Wagner-founder and Putin-ally Prigozhin sez he stopped recruiting criminals

[BeBMan]

I think "Wagner-founder and Putin-ally Prigozhin" has a really nice ring to it. Which is why I think we need more threads on Wagner-founder and Putin-ally Prigozhin, so here's one.

Russia's Wagner mercenaries halt prisoner recruitment campaign - Prigozhin

I'm wondering if they will erect a monument to the unknown criminal in Russia soon, given that they owe so much to criminals used as cannonfodder in this very special war.

[BeBMan]

I didn't know Wagner-founder and Putin-ally Prigozhin spent a couple years in prison himself, as the Reuters article linked above sez. However, from there to Putin's inner circle is quite an achievement. Putin should be commended for his efforts in re-socializing folks like Prigozhin.

[pchang]

I think he already got all the criminals he could recruit. The remaining criminals have seen the death rate of the former fellow inmates and have decided that prison is better.

[BeBMan]

Prigozhin meanwhile identified the real enemy:

The head of Russia's mercenary outfit Wagner said on Thursday it could take months to capture the embattled Ukraine city of Bakhmut and slammed Moscow's "monstrous bureaucracy" for slowing military gains.

If taking Bakhmut takes still more months (fighting around this place started around August 22 IIRC) then I'm afraid that Chechen leader and Putin-ally Kadyrov needs to hurry up when he wants to complete the whole war by the end of the year

Maybe the whole concept of bureaucracy needs to go out of the window to solve this

[BeBMan]

Maybe they'll call for Trump to drain the swamp in Moscow

[Serb]

I think "Wagner-founder and Putin-ally Prigozhin" has a really nice ring to it. Which is why I think we need more threads on Wagner-founder and Putin-ally Prigozhin, so here's one.

Russia's Wagner mercenaries halt prisoner recruitment campaign - Prigozhin

I'm wondering if they will erect a monument to the unknown criminal in Russia soon, given that they owe so much to criminals used as cannonfodder in this very special war.

And your 'free" black is white and whire is black Orwell media doesn't bother to let him actually say anything!

You are a f*cking idiots feeded with sh!t!

[Serb]

A pathetic brainless zombies!

[BeBMan]

I don't think Prigozhin is really a zombie.

His Wiki article sez nothing about zombification, so I guess it's safe to say it didn't happen.

[Dinner]

Supposedly Putin got mad at Pregozin for trying to out shine the dictator. So now state media is forbidden to mention him, his ammo supplies have been cut off, and he is no longer allowed to recruit prisoners. Prisoners will now be coerced into join special inmate units of the Russian Army instead of Wagner.

[pchang]

No ammo would be a big problem for Wagner. They would pretty much be sidelined.

[BeBMan]

Hehe, Prigozhin even speaks of "treason" now:

The owner of the Russian private military company, Wagner, accused Russia’s defense minister and chief of general staff on Tuesday of starving his fighters in Ukraine of ammunition, which he charged amounts to an attempt to “destroy” the force.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a millionaire with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an emotional audio statement released through his spokespeople decried “direct resistance” from the Russian military, “which is nothing other than an attempt to destroy Wagner.”

Prigozhin said in a raised voice that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov are handing out orders “left and right” not to supply Wagner with ammunition and not to support it with air transport. The company has been actively involved in heavy fighting in the east of Ukraine.

This “can be likened to high treason in the very moment when Wagner is fighting for Bakhmut, losing hundreds of its fighters every day,” Prigozhin said in a raised voice.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-uk...0735b78c9eeec9

I think he's in a rather weak spot though. Wagner fighting (edit in Ukraine of course), and his personal comments on anything made him some kind of a social media star for some time in Russia, but in the end Wagner and other PMCs remain de-facto illegal in Russia. That means the Kremlin can use him for dirty work and sustain deniability, but could swiftly "remember" his shady legal status when he get's too ambitious.

[BeBMan]

Now he sez Wagner gets ammo again

Bibs

I thought Russia is swimming in ammo...but oh well.

[Geronimo]

Now he sez Wagner gets ammo again

Bibs

I thought Russia is swimming in ammo...but oh well.

Russia definitely showed real signs of ammo trouble above all its measured reduction in rate of artillery strikes. However, while Ukraine's allies have waited months to actually start having more ammo produced, we have every reason to believe that Putin immediately pushed to max out Russia's enormous (on paper) ammunition production. Even if we assume that Russia is having logistical and economic bottlenecks on its ammo production and delivery that early start is going to offset a great deal of that.

Don't be surprised if it soon seems that, relative to Ukraine, Russia is "swimming" in ammo again.

[BeBMan]

Oh it's certainly possible, and I agree that so far in a number of fields help was or still is rather slow to kick in, for a variety of reasons. What happened rather quickly, and in substantial numbers was the early flow of light weapons and ammo. Once things changed to heavier and more complex systems things are slower, and we don't speak of huge numbers here.

[BeBMan]

Prigozhin continues his feud with the Russian military, and offers to send the son-in-law of defence minister Shoigu to the front. The reason is that he (the son) may have liked anti-war-posts on the intarweb, though the son denies it and sez images circulating were photoshopped.