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| Russian President addressing his nation on June 24. (BBC) |
Saturday, June 24, 2023. Surely a red letter day in world history.
The day when a Russian mercenary group took on the country's powerful army and seemed to have had a free run -- encountering no resistance -- smashing their way to Moscow and coming very close to the seat of power.
Then came another dramatic development. They called off their march to the capital and retreated.
The previous night, I knew there was trouble brewing as the news ticker on the TV screen said Wagner group soldiers were crossing over to Russia from Ukraine. The reports said that these were very unusual movements.
On the morning of Saturday, news was coming in thick and fast -- on social media -- from mostly unverifiable sources that Wagner Group had launched a mutiny and were battling Russian forces.
Yevgeny Prigozhin -- oligarch and close confident of Russian President Vladimir Putin -- was topping headlines.
Why did he launch this? What was his endgame? We knew Prigozhin had problems with the top brass of the army. But would he launch something massive like this for that?
Answers were hard to come by.
Then came the news that the group had taken control of Rostov-on-Don. After that, reports of the mercenaries heading to Moscow.
This was not just sensational. It was worrying because of one single reason -- the chaos and instability that seemed to be looming in the region and all the aftereffects of that in the geopolitical sphere, besides, of course, the possible bloodshed and destruction that all this would entail.
Is Moscow going to fall?
Now more questions -- where is the Russian army? Are they so depleted that a rebellious mercenary group is having a cakewalk all the way to Moscow?
By evening, we were getting reports that Russia was summoning the full might of its military to stop the march and quell the mutiny.
Very soon came the news of Yevgeny Prigozhin telling his men to turn back following an intervention from Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
What we are hearing is that Prigozhin is in exile in Belarus, and his men are being absorbed into the Russian military.
That itself is a dramatic development.
Has Prigozhin got what he wanted? Has Wagner Group been disbanded? Is Putin now stronger or weaker?
No clear answers. Only time will tell.
The day when a Russian mercenary group took on the country's powerful army and seemed to have had a free run -- encountering no resistance -- smashing their way to Moscow and coming very close to the seat of power.
Then came another dramatic development. They called off their march to the capital and retreated.
The previous night, I knew there was trouble brewing as the news ticker on the TV screen said Wagner group soldiers were crossing over to Russia from Ukraine. The reports said that these were very unusual movements.
On the morning of Saturday, news was coming in thick and fast -- on social media -- from mostly unverifiable sources that Wagner Group had launched a mutiny and were battling Russian forces.
Yevgeny Prigozhin -- oligarch and close confident of Russian President Vladimir Putin -- was topping headlines.
Why did he launch this? What was his endgame? We knew Prigozhin had problems with the top brass of the army. But would he launch something massive like this for that?
Answers were hard to come by.
Then came the news that the group had taken control of Rostov-on-Don. After that, reports of the mercenaries heading to Moscow.
This was not just sensational. It was worrying because of one single reason -- the chaos and instability that seemed to be looming in the region and all the aftereffects of that in the geopolitical sphere, besides, of course, the possible bloodshed and destruction that all this would entail.
Is Moscow going to fall?
Now more questions -- where is the Russian army? Are they so depleted that a rebellious mercenary group is having a cakewalk all the way to Moscow?
By evening, we were getting reports that Russia was summoning the full might of its military to stop the march and quell the mutiny.
Very soon came the news of Yevgeny Prigozhin telling his men to turn back following an intervention from Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
What we are hearing is that Prigozhin is in exile in Belarus, and his men are being absorbed into the Russian military.
That itself is a dramatic development.
Has Prigozhin got what he wanted? Has Wagner Group been disbanded? Is Putin now stronger or weaker?
No clear answers. Only time will tell.
Wagner's private army was presumably paid by Putin to fight against Ukrainians. The Wagner army is purely for hire. It is not idealistic and though so many of us would like to see Putin receive his comeuppance, at the hands of Wagner even if successful would probably lead to a much worse situation.
ReplyDeleteThose mercenaries have gone back for now. But they do raise a question: can someone like Putin go on waging a war forever?
ReplyDeleteHi Tomi - That's true. In this era, war is a lose-all proposition.
DeleteHi Pradeep - too early to know isn't it ... I wonder if there's someone else in Wagner, who can replace Prigozhin; also where is he now? Oh well - we shall find out in due course ... cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteIt will be better for himself, if Putin stops this war.
ReplyDeleteHi Rajesh - Yes, better to find some way to end it. Because, nowadays war is clearly not option.
DeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteIt was a tense day for sure...
In better news, I had reset your URL in my reader and now all your posts are showing up! (Before you left msg of other format, so goodness knows what it was all about...) YAM xx
From what I've read, this man is another fascist mad that he doesn't have more power. There are no winners in this situation, except for the people who won't get hurt in the crossfire.
ReplyDeleteMr. Putin is not all that powerful as we thought, Poor guy has to ask the help of Alexander Lukashenko to solve the internal problem of Russia.
ReplyDeleteWe live in strange times...
ReplyDeleteWhat started as a bang ended in a whimper! I agree with you that all is not clear.
ReplyDeleteThese are crazy times. Best wishes!
ReplyDeleteScary times, was it an alliance between them to move troups, or someting else? As you said, time will tell...
ReplyDelete