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☆ Wagner's chief says his army isn't strong enough to topple Putin, responding to rumors he is planning a coup: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin denied planning a coup. Kremlin ally Igor Girkin had claimed that Prigozhin may be preparing to topple Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin instead implied that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu could stage a coup because he has access to the Russian Special Forces, the ISW added. Wagner, Prigozhin said on Telegram, simply wants reforms in Russia, according to the report. Girkin said insults Prigozhin has made about top Russian officials in expletive filled videos indicate he is planning to seize power.

☆ Former Russian commander in Ukraine says Putin could be overthrown by the Wagner mercenary army
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A former Federal Security Service officer said Putin could be overthrown by Wagner. The Wagner Army is Putin's private military army, largely made up of mercenaries. The Army chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, could pose an active threat to Putin, said the war analyst. Last week he said that Ukraine has gained more troops and more weapons since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Wagner founder added to his feud with Russia's public leaders when he claimed that the Ukraine war had backfired, according to The Hill.

☆ Wagner boss Prigozhin is going off the rails in Ukraine, and Putin may not have much choice but to let him, war expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Ryan Pickrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Though he strikes hardest at the defense ministry, he has seemingly aimed his frustrations at Putin as well. During the intense fighting in Bakhmut, where the mercenaries have suffered tremendous losses, simmering tensions between the Russian defense ministry and the Wagner boss have boiled over. With the replacement of Gen. Sergei Surovikin, an infamous Russian leader pushed by ultranationalists like Prigozhin, in January, the Russian defense ministry retook control. The situation got so bad for Wagner at one point that expert observers speculated that the Russian military was purposefully decimating the group. Prigozhin said he was threatened with treason over his assertions that Wagner forces would pull out of Bakhmut.

☆ Former Russian commander in Ukraine says Moscow was unprepared for a protracted war and is now 'heading for military defeat'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

He has criticized Russia' war strategy, saying on Sunday that Russia is sleepwalking toward defeat. Girkin, who is also known by his alias "Strelkov," is now a prominent war blogger who has criticized the Russian military strategy in Ukraine. "I'm not afraid to say that we are heading towards military defeat," Girkin said, adding that the Russian economy, military, and political system were unprepared for such a "long, protracted war." In February, Girkin criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin's national address about the war with Ukraine for blatantly ignoring Moscow's "failures" and "defeats." In October 2022, Ukrayinska Pravda reported that Girkin was believed to be fighting for Russia in Ukraine.

☆ Ex-Russian commander who helped invade Crimea trashes Putin's war speech for leaving out all of Russia's failures in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Igor Girkin noted on Telegram that Putin never mentioned Russia's "failures" in its war with Ukraine. Blah blah blah," Girkin said in a post. Blah blah blah, there's no point in listening any more." US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday deemed Russia's war with Ukraine a "strategic failure." "One year after President Putin attacked Ukraine, it's clear that his war has been a strategic failure in every way," Blinken told reporters in Athens, Greece.

☆ Russian defence chief keeps job despite Ukraine routs thanks to Putin
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

The Russian Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Shoigu or its own performance in Ukraine. Appointed defence minister in 2012, he is part of Putin's inner circle and has enjoyed hunting and fishing holidays with him in his native Siberia. The Russian army has been learning from its mistakes and successfully adapting, the source said. There's no escaping the poor performance of the Russian military". It was "inconceivable", said Jones, that a Western defence minister could have kept his job in such circumstances.

☆ Pro-Putin pundits are furious Biden made a surprise trip to Kyiv, calling it a 'humiliation' for Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Pro-Kremlin pundits are livid that US President Joe Biden made a surprise trip to Ukraine's capital. One Russian state TV host called Biden's visit to Kyiv a "demonstrative humiliation of Russia." Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a show of support as Ukraine fights against Putin's forces. Russian state TV host Sergey Mardan called Biden's visit a "demonstrative humiliation of Russia" in a Telegram post to his more than 231,000 subscribers. "Kremlin propagandists call Biden's visit to Kyiv 'a demonstrative humiliation,'" Gerashchenko noted in another tweet, adding, "Get used to it."

☆ Putin, secure in power, sets stage for long and draining war
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Guy Faulconbridge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

One senior Russian source with knowledge of decision-making said Putin's hopes of burnishing his reputation had been dashed. "Ahead, it will be even more difficult and more costly for both Ukraine and Russia," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. For all the geopolitical shock waves Putin has caused, he still has no serious rival for power, according to five senior Russian sources close to decision-making. The source said Russia was at a disadvantage in both military technology and motivation, but that the war would still continue "for a very long time". "The president believes he can win in Ukraine," said one senior Russian source.

☆ Widows of Russian soldiers were filmed being gifted fur coats – but weren't allowed to keep them, an anti-war group says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The widows of Russian soldiers that died in the Donbas region were filmed being gifted fur coats. One of the women in the video told a Russian anti-war group that some later had the coats taken away. The CHTD Telegram news channel shared the clip and said that the "widows were given 21 fur coats as compensation for the breadwinner who died in Ukraine." However, the Russian anti-war group Feminist Anti-War Resistance claimed on Telegram that one of the women in the video told them that she and at least three other women had their fur coats taken away after the video was filmed. The anti-war group said in the Telegram post that it was unclear if all the women in the video were genuine widows.

☆ Putin likely supplied the missile that downed flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, investigators say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Putin likely gave separatists the missile that hit flight MH17, investigators said on Wednesday. The team has been investigating the crash since August 2014, and said in a statement that there are "strong indications" that the Russian president decided on supplying the missile system to separatists in Ukraine. Investigators have previously said that the Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down by a Buk missile brought from Russia to a field in Ukraine. But, they added, it's not known whether their request explicitly mentioned the missile system that was later used to shoot down MH17. It was shot down over eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists had taken over parts of the country.

☆ Analysis: Russian mercenary boss courts Putin with Ukrainian battlefield success
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Andrew Osborn | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Now as the founder of Russia's most powerful mercenary group, he is vying for Vladimir Putin's favour by claiming a rare battlefield win in Ukraine. Russia claimed victory on Friday after Ukraine said its forces were holding on after a 'hot' night of fighting. The defence ministry on Friday attributed victory to its airborne units, missile forces and "artillery of a grouping of Russian forces". Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the state-controlled RT channel and close to the Kremlin, thanked Prigozhin for Soledar. Despite its sometimes publicly strained ties with the Russian defence ministry, some Western military analysts suspect Wagner is closely affiliated with it.

☆ Moscow's military leadership is under fire after a Ukrainian HIMARS strike killed scores of Russian soldiers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Russia said a recent Ukrainian HIMARS strike in the occupied Donetsk region killed 63 of its soldiers. Over the weekend, Ukrainian forces used a US-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to attack Russian positions in Makiivka, a city with a pre-war population of nearly 350,000 people in eastern Ukraine's occupied Donetsk region. Russia's defense ministry said on Monday that Ukrainian forces fired six rockets and that the strikes on Russian positions killed 63 soldiers, state news agency TASS reported. Videos of the aftermath of the deadly attack, which have been published on social media by top Ukrainian officials, showed a scene of rubble and smoke. Ukraine's HIMARS strike came as Russian forces fired a barrage of Iranian-made suicide drones into Ukraine over a two-day period, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

☆ Pro-Putin operatives in Germany work to turn Berlin against Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +17 min

Now the main Russian Cossack organisations are loyal to Putin, and they are fighting alongside Russia’s forces in Ukraine. He is regularly pictured on his and other social media pages at Cossack gatherings, often wearing Cossack military uniform. Felk has worked as a security guard and has run a logistics firm, according to posts on Felk’s OK social media account. Photos shared by Kharkovsky on social media show him and other participants standing in front of a Great Don Army flag. Eremenko confirmed to Reuters that he worked for Russian military intelligence, the GRU.

☆ Factbox: What do we know about the Ukrainian New Year's Eve attack on Russian troops?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

What do we know, and what do we not know, about what happened? Russia's defence ministry said Ukraine struck with six U.S.-made HIMARS rockets. The ministry acknowledged the attack only in the final paragraph of a 528-word daily roundup, more than 36 hours after the attack took place. Grey Zone, a Telegram channel linked to the Wagner mercenary outfit, said that around 500 men were billeted in the complex. You see, they turned on their phones and got spotted," wrote Grey Zone, a Telegram channel linked to the Wagner Group mercenary outfit.

"If Bakhmut had been captured when they started their attack in August then it would have been significant. Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian military at the U.S.-based CNA think-tank, said Moscow appeared committed to the battle because of resources it had already spent rather than because of "sound strategy". WAR OF ATTRITIONFor Russia, Bakhmut, which it calls Artyomovsk, the city's Soviet-era name, has long held political value. Muzyka, the Polish military analyst, said Bakhmut had become a battle of attrition. It could also boost Prigozhin's political capital in Moscow if he can take some credit for such a victory.

☆ Some Russian soldiers in Ukraine unhappy with top brass, Girkin says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Guy Faulconbridge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Nearly 10 months since Putin ordered troops into Ukraine, there is no end in sight to the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two. Some at the mid-levels of the military, Girkin said, were open about their dissatisfaction with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and even Putin. The United States' top general estimated on Nov. 9 that Russia and Ukraine had each seen more than 100,000 of their soldiers killed or wounded. Russia, Putin says, is defending Russians in Ukraine against a decadent West that ultimately wants to carve up Russia's vast resources and eradicate Russian civilisation. Ukraine and the West say Putin has no justification for what they cast as an imperial-style war of occupation.

☆ Ex-Russian operative who visited the front in Ukraine says Russian troops are in disarray due to a 'crisis of strategic planning'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Igor Girkin is a former Russian military commander who led the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The soldiers are facing "the deepest crisis of strategic planning," Girkin wrote on Telegram. On Tuesday, Girkin recounted what he saw at the front on Telegram and said that Russian troops are fighting with no clear "strategic goals." It's a mystery for them: What is the condition for victory or just a condition for ending the war," Gurkin wrote. His remarks to the presidential Human Rights Council came shortly after Ukrainian forces sent drone attacks deep into Russian territory.

☆ Dutch prosecutors won't appeal in MH17 case, making verdicts final
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

AMSTERDAM, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Dutch prosecutors said on Thursday they would not file an appeal regarding the outcome in the trial over the 2014 downing of Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine, making the verdicts final although the suspects remain at large. A Dutch court last month convicted three men and sentenced them to life in prison for the shooting-down of the Malaysian airliner as it flew over eastern Ukraine on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014. The three convicted were former Russian intelligence agents Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian separatist leader. Prosecutors said on Thursday they were satisfied with the "clarity" the case had brought to relatives of the victims about what had happened to MH17. Reporting by Bart Meijer Editing by Mark Heinrich and Alistair BellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ MH17 verdict: 2 Russians, 1 Ukrainian convicted of murders
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

A Dutch court on Thursday convicted two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian separatist in absentia of the murders of 298 people who died in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine. None of the defendants appeared for the trial that began in March 2020 and if they are convicted, it’s unlikely they will serve any sentence anytime soon. “The truth on the table — that is the most important thing,” said Anton Kotte, who lost his son, daughter-in-law and his 6-year-old grandson when MH17 was shot down. The most senior defendant convicted is Igor Girkin, a 51-year-old former colonel in Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB. Oleg Pulatovis the only one of the suspects who was acquited represented by defense lawyers at the trial.

☆ Judges to rule in murder trial for 2014 downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MH17 was a passenger flight shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew. At the time, the area was the scene of fighting between pro-Russian separatist and Ukrainian forces, the precursor of this year's conflict. Moscow denies any involvement or responsibility for MH17's downing and in 2014 it also denied any presence in Ukraine. They were charged with shooting down an airplane and with murder in a trial held under Dutch law. Judges will begin reading the verdict at 1:30 p.m. local time (1230 GMT) at the high-security court next to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

☆ Dutch court convicts 2 Russians, 1 Ukrainian of murder in 2014 Malaysian jet downing over Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

President of the court Steenhuis (2ndL) talks prior to verdict in the trial of four men prosecuted for their involvement in the MH17 downing case, in Badhoevedorp on November 17, 2022. A Dutch court on Thursday convicted two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian separatist in absentia of the murders of 298 people who died in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Outside the court, planes could be heard taking off and landing nearby on a cold, gray day. Oleg Pulatovis the only one of the suspects who was acquited represented by defense lawyers at the trial. They accused prosecutors of "tunnel vision" in basing their case on the findings of an international investigation into the downing while ignoring other possible causes.

☆ 3 men were just given life sentences over the downing of passenger jet MH17 and the murder of 298 people, but they may never be caught
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Dutch court sentenced three men to life in prison over the downing of passenger jet MH17 in 2014. The plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian-made missile, and nearly 300 people were killed. Two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian separatist were convicted, but they're fugitives. Given that the convicted are currently fugitives, the three men may never be apprehended and serve their time in prison, the report said. The missile was provided by Russia's military to pro-Moscow separatist forces, the Dutch court confirmed.

☆ Russian roulette: Is Putin serious about nuclear war, or bluffing?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Jason Corcoran | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

On Oct. 26, President Vladimir Putin appeared on Russian state television overseeing a practice run of Russia's strategic nuclear deterrence forces. The conflict has revived Cold War-era fears of nuclear war across the region. In August, a Ukrainian official said that 9,000 Ukrainian military personnel had been killed, though another source said the number could be far higher. (President Zelensky previously estimated that 30% of Ukraine's power stations have been damaged or destroyed, although the figure is now likely to be greater.) In a wide-ranging answer, Putin had offered, almost as an aside, that Russian victims of nuclear war "will go to heaven as martyrs" while Western citizens would perish without having "time to repent."

Putin knew a war would be unpopular and had kept all of his previous military interventions limited before the current invasion of Ukraine. Right now, the Russian military is in no condition to fight NATO, and it is unclear to what extent the partial mobilization will solve Russia’s military problems. Moreover, the finger on the nuclear button is still that of Vladimir Putin rather than Patrushev or other hardliners. At the same time, the Ukrainians, the most likely victims of any tactical Russian nuclear strike, remain committed to fighting despite the risk. The fight is not only about Ukraine alone: For Putin and the hardliners alike, it’s about the West.

The scale of the Russian military’s and political leadership’s setbacks in Ukraine have become too vast for even state media and pro-war activists to ignore. With Russian forces on the retreat, more and more they are accusing the leadership of betraying the troops. As Ukraine retakes territory, videos are appearing online appearing to show massive amounts of equipment abandoned by retreating Russian soldiers. Radical right-wing bloggers calling for Putin to take the gloves off in Ukraine are not a direct threat to the regime, Stanovaya said. The Russian elite is used to seeing Putin as a strong man, someone who deals with challenges and always knows where he’s taking the country.

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