Lying Dog of a Woman Promotes New Kremlin-Approved Cope as Prigozhin Howls Into the Void

Just as predicted.

As you may well know by now, Prigozhin has taken it upon himself to personally call bullshit on all the media efforts of the MoD and to continue his media assault on his opponents, who, so far, have not responded in kind.

Once again, seeing as no one will do it, here are the bullet points from his latest video address concerning the Russian losses around Bakhmut (and my commentary in the brackets):

• so, Konoshenko lied, there was no strategic regrouping, the MoD troops were routed around Berhovka [lying on camera is literally his official job, let’s not be too harsh on him, I mean what do you expect]

• the UAF will take the strategic heights soon

• the blockade of Bakhmut is now broken, the UAF has taken back the road that Wagner blocked and would shoot up [this means that men and supplies can go in and out unmolested, which was the only argument left for Bakhmut being a meat-grinder for UAF forces. Also, who even routed these Russian soldiers? according to Konoshenko, the UAF has been destroyed 3 times over!]

• after Berhovka, they will surround Bakhmut

• the MoD promised to cover our flanks, but didn't

• promised supplies, but only give us 10%

• they dont give us new equipment, with the hope that we will be eliminated for good

• we keep storming the nest

• 20 more buildings until we take bakhmut [but why??? this is what i don't get. are they being forced to by the MoD?]

• taking bakhmut wont change anything

• furthermore, we will soon be surrounded. [In other words, "we're being surrounded, we have no ammo. Charge!!!" We are not being told some important detail here, clearly.]

• the MoD is trying to lie to the public that will lead to a tragic disaster for Russia. STOP LYING!

• they also, despite all this time, haven't prepared a defense

• the worst case scenario that I outlined is coming to pass

• there were 4 points made to us on may 7th

• we were told that if we retreat, we would be accused of treason to the state

• we were promised the supplies that we wanted

• we were given Surovikin as a liaison

• and our flanks were to be covered by the MoD

• it is better that they had not even tried to help considering the poor job that they did

• so, regarding the first point, why are treason accusations not leveled at the ppl who abandoned the flanks?

• are the rules simply being selectively applied to Wagner? [rhetorical question, he clearly means to say that Wagner is being singled out for deliberate destruction as a potential enemy of the MoD as part of a political intrigue against Wagner. The plan is to get Ukraine to do the dirty work and even help them along so that Wagner is outflanked and killed. Standard Kremlin modus operandi, actually. Probably how they got rid of the original Donbass patriots.]

That was yesterday evening. Wagner apparently cannot retreat because they will be arrested, and they cannot prevent the encirclement, and so, therefore, they are reduced to issuing pleas that the media studiously ignores like they ignore Strelkov’s new political party presser, which I am in the process of writing up, stay tuned.

My fervent hope is that Prigozhin is exaggerating and that there is a way out for Wagner, a way out of what seems to be a trap set for them by the MoD as the anvil and the UAF as the hammer. Wagner, however, appears to be an obstacle to the Kremlin elites, who want to get on with the negotiations and not suffer any political consequences for their failure at home in the aftermath.

Also, I hope that Prigozhin is engaging in hyperbole when he says that he had to turn his guns on the MoD soldiers.

At this pace, they will start shooting at one another for real.

But, perhaps we ought to consult what the Teixeira leaks told us about the MoD’s strategy for containing Wagner again? I wrote about it before. Here’s what the US thinks about the situation:

Previously unreported U.S. intelligence documents allegedly leaked by National Guard airman Jack Teixeira on the Discord platform indicate that the military leadership struggled to respond to Prigozhin, and the outspoken Wagner chief appealed personally to President Vladimir Putin to intervene.

His rants suggest that his pleas have fallen on deaf ears, and the threat to abandon the fight in Bakhmut — the longest, fiercest battle in the war — are a last-ditch effort to cling to a prominent role in the invasion.

…

The leaked documents indicate that Russia’s military leadership was frustrated by Prigozhin’s bitter public attacks, and debated how to quash his criticism.

Defense Ministry officials considered launching a public campaign to discredit Prigozhin through a proxy, according to the documents.

“The officials initially noted that, if the MoD was going to try to counter Prigozhin’s public statements, they should find allies of equal status to fight Prigozhin rather than doing so itself,” stated one document, labeled top secret. “However, they were ultimately unsure how the MoD could successfully fight an information war with Prigozhin if the Russian government did not forbid Prigozhin from making public releases.”

The document indicated the information was based on a “signals intelligence report,” meaning it was acquired by intercepting or eavesdropping on communications.

…

Wagner has covertly advanced Moscow’s interests around the world for the past nine years. But during that time, Prigozhin, who earned a fortune and the nickname “Putin’s chef” from government catering contracts, has fallen in and out of favor with the Russian leader and his inner circle.

Russia’s early failures in the war in Ukraine offered the mercenary leader a chance to become a national power player by coming to Moscow’s rescue with his private army.

While Russian forces blundered, Wagner scored some modest but highly publicized wins, earning the group a spotlight on national television and Prigozhin a boost in influence. With his growing political profile came emboldened attacks on army leaders and regional authorities in his hometown of St. Petersburg.

Since January, Prigozhin has claimed that Russian state media have been instructed to avoid quoting him or mentioning Wagner, a departure from last year’s glowing coverage praising the group’s role in what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

[Fact check: true. I have reported on this media blackout before.]

…

For a time, Prigozhin was allowed to berate officials with seeming impunity, which analysts noted fit with Putin’s strategy of splitting political turf and the battlefield in Ukraine into separate fiefs controlled by rival groups so that none grow too powerful.

[Yeah, this is considered settled knowledge even within Russia about Putin’s MO as CEO of Russia.]

…

Prigozhin is believed to have been called into a meeting with Putin and Shoigu on or around Feb. 22, the day he posted the picture of the dead soldiers, the documents indicate.

“The meeting almost certainly concerned, at least in part, Prigozhin’s public accusations and resulting tension with Shoygu,” one document read, using an alternative spelling of the defense minister’s last name.

That seems to be a fairly accurate account of the situation, wouldn’t you say? They try to ignore him because they are afraid of direct confrontation and having to address his accusations against them, so they just intrigue to have his men blown to bits by the UAF.

Makes sense to me. It also explains why Russia officially denied the authenticity of the leaks. While wildly inaccurate in some places, it still made them look bad.

But now Prigozhin is forcing the issue. Not a day goes by without at least one or two provocative statements, each one more dire and escalatory than the one before. The tension is really building up. This a first-rate thriller. Internal fighting coming to a head as the enemy offensive looms large and the front around Bakhmut continues to crumble.

**

If you recall, I wrote about how I noticed that the Russian state media was behaving very strangely in regards to the looming offensive.

Here’s what I said:

You know, last week, I talked about the strange behavior of Russian state media. Here is what I said:

Another data point worth mentioning is just how strangely the Russian state media has been treating the announced Ukrainian offensive. I have been waiting for some categorical denials or some sort of assurance that all is well and prepared ahead of time, but I have not seen anything of the kind. There have been, of course, lots of vague, non-specific, “all will be well” type analyses. But these have almost all studiously avoided mentioning the particulars of the Ukrainian offensive or Russia’s prepared defense.

I don’t know what to make of it all.

You would expect Russian media to be full of people pretending that nothing is going to happen and that all is well. But, for the most part, from checking in on Channel 1 periodically, all I see is Russian pundits watching news and reports coming out from the West and Ukraine and nervously chewing their lips. It is almost as if they are afraid to ask the question out loud: are we ready for this offensive? So, all they do is just share the news coming out of the enemy camp and and laugh nervously. I’m sitting here wondering why they can’t find a Russian Gonzago Lira or Big Serge to start coming on air and explaining to the Russian public that the situation is under control and all part of a larger Russian plan to checkmate Satan. You’d think they’d at least do that. Occasionally, they do trot out Macgregor and Ritter, which is basically akin to falling for your own psy-op. Mostly, they just share the news and lob accusations at the West for being Nazi-Fascists, reaffirm their own moral goodness, gnash their teeth that the West is arming Ukraine and then nervously titter about the coming offensive.

I … I’m perplexed.

It is almost as if Russian media is slightly more honest than Western media in the sense that no one feels comfortable going on air and stating that all will be well and that victory will be in Russia’s grasp within two weeks because of how bad it might look a few weeks from now. It is … it is really something.

And here is the confirmation of my observations. Apparently, the Russian state media is being told to toe a careful line:

According to the publication [Moscow Times], the state media should not reassure the Russians by talking about the unpreparedness of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Presenters and journalists are tasked with “not lowering expectations” about the announced counter-offensive, as well as to emphasize that NATO countries supply Ukraine with weapons and support it in every possible way.

Sources in the presidential administration say that with this approach, it will be easier for the Russians to accept a possible defeat. If Ukraine wins back some territories, the Russians will be convinced that it was possible to do this thanks to the “great efforts of the West.”

Now, here is Simonyan’s latest performance on state media.

She lashes out at “skeptics” and people who are not enthusiastic about recent “gains”.

“We defeated Ukraine as such in two or three, how many days there ... When they took Gostomel, when they completely disarmed, in fact, Ukraine, destroying its main military forces ... And then a war began with NATO and not only ... With countries that are not part of in NATO," Simonyan said.

She then asks, “was it possible for us to know that we would end up fighting NATO?” Funny enough, Peskov asked the same question of his own government recently as well! At least he then provided an answer! No! Russia was too naive and trusting again!

Gee, it sure sounds like Simonyan and Peskov got the new talking points memo, doesn’t it?

The topic of the above debate was whether or not Russia was fighting badly, and she shifted the focus to NATO, like a good girl. Also, the other pundits look on glassy-eyed, none of them man enough to tell her to shut it and reveal to the audience that she is reading from a script! The same script that they all got handed to them before the show!

A lot of great new Simonyan quotes from this latest performance that we will remember and treasure, I’m sure, in the years to come.

But my favorite quote from Margarita Simonyan remains the classic one from many a year back, when she said that if Russian nationalists were ever to take power in Russia, she and all her friends would be hanged as traitors the very next day.

Which …

She wasn’t wrong then and she isn’t wrong now on that one count at least.