Pay Attention to How Russia's Pundits Are Reacting to the Prigozhin Assassination

People know what really happened. We all do.

The idea that Washington killed the entirety of Wagner’s leadership is … well, a lot of people on my “side” believe it. And who am I to go against the wisdom of the masses? I am just a humble man with no strong opinions one way or the other, really and all wise men have always said since time immemorial, “the mob has an uncanny ability to discern the truth, every single time”. That’s a direct quote from Benjamin Franklin, who was a big supporter of Democracy in Ukraine in his time as well. Me, I’m not Ben, but I go wherever the wind blows and I have no convictions other than figuring out what is popular to believe in and believing in it louder than everyone else like every moral person ought to be doing as well.

But what about what other people in Russia are saying? Worth looking into, I think. And because it is so obvious who killed Wagner (Dark Brandon, of course) it reveals a lot about who stands where and who works for whomst within Russia based on the signals that they’re sending out now.

Let’s start with Alexander Dugin:

If the diabolical enemy kills our heroes with precision, it means that we have heroes.

And:

Life, like death, can only be random for random people. There, perhaps, it is mechanical millstones and a sporadic invasion of arbitrariness. Real people have a destiny, which means the highest meaning, deep meaning and great logic - both in life and in death. Senselessness is far worse than death. Prigozhin, Utkin and other people of Wagner were anything but random people.

And:

The attitude of Russians towards each other does not go from person to person, but differently somehow. Maybe through the ground itself. And so, through the Russian land, we understand each other, and pity, and feel for one another. Both the living and the dead.

So there you have it - a clear condemnation of President Joe Brandon’s hit on the Wagner team. Note the precise language and pointed accusation leveled at NATO for killing Wagner.

Oleg Tsarev (the guy who might have replaced Zelensky):

This is a powerful blow to the country. Let her not even fully realize it yet. Prigozhin was the Russian joker that allowed her to play on the world stage not by the rules.

Our enemies have a holiday today. We are in grief.

I stand with Tsarev and his courage in pointing out who the killers of Wagner were despite the risks for doing so. A true politician!

Scott Ritter:

Ritter openly says that Putin assassinated him as revenge, but that this will be suppressed in Russia. “When you strike at the king, you have to kill him”.

So, the mutiny was real, was it? Interesting that Ritter broke with the narrative. I’m sure he will correct his course though. Running with the “yeah they killed him and that’s good” isn’t a good look. I mean I don’t care, and I’m sure you guys don’t, but our fellow citizens are much more skittish about this kind of thing.

Comrade Artem (Communist conspiracy theorist):

I have two versions.

1. You know what [I’m about to say]. It was voiced in detail, in the very first minutes, by the Ukrainian blogger Shariy. He probably knew something;

2. The brilliant work of Western intelligence agencies. One shot of MANPADS and "Wagner" is no more.

About the dead one says either good things or nothing but the truth. I'll tell the truth. All the top management of Wagner ended up on the same plane. Is it professionalism? How could Utkin let this happen? This is sloppiness and disregard for elementary safety rules! Even Wagner was relaxed. What about the rest of the country...

Clinical. Either the Kremlin killed him or they didn’t. He hesitates to say “maybe the Kremlin killed them” and says, well, “you know what I’m hinting at here”.

Slavyangrad/Gleb (Stalinist Tankies)

#Musings

On Prigozhin:

—

First and foremost, as with all musings, I do not speak for nor represent SLG here.

That said, I did raise a toast to Prigozhin this evening for all the good deeds he has done in the past and for the justice that has taken place in the present.

No man is without sin, may he rest in peace now that he has passed.

Now, getting down to business.

- Russian state action is unlikely. A bomb risks discovery and a catostrophic revolt from such. Not a 100% safe option

AA likewise ensures countless civilians filming the incident which inevtiably leads to its leak.

-Ukrainian state action is plausible as discovery of a bomb leaves plausible deniability of state action and even then, what do they care about public image.

The single most likely scenario is simply a plain old aircraft mechnical failure in an engine leading to a crash.

This in my mind is undoubtedly what will be concluded by the Russian government. You may think they’re lying, verily well, but that is nonetheless what the official stance shall be.

In the slim chance it was a bomb strike, Russia shall of course pin the blame on the SBU, and the SBU may even take credit for the act even if they did not partake in it.

Is there a message from the Russian state in this? Unlikely

A message from the Ukrainian state? Also unlikely - Prigozhin was off the map. If they could have killed him so easily, he’d have been dead before having been shunted to Africa.

Conclusion, again, with purported video and data from Flight Tracker 24, ultimately implies an organic failure of the aircraft and nothing more sinister.

That’s probably the most hands-down retarded take I’ve heard out of them all. Unlucky mechanical failure takes out the entirety of Wagner’s command on the exact 2 month anniversary of the mutiny? How do people like this even exist? Life is just a series of coincidences I suppose. Except when it’s time to talk Marxism. Then, everything can be understood as logical cause and effect and hegelian dialectic and historical materialism, etc.

Either this Communist is dumb or he is a dumb liar. That is why I stopped reading him a long time ago. Shame he knows English and so many Westerners read him.

Alex Parker Returns (formerly AP Wagner before shut down of Prigozhin’s Patriot Media social media empire):

Apparently there were two shots on the plane. They worked extremely hard. Given such bestial hatred and the desire to take revenge, during the putsch attempt, both the Tuvan degenerate and Pypa were frightened of all the money. Just like that, such a desire for revenge does not just appear.

And:

Before the murder of Prigozhin, Yevkurov flew to Africa. It was an attempt from the Ministry of Defense to declare that they themselves would now be able to control the African file. In fact, I am sure that now the Ministry of Defense will completely lose Africa. It's just a marginal note now. Russian Africa is entirely the project and merit of the late once most promising politician [Prigozhin]. And the death of Prigozhin will cross out almost all the prospects of the Russian Federation on this continent. The French are delighted.

And:

I also remembered hohma. At the time when the people's commanders of Donbass were being killed, the [spooks] of that time liked to immediately blame the Ukrainian DRGs for the assassination attempts. Whomever they kill is a Ukrainian DRG. Shadow Squad and so on. But even then, the pranksters joked that the Ukrainian DRG and the Shadows would kill anyone, but not Comrade Khodakovsky. And so it happened like that. Comrade Khodakovsky has successfully lived to this day and even made a good career for himself.

I’ve written about Khodakovsky’s spook career and surprising longevity before here:

One last AP post though:

Again. I'm sorry about Dmitry Utkin. He was first and foremost a real warrior. He entered into the adventure with the putsch sincerely and to the fullest. For real. Lotus jumped off the wagon. For Utkin, there were no such thing as impossible tasks. There was only excitement. And he led the columns going to Moscow. Alas, the betrayal of the once most promising politician eventually led to the death of Dmitry Utkin. The legendary fighter and commander died not on the battlefield, but from a vile blow to the back.

AP blames Prigozhin for cutting a deal and then getting one of Russia’s most promising commanders killed in a Kremlin revenge strike, basically.

Aleksei Larkin (correspondent in Donbass and my old podcast buddy who ran off to work for RT):

As I understand it, today is a holiday in Ukraine. And it was provided by people whose cosmic ego overshadows any interests and needs of the country.

What can be said here. Don't forget to hang medals with a trident, you deserve them.

Unsurprisingly, he blames Kiev. So do all the other state media war correspondents for obvious reasons. Honest people don’t get far in journalism, folks.

Roman Saponkov (state media war-correspondent):

The assassination of Prigozhin would have catastrophic consequences. The people who gave the order do not understand the mood in the army and morale at all.

Translation: Russian soldiers will take revenge on the UAF for Wagner’s death. Very politically safe and correct, as can be expected.

VCHK-OGPU (the people leaking all the news from inside the Kremlin to the West):

A source familiar with Prigozhin about the death of the latter:

"Prigozhin was sure that Putin would forgive him everything and was not afraid of anything. He said that he knew a lot .... We will see if something from his archives appears now ... As for the people with whom Prigozhin died. They always three of us flew - Prigozhin, Utkin, Chekalov. Chekalov was responsible for the entire rear, Utkin for the combat unit of the PMC Wagner."

Well, they’ve been right about almost everything else so far …

Belarussian Silovik:

Western sources will reflect on the topic of the death of the Wagner PMC leadership for several more days, throwing in facts that, as it were, should cast doubt on any more or less official versions.

One of them is already about the fact that Prigozhin's phone (!) was found near one of the bodies of the crashed plane. At the same time, the bodies cannot be recognized due to their condition.

Yes, and where they got the information from, even my Russian colleagues cannot tell me anything intelligible, who were raised and urgently sent to that steppe.

The spook also reports that nothing is happening in Belarus and that no one is attacking Wagner and Wagner is not attacking anyone or moving out anywhere. His position is quite clear: let’s see where the wind blows on this and what Luka says first.

Strelkov:

Oh wait, Strelkov is in prison on secret hate crime charges. And rightly so, may I add! I strongly disavow!

**

There are, of course, hundreds of Telegram channels sharing their evasive non-reactions to the most sensational news of the year, probably. But these are the ones I check on the reg to get a wide sampling of normie opinions, commie opinions, pro and anti-Wagner opinions and, of course, Strelkov used to be the best out of them all, but he’s gone now and we have to make do.

Most people are scared and keeping their mouths shut or being vague and saying little. Why are they acting this way? You know why. I know why. They know why. No one will admit what everyone is thinking now though, because, well, just because, OK?

I’ll respect the silence though.

Also, it seems clear to me that the next time a high level internal spat in Russia happens there won’t be any backing down or compromises. Now everyone knows that it’s either total victory or death. So, there won’t be anyone challenging the government in any way unless they’re ready to go all the way. It seems glaringly clear to me that we’ve missed yet another off-ramp in our headlong descent into chaos and eventually internal civil war within Russia.