549
Well shucks the core definition of the word "mercenary" means one who is acting out of self-interest rather than loyalty. The only thing these MFs are going to do now is look for work.
this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2023
549 points (97.7% liked)
Ukraine
8751 readers
423 users here now
News and discussion related to Ukraine
🇺🇦 Sympathy for enemy combatants is prohibited.
🌻🤢No content depicting extreme violence or gore.
💥Posts containing combat footage should include [Combat] in title
🚷Combat videos containing any footage of a visible human involved must be flagged NSFW
❗ Server Rules
- Remember the human! (no harassment, threats, etc.)
- No racism or other discrimination
- No Nazis, QAnon or similar
- No porn
- No ads or spam (includes charities)
- No content against Finnish law
💳💥 Donate to support Ukraine's Defense
💳⚕️⛑️ Donate to support Humanitarian Aid
🪖 🫡 Volunteer with the International Legionnaires
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Yeah the only thing they're wondering is if they're getting their next paycheck or not. If not, they'll move on. If Putin installs a new head of Wagner and keeps the payroll coming, they'll fall back in line.
There were many senior leaders on the flight: Prigozhin, Utkin (early founder, commander), Chekalov (economic & security leader), Makaryan, Propustin, Totmin, Matuseev (all various commanders). While this seems super dumb to have all these folks on the same flight at the same time, apparently they were. With this much senior leadership now suddenly gone, the Wagner group may be struggling to get their own house in order before they can take organizational action.
There is even military rules since quite long time that says never ever put two important persons in the same plane in wartime.
I mean even if Putin actually "forgave" them, seeing all of them in one spot just makes 100% sense to go get them all in one go.
Lol
This is just a pet theory of mine.
I think the Russian Nazis a dictator trusted with power might have been kind of dumb.
@Valmond @Aesculapius Not just military. Most larger companies in the west have policies against putting too many senior leaders on the same flight. In peacetime.
Wow I did not realize Utkin was on that flight. They really got all of them in shot. That flight basically had a sign on it saying “shoot me.”
What an unfortunate accident 😓
Could they have been killed in other locations and the plane crashed to conveniently make a public narrative on how they're no longer alive? The bodies could have been loaded on thvle plane and crashed intentionally for all we know.
I don't expect them to do literally anything. Wagner is now dispersed across Belarus, Russia and Africa; those in Belarus and Russia don't have their heavy equipment anymore (taken away after the coup). Their leadership is decapitated, the two most important people in the PMC are dead along with several other higher-ups. The coup from 2 months ago wasn't endorsed by the whole PMC, it's been estimated that Prigo had only around 8k people with him - so today you should expect even fewer to rebel.
The "best" they might be able to achieve is some terrorism. But they're not trained for terrorism, so for them it's probably best to keep their heads low.
Who'd expect a band of former criminals reborn anew as war criminals to have any loyalty? So long as they get to be out there pillaging and raping they will be kept happy and as loyal as such a band could get.
This is the second phase of Putin taking control of Wagner. Their response will very likely be to follow his orders so they don't join Prigozhin.
Follow Putin's order to not join Prigozhin isn't very smart, but most people aren't.
Signing up with a notorious mercenary group was the original sin. Now it's just a fucked up game of frogger for them. The only smart move was to not play.
With not willing leader to take charge it is probably not going to happen, especially after Russia took most of their gear. They've had their chance and blew it.