Significant: https://t.co/jfaBHIrtjG
— Michael Yon Jungle (@Michael_Yon) June 24, 2023
“Despotism tempered by assassination, that is our Magna Carta.
Remark of a Russian nobleman to a German diplomat after the assassination of Tzar Paul I in 1801.
5:00 AM CST
Today I will use this post to keep track of the confused situation in Russia. I will refer to the sides as Wagnerites, Putin’s rebellious former mercenaries, and Putinites, forces loyal to Putin. If this civil war follows the course of most Russian civil wars, other sides will emerge. Needless to say a civil war in a nuclear power is immensely dangerous, and I would suggest saying a Rosary or three today might be a good idea.
The Wagnerites have taken Rostov and have advanced to Voronezh, formerly known as Stalingrad, where fighting is currently occurring. Voronezh is a six hour car ride from Moscow. Putin has a host of worries and problems today, the most pressing one is if Russian troops en masse decide to join the Wagnerites to topple Putin. Putin and his Ukrainian war are not popular in Russia and some ambition generals might view this as a golden opportunity to rid themselves of the dictator and write themselves into Russian history as the saviors of the country. If that sounds melodramatic, well, the Russians tend to be a melodramatic people. More throughout the day.
8:36 AM CST
Reports that spearheads of the Wagnerite troops are only 320 miles from Moscow. Rumors that Putin has flown to Saint Petersburg. Events are moving fast.
10:45 AM CST
Reports that Wagnerite forces have entered Moscow Oblast:
Museums and shopping centers being evacuated in Moscow. pic.twitter.com/WdUSF9ANQN
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) June 24, 2023
12:20 PM CST
And the crazy continues to mount:
1:30 PM CST
Well that was a short civil war:
And everyone is going to pretend that none of this occurred and go back to status quo ante? In a pig’s eye. Across Russia current and former member of the Wagner mercenaries are having their homes raided. This is the beginning and not the end of this coup attempt.
Staging a coup from 6 hours hours away? Lol.
The French newspapers which, in 1815, were subject to the censor, announced the departure of Bonaparte from Elba, his progress through France, and his entry into Paris in the following ingenious manner:
— 9th March, the Anthropophagus has quitted his den
— 10th, the Corsican Ogre has landed at Cape Juan
— 11th, the Tiger has arrived at Gap
— 12th, the Monster slept at Grenoble
— 13th, the Tyrant has passed through Lyons
— 14th, the Usurper is directing his steps towards Dijon, but the brave and loyal Burgundians have risen en masse and surrounded him on all sides
— 18th, Bonaparte is only sixty leagues from the capital; he has been fortunate enough to escape the hands of his pursuers
— 19th, Bonaparte is advancing with rapid steps, but he will never enter Paris
— 20th, Napoleon will, tomorrow, be under our ramparts
— 21st, the Emperor is at Fontainbleau
— 22nd, His Imperial and Royal Majesty, yesterday evening, arrived at the Tuileries, amidst the joyful acclamations of his devoted and faithful subjects.
1815
Yep. With modern technology distances can be covered in no time at all compared to 1815.
Indeed: “Despotism, tempered by assassination, that is [the Russian ] Magna Carta.”
Most TAC readers likely know that Peter the Great as a ten year-old narrowly avoided assassination by various Kremlin factions and as a boy therefore personally witnessed horrific violence and murders of members of his court—- which formed his resolve to be an absolute authority when he seized power from his half-sister Sophia at age 17.
Embedded in the Russian consciousness is the Modest Mussorgsky opera, Boris Godunov, based in part (with artistic adjustments) on the series of intrigues and attempted rebellions and assassinations during Godunov’s actual history; and probably every Russian knows Godunov’s son Boris II was assassinated, strangled in his Kremlin apartment at age 16, by factions of “False Dmitry,” —who only one year later was captured by factious boyars in the Kremlin and hacked to death as he tried to flee. “The Time of Troubles” ensued, a decade of rampant lawlessness and anarchy, until the installation of Michael Romanov, Michael I, in 1616.
And then there is 1917.
“Despotism, tempered by assassination…”
With Putin’s best troops locked into the trenches in Eastern Ukraine.
Good point Dale. It also shows the lack of conventional military strength even major states have today compared to the World War II and Cold War eras. Putin was a fool to rely so heavily on merks.
What if Prigozhin was paid by the Ukrainians, or a western intelligence agency, to do this? He is a mercenary after all.
I can’t see both these men still alive at the end of a year.
Neither can I. When something does not make sense, like the calling off of a coup after one day, that almost always means there are wheels turning behind the scenes.
Especially in Russia.