There is some sensational clickbait going around that I can’t help but mention in passing at least. The Wagner Deadman switch is about to be activated!:
PMC Wagner has a long-established mechanism of action in the event of the death of businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin or group commander Dmitry Utkin, Readovka reports, citing its own source. According to the publication, Prigozhin was on the front line on a regular basis and had a constant threat to his own life.
If the death of a businessman or commander of the Wagner Group is confirmed, then the algorithm will be launched immediately , the source said .
According to him, this mechanism has been approved and is introduced automatically for all Wagner commanders. If the death of Prigozhin or Utkin in a plane crash in the Tver region is confirmed, the algorithm will be launched immediately, the publication added.
On the evening of August 23, an Embraer business jet crashed in the Tver region , with ten people on board. According to the Baza Telegram channel, an aircraft with tail number RA-02795, which belongs to businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin associated with the Wagner PMC, crashed. At this point, there is no official information about his fate.
Earlier, the head of the movement “We are together with Russia”, Vladimir Rogov, said that “outstanding musicians” informed him about the death of Prigozhin. They also confirmed the death of group commander Dmitry Utkin.
The source is Readovka, a Telegram news project that got huge promoting fake news about the SMO. Readovka is basically a team of former spooks who posted maps of Ukraine with huge swaths colored in red for Russian troops and claimed that the UAF had been destroyed in hours.
Track record: terrible.
But, they’re quite popular among the Z-crowd. In fact, I’d say that a solid 50% of triumphalist hot takes are sourced from Readovka.
Prigozhin seemed to think that he was in the clear and he gave no indication that he thought his days were numbered. Why else was he flying around Russia willy-nilly for the last two months and shot down/bombed as his plane took off from Moscow after a meeting there?
Punished Prigozhin (a video game reference, don’t worry if you don’t get it, it isn’t important.)
Also, who in their right mind would ever take the info published by Wagner’s deadman switch and run with it? With all of Wagner dead, there is no one left who could use this info against the Kremlin. I mean, maybe someone Navalny-adjacent could use it who hasn’t been arrested yet? The CIA maybe? That’s a big “if”. It is an even bigger “if” if this switch even exists. Obviously, it would indeed be fascinating to read about the dirty inner workings of the Kremlin if such information came to light. I would never read such things though because it would be unpatriotic, and dare I say, un-Christian even to do so.
Somehow I doubt it exists though. And it wouldn’t be triggered because Prigozhin is still alive, actually, but in disguise!
I couldn’t resist the clickbait!
I was about to comment to your precedent post, remembering the cupboard full of wigs when Prigozhin' house was registered two months ago. And now this one comes in...
It makes NO SENSE that leaderships of Wagner fly together, never.
Obviously there is something fake.
Willingly fake from Wagner and very probably the excuse they need to activate the deadman switch and let Prigozhin and Co working from behind the scene, with more then a "wig".;)...
So, something "decisive" might be happening in the proxy time.
I would even say... "Beware Mr.Putin".
That's not how a DMS works. It is NEVER a situation where somebody has a choice for "the algorithm" to launch in the event that an event "is confirmed".
They trigger if the requisite quorum fails to contact the DMS within a certain timeframe. (I'm assuming that Russian DMSs have this well-understood, time-honoured structure, because I don't believe the "Drunken Slav Ape" trope)
Back in the olden days I was one of t he people who argued that Julian Assange be dropped from our DMSs because he (a) travelled to a US rendition satrapy (Sweden) and (b) when shit went south he decided to try to seek refuge on a fucking ISLAND rather than heading for Eastern Europe (where it is easier to hide from the US).
(Also, JA strongly supported amateur infiltrator Daniel Dumb-Shitbird despite DD-B being an untrustworthy clueless nappie faggot... but for me the problem was mostly the "go to a fucking ISLAND instead of EUROPE" idiocy)
Anyhow... if Progozhin had a serious DMS, he would've been safe. So he didn't.
Everyone involved in this kind of thing understands Game Theory: somebody who was positioned in such a way as to form a good guess at the passenger manifest, wasn't convinced that the Wagner 3 had a DMS that was a solid threat.
Forming a good guess about the passenger manifest would require "eyes on" at boarding time.