The entire world has been stunned by the events of the past 48 hours. The leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was leading a convoy of heavily-armed troops to Moscow, and the mainstream media in the western world was salivating over the prospect of a Russian civil war. The “regime change” in Russia that western leaders have desperately been hoping for seemed like a realistic possibility, and that sparked a frenzy of speculation on social media. But just like that, it was over. All of a sudden Prigozhin was heading into exile in Belarus, and we were told that his troops would be heading back to the front lines in Ukraine.
So why was there such a dramatic turnaround?
I wish that I could tell you. Just hours before the deal was announced, Prigozhin and his forces had seized a regional military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don…
Within hours of a 400-vehicle convoy rolling onto Russian soil from Ukraine, Wagner troops seized control of Russia’s regional military HQ in Rostov-on-Don.
They rode heavy military machinery, tanks and trucks.
And at that time, Prigozhin was pledging that his forces would be “going all the way”…
Prigozhin bragged his men — believed to be better equipped than the Russian army — did not need to fire a single shot as they took control of the HQ.
He said: “The border guards greeted us and hugged our fighters. If anyone gets in our way, we will destroy everything. We are going all the way.”
Of course that was never going to happen, and I think that Prigozhin understood this very well.
One well placed tactical nuke could have taken out him and most of his troops.
But neither side wanted it to come to that.
So Prigozhin backed down, and this sudden reversal left analysts in the western world completely flummoxed…
A loyal henchman slams the premise of the invasion, then claims an airstrike targeted his troops, before taking a major military town without clashes, Prigozhin said, and then marching to within a few hundred miles of Moscow. But suddenly he executes a baffling reversal, turning back to avoid bloodshed, as the Kremlin claims Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus whom Putin seems to treat with contempt, brokered a dramatic reprieve, in which the insurrectionist who has his armor bound for Moscow, now opts for exile in Minsk.
And following the announcement of the deal, Prigozhin was framing the whole episode as simply “a march of justice”…
“They wanted to disband the Wagner military company,” Prigozhin said Saturday. “We embarked on a march of justice on June 23. Now, the moment has come when blood could be spilled. Understanding responsibility [for the chance] that Russian blood will be spilled on one side, we are turning our columns around and going back to field camps as planned.”
What a weird turn of events.
Needless to say, people are coming up with lots and lots of theories to explain what just happened.
For example, one ex-CIA analyst says that the “coup” was actually a “false flag” that was orchestrated by Vladimir Putin himself…
An ex-CIA analyst has claimed Vladimir Putin ‘orchestrated’ the coup with Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhi in a ‘classic false flag’ to try to make the West believe his army had weakened.
Rebekah Koffler told Fox News’ Eric Shawn on Saturday the coup was staged as a way for the Russian leader to boost his political power and he will eventually ‘gain momentum, mobilize additional personnel, and re-energize his offensive on Ukraine.’
Others are suggesting that the U.S. was involved in getting the Wagner Group to commit this insurrection.
I don’t know if that is true or not, but it is being reported that U.S. officials knew in advance that this rebellion would take place…
U.S. officials felt that if they said anything, Mr. Putin could accuse them of orchestrating a coup. And they clearly had little interest in helping Mr. Putin avoid a major, embarrassing fracturing of his support.
While it is not clear exactly when the United States first learned of the plot, intelligence officials conducted briefings on Wednesday with administration and defense officials. On Thursday, as additional confirmation of the plot came in, intelligence officials informed a narrow group of congressional leaders, according to officials familiar with the briefings who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
In fact, the Washington Post is telling us that U.S. spy agencies actually knew “in mid-June” that “armed action” was probably coming…
U.S. spy agencies picked up intelligence in mid-June indicating Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin was planning armed action against the Russian defense establishment — which he has long accused of bungling the war in Ukraine — and urgently informed the White House and other government agencies so they were not caught off guard, several U.S. officials said Saturday.
And it is interesting to note that Joe Biden is working very hard to assure everyone that the U.S. was not involved in this botched coup attempt…
US President Joe Biden’s primary objective following the Wagner insurrection in Russia has been denying Vladimir Putin’s pretext for accusing the West of wanting him dead. In a phone call with allies, Biden emphasized the imperative in not lending any credibility to expected claims from Putin of Western interference.
Now that the coup attempt has failed, where do we go from here?
Well, I think that this will embolden those western leaders that are pushing for regime change in Russia. They will see this latest episode as evidence that what they are doing is working, and they will be more determined than ever to try to remove Putin.
When asked about the insurrection, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN that we have “seen cracks emerge that weren’t there before”…
A mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin came to a swift end Saturday, but it raised new questions about his grip on power and is expected to intensify pressure within Russia over the unpopular Ukraine war.
“I think you’ve seen cracks emerge that weren’t there before,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN’s “State of the Union” program Sunday. Blinken noted that 16 months ago, at the start of the Ukraine war, Russian forces appeared poised to take the Ukraine capital, Kyiv, but were pushed back.
And during a different interview Blinken ominously stated that we “haven’t seen the last act yet”…
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the United States is assuming that the potential threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin might not be over.
“This is an unfolding story,” Blinken said Sunday during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “We haven’t seen the last act. We’re watching it very closely.”
On the other side, this is a huge wake up call for Vladimir Putin.
I think that we are likely to see changes in the Russian military leadership, and eventually I think that the nation will shift into full war mobilization mode.
We are definitely living during a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, and this conflict with Russia is still only in the very early stages.
And of course this is just one of the major wars that we are going to be facing in the coming years.
The Chinese are becoming increasingly frustrated with the Biden administration, and a massive war could erupt in the Middle East at any time.
If our leaders had any sense, they would be pushing for peace.
Sadly, “war fever” seems to be gripping the entire globe, and that is really bad news for everyone.
Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.
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