No fan of Putin to put it mildly but I’m not convinced a nuclear superpower being destabilized by a private army is necessarily a good thing
Putin’s admirers here and elsewhere are/were not infatuated with him, but with the exercise of raw power unencumbered by liberal sensibilities.
They will transition seamlessly to alignment with whatever monster replaces him.
@bullcitybrian
> They will transition seamlessly to alignment with whatever monster replaces him.
I don't think there is a new monster in town, what if there are two monsters from now on? And, like you said — no one cares which monster people align with. I went out to get some beer and I think most side with Prigozhin: "He fought for us, why are they attacking him?"— but let's not forget that they are yet to receive their daily dose of propaganda that will likely portray him a traitor.
@bullcitybrian I don't know what that might bring on the international scale — it will most likely get easier for Ukraine as the infight will make those on the battlefront doubt what they are fighting for, but for Russians the problems have just started. It would be really sad to see some EU politicians coming out with "Why not side with Prigozhin?" — but I think we will see something like that😩
@bullcitybrian You're right, it is grey zone from now on, but I don't think that fixing it by picking one of them will do any good, neither are legitimate. And it's likely we'll see more of them come out of the woodwork — Kadyrov seems to side with Putin. For now… But these two aren't the only ones who have private armies.
This won't end well either way — but I hope that Russia will come apart into several "zones of influence" and at least some of those controlling them will have sensibility 😔