Oddbean new post about login | logout @348f4b7b This is really interesting - I thought that Putin's failure to deal with Prigozhin was odd and made him look weak. But I guess he was just carefully putting all the pieces into place, readying the defense department to slip into Wagner's position..
@5be5a387 looks like it - those two months were used efficiently, by the look of it, although the CAR handover doesn't seem 'sorted'...
@348f4b7b Maybe they will starve them of materiel? And bring in new troops with assets?
@5be5a387 a few months back they said to have rotated some Russians out there and said to have recruited in Libya and Syria... they have a man on the ground trusted by wagner structures to take over and Touadera's trip to Macron showed the CAR might push its own plan and is to be handled more carefully... again as all thoughout they are steps ahead in the chess game
@348f4b7b You mean, they won't go the Russian way? And how can the west support them, and thereby tacitly support Wagner? We all know what they are. We can't win this by becoming like Russia, we can't win this by ignoring them. We are not in a good place.
@5be5a387 them pretending sitting on the fence might bring some benefits although not too much space for manoeuvre as wagner is said to be part of the president's security detail...
@5be5a387 this is a possibility too - although they are relatively self-sufficient in the CAR, for example