Prigozhin's Most Explosive Interview Yet Confirms Everything That This Blog Has Been Saying For Months Now
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Here, watch this first:
Prigozhin either states of strongly implies the following in just this short clip:
He has been cut off by the Russian MoD
He is no longer cooperating with the MoD nor they with him
He is being denied access to military comms so that he cannot securely communicate with others on the front
He suspects that he is being snooped on
He hints that his internal enemies want him and his pilot to have an accident in the air
The MoD is jealous of Wagner’s success and does everything in their power to prevent him from showing them up
They are actively sabotaging the Bakhmut effort so that Wagner cannot take credit for it
They believe Prigozhin has political ambitions
They are doing all they can to torpedo Wagner’s rising popularity
The Russian army is not doing well on other fronts
Shell hunger is a real problem on the Russian side
Other points not raised by Prigozhin in the interview this time, but which are also very relevant to the discussion and ought to understood:
There is a Russian state media blackout on Wagner to limit their popularity
Many in Russia’s ruling and cultural class have an ideological aversion to Wagner’s right-wing aesthetic and the patriotic pro-Russian views of many of its commanders
Russia’s army is basically a feudal conglomeration of squabbling warlords and their private military fiefdoms with the MoD playing favorites with some, but not others
Wagner has the potential to be a new political player within Russia, and the entrenched elites fear this potential development
I suppose it all boils down to who you want to believe about the state of this war going forward.
Wagner, Strelkov, Rolo and all the other Right-of-Kremlin bloggers and analysts?
Or, Russian state media and their loyal 5D blogger mouthpieces in the West?
That is the decision readers and writers have to both make going forward. And, there can be no pretending that this dichotomy no longer exists.
There can be no more pretending that there isn’t a huge pro-Russian, but Kremlin-critical caucus of patriots of various stripes and colors that is sounding the alarm about the way that the Kremlin is waging this war on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a valid excuse. The conflict is out there in the open now and Wagner has spearheaded this bridgehead. Those who pretend that it doesn’t exist, that Wagner does not exist, or that Strelkov does not exist, or that I don’t exist, sitting here translating and explaining what these people have to say, are obfuscating deliberately at this point.
These people need to be called out until they explain themselves.
I am relieved that Prigozhin has finally made public that which has been boiling under the surface since at least late summer and I expect him to continue to make a lot of noise until he is able to get the concessions he wants from the MoD. The fact that he is forced to go public with all of this shows that he is losing the internal political battle. No need to air dirty laundry otherwise.
The next step in the escalation of the fight between Wagner and the MoD is the naming of names. Bureaucrats, generals, and oligarchs, maybe, who are against Team Wagner.
Anyways, the full interview is here.
Some other interesting bits from the interview were his praise for the founder of Wagner, Dmiti Utkin, who apparently remains very much in the picture, but out of the spotlight. This is wonderful news. I wrote about this man of mystery and mystique here:
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I couldn’t resist translating some fun recent Prigozhin comments. These should get you chuckling if you still have a sense of humor.
On advertising Wagner on porn sites:
“I don’t know on which ones exactly, but advertising PMC Wagner on porn sites is a very good idea by our market team. I absolutely support them, and the advertisement says: “Come fight with Wagner PMC, stop jerking off.” Who can disagree with this statement?”
On the new law promising stiff penalties for “discrediting the war effort”:
“The new law on the prohibition of discrediting volunteers was, among other things, initiated and supported by me with the following goal: those prisoners who participated in the SVO should not be constantly responsible for their past. Attention, it is the past. If they are now committing any new offenses, then you can talk about it as much as you like, I think so. Also, I believe that the law on defamation should not apply to the commanding staff, namely me, the Minister of Defense, other leaders, who, among other things, make or may make mistakes in the SVO. About them, you need to say what society considers necessary. Only the soldier is holy. Therefore, the soldiers do not need to be touched.
As for the claims that may arise against me, I am not discrediting anyone. I speak only the truth and have all the evidence, including documented ones, this is the first. And secondly, all my statements are checked by lawyers, and therefore I carefully choose my expressions. Of course, anyone can be imprisoned, including me, but in this situation, one should not forget that 146 million Russians can be imprisoned, and this is a road to nowhere.”
On how the Baltic fighters are cowards, but Scandinavians and Finns are true warriors:
“Mercenaries from the Baltic countries are quite common. However, as I already said, the Norwegians, Finns and Swedes who fight, including against us, as a rule, are worthy professional fighters. Latvians, Estonians and Lithuanians are usually either there for the money or so-called military tourists who behave extremely cowardly. Often there are cases when they leave their comrades and scatter in different directions. We often hear their speech in the intercepts of negotiations. In a word, we can say that the fighters fighting on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the Baltic countries are truly cowards.
On a new ideology for Wagner:
“Today the problem is that Wagner PMC fighters are well-trained military men who are able to perform special military tasks set by the command and they fulfill them regardless of ideological preparation. Having a fairly deep experience in combat operations, it becomes more and more obvious that the effectiveness of fighters increases if they are correctly ideologically motivated: “Not a step back”, “This is our home”, “We are fighting for justice” and so on. Today we have a clear understanding that the West’s main ideological narrative is the fight for democracy, and so we have developed an ideological narrative for ourselves - the "Struggle for Justice". Now we have to decide how to ideologically prepare our fighters so that they fight not against democracy and not against the population of the collective West, but against the ideological centers of evil that are trying to destroy the united and great Russia. Ideological training, in my opinion, will multiply the effectiveness of our units.
On Wagner taking regular military units of the Russian army under their wing:
“For reasons of secrecy, I can’t give the name and number of the military formation, but, really, these are the guys with whom we now stand shoulder to shoulder. I’ll summarize our relationship briefly - by the beginning of last year, fate treated them poorly, and with their eyes bleeding from pain and betrayal, they joined Wagner’s cause. We prepared and protected them for almost a year: at first we kept them under our organization, until, step by step, they got stronger. Now they cover one of our flanks. And the guy in the video, brigade commander, is a normal, strong Russian man. Such people should manage the Russian army - simple, understandable, correct, honest. And the majority of military men are like him. At some moment though, unprofessional scoundrels and intriguers took over the organization from these honest guys and began to push around and humiliate them.
On Beglov, the very corrupt and incompetent governor of St. Petersburg:
“Beglovshchina” is a new phenomenon in our life. This is when officials take, roughly speaking, certain state property into management and use it the way they like it. Beglov likes to ruin his city, he likes that it is being destroyed, he likes it when it is completely covered in litter from beginning to end, that it is not cleaned, not repaired. He likes it when infrastructure breaks and shit pours out everywhere.
Therefore, the city now looks like a monster. When St. Petersburg guys go on combat missions in Bakhmut, where their feet get stuck in mud and fragments, where there are pieces of stones and mines under their feet, then what do they think about? Looking at this muck, they think (and I also think about it when I walk there) that someone's wife, mother, daughter is walking with a stroller along a clean street and someone's grandmother is sitting on a cleaned bench, and everything is fine and happily, and for the sake of this guys die.
But in reality, the city of St. Petersburg looks like the same as Bakhmut.
And it is impossible to take a step there without straining and thinking about how not to fall into this filth. Everything there is also mined. Only mined with dog shit, which no one cleans up. In Bakhmut - Armageddon, and in St. Petersburg - "Beglogendon" …
About some guy who got nabbed by the cops for weapon possession in Russia and who claimed to be part of Wagner:
“We checked carefully, there has never been such a character in PMC Wagner and there is none. For the future, in order not to confuse an ordinary offender with a Wagner PMC fighter, pay attention to the following characteristic features of Wagner PMC fighters.
A fighter of PMC "Wagner" is always polite, respectful, as a rule of good physique, strong, hardy, courageous, courageous, loving Motherland. A man who can always explain where he was, against whom he fought, but he will never do this. If he enters a public field, then he tries to put on a mask and modestly go into the background, and when he is in battle, then with wide eyes he goes forward and kills the enemy.
These are the signs by which you can easily identify a Wagner PMC fighter. He is loved by the people, loved by girls, preferably young and pretty, and hated by representatives of the NATO bloc. This is him, this is a Wagner PMC fighter, and, apparently, Chorshanbiev does not fit these signs, so he is not a Wagner PMC fighter.
On the fate of General Teplinskiy:
“I cannot say exactly how well I know General Teplinsky. Of course, we met with him before the SVO. However, this was always of a momentary nature. I had to meet him during the infamous events near Berestov.
I can say that he is honest, competent, in a good way uncompromising, fearless. I do not know the details of his departure, but there are many versions. As far as I know, one of them is that he refused to engage in sycophancy and expressed honest opinions that saved many of the paratroopers for whom he was responsible. I think these brave guys will bring a lot more benefits to their country and Russians thanks to Teplinsky. I know that all the military and fighters of the Wagner PMC always speak of him with warmth. I hope that in the near future people like him and Surovikin will take senior positions in the Ministry of Defense and will be able to bring real glory to the Russian armed forces. I apologize to many military men with whom we are well acquainted and who show the most worthy qualities that I mentioned when bringing up Teplinsky and Surovikin. We keep silent about our relationships within the military for the purpose of not unmasking many plans that are in process. On the whole, there is a huge number of worthy officers and generals in the army who are excellent at leading soldiers, and they need confident and competent leadership. In Rus', there are many proverbs on this topic, one of them: "If the master is a goof, then the peasant is bad." Of course, I'm talking about myself, and not about the Minister of Defense.”
Lol.
And the shit-talking goes on and on and on. Join Team Wagner and stop being such a holier than thou stick in the mud! Calling out all the swine who are doing their best to run Russia into the ground is actually a lot of fun!
It feels like MAGA and Trump in ‘15 or ‘16 all over again!
I'm bored, might join wagner. Those porn ads were the deciding factor. How do I go about this.
A little off-topic, but an interview with Glazyev.
Mr. 'Multipolarity', Pepe Escobar is usually useless, but in this case he got an interview with Glazyev who dumped several buckets of cold water on Pepe's ridiculous 'the multipolar World is here'. Glazyev again talks about the insurmountable problems caused by the Russian Central Bank, and the inexplicable refusal by Putin to rid the country of the last of the oligarchs.
https://www.unz.com/pescobar/sergey-glazyev-the-road-to-financial-multipolarity-will-be-long-and-rocky/