked Telegram channel Grey Zone reported that the jet was shot down by air defences in Tver region, north of Moscow.

    Prigozhin led a failed mutiny against the Russian armed forces in June.

    This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

    Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

    You can also follow @BBCBreaking on Twitter to get the latest alerts.

    The original article contains 114 words, the summary contains 90 words. Saved 21%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!