People, military and intelligence services back Putin after strong performance

Facts instead of gossip: problem solved, Putin does not forgive betrayal, consequences are to be expected.

Peter Hanseler

Introduction

After the unbelievable events in Russia, the Western media are outdoing themselves with statements about something that does not exist in any way: Weakness of President Putin, rotten Russian system, incompetence of Russian military and no support among the people.

In this essay, we contrast the wishful thinking of the West with the facts.

President Putin solves a big problem in the shortest possible time

Aim of the coup

The fact is that the Wagner leader Prigozhin attempted a coup by leading that part of the Wagner group which went along with him on a march to Moscow to overthrow the Russian government. Now it became known that 75% of the Wagner group refused to go on this march. They remained in their barracks.

The remaining 25% were not informed about Prigozhin’s real goals. No clear wine was poured for them. So, it turns out that only about 5,000 soldiers took part in this attempted coup.

The fact that Prigozhin claimed, after the miserable failure of the enterprise, that he had only sought discussion in order to point out problems in the military leadership is complete nonsense.

As we have already reported, Prigozhin was concerned with preventing the Wagner Group from being subordinated to the Ministry of Defense. This would have deprived Prigozhin of a great deal of power – and, above all, money. In my opinion, this is the reason for Prigozhin’s attempt to overthrow the Russian government.

Why did the coup fail miserably?

Everyone in Russia was surprised and shocked – including us, as we pointed out in a short article. Nobody had expected such a suicide mission.

“Without support, an overthrow doesn’t work.”

The reason of the failure, again, is not really difficult to find: Prigozhin was wrong about the most important point: the Russian armed forces, intelligence services and people did not go along. At no point could it be seen that these three pillars of power would have joined in this endeavor. Without support, an overthrow does not work.

It is assumed that Prigozhin was led to believe that he could succeed by oligarchs – or rather ex-oligarchs – living abroad. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who now lives in London and vocally supported the coup, was one of them. Khodorkovsky, the former owner of Yukos, is a criminal who has no influence at all in Russia. I have already reported in 2010 in the Weltwoche in the article “Khodorkovsky’s misapprehensions”. Even then, the Western press supported this criminal. He is rightly despised by the Russian population.

This is not to say that the Wagner Group did not enjoy great sympathy and respect among the Russian people – and also among the military. The Wagner Group took on extremely difficult and dangerous tasks in the military conflict in Ukraine. Virtually single-handedly, the Wagner Group captured Artyomovsk (formerly Bachmut) in the longest battle of the conflict. Also, President Putin let Prigozhin have his way for a long time when, starting in January, in increasingly aggressive tirades, he personally attacked the military leadership and even Defense Minister Shoigu and the then commander-in-chief of Russian troops in Ukraine, Surovikin, accusing both of incompetence and corruption. Prigozhin probably misjudged these sympathies and the heroic status of this group.

Danger of bloodbath averted by Putin

As we already reported on Saturday in our article “Coup, civil war or feint?“, despite the lack of support for this coup, the danger of a blubad was great.

The approximately 5,000 Wagner soldiers would never have been allowed into Moscow. They would have been shot up outside the city.

I doubt that Prigozhin had much leeway. President Putin had to find a very quick solution to prevent anything worse from happening. This also explains why Lukanschenko made himself available to talk to Prigozhin and offered him a way out: exile in Belarus.

Consequences

No forgiveness for traitors

In his speech on Sunday, which we published yesterday, President Putin said, among other things:

“But the organizers of the mutiny betrayed their country, their people, and in doing so they betrayed those whom they dragged into the crime. They lied to them, they drove them to death, under fire, to shoot their own people.”

president putin in his speech on sunday 26 june 2023

This indicates that President Putin concluded the agreement with Prigozhin for only one reason – to prevent a bloodbath outside Moscow.

Throughout his time in power, Putin has repeatedly shown that he has the patience of an angel with difficult and dishonest people and always seeks a bloodless solution. This is the only way to explain that Putin waited until February 2022 before taking military action against Ukraine. However, his waiting and seeking a diplomatic solution is also earning him criticism within Russia.

In a 2018 interview, he was asked the following:

Frage: “Können Sie vergeben?” – Putins Antwort: “Ja, aber nicht alles.” Frage: “Was können sie nicht vergeben?” – Putins Antwort: “Verrat.”

https://twitter.com/putindirect/status/1672872262859620352?s=10&t=W9J41jMi2Q3IazgGzmwRBw

That is typical Putin: He is always ready to find a solution. He has done so this time as well – he will however never forgive Prigozhin.

Possible changes in political and military leadership

In military terms, Putin has been proceeding very slowly and cautiously since February 2022, always keeping in mind the goal of suffering as few casualties as possible on the Russian side and causing major losses to the enemy in order to demilitarize Ukraine. So far, this seems to be working well and Ukraine would have been demilitarized long ago without Western arms deliveries.

To what extent Prigozhin was right in his criticism of Defense Minister Shoigu and General Gerasimov is not for us to judge. Thus, it is also impossible to predict whether President Putin will make any changes. As usual, Western media outlets are venting on this topic without having a glimmer of a clue.

Conclusion

President Putin has proven that even in a situation that is unsurpassable in terms of difficulty and time pressure, he is able to remain calm and solve the problem in the interests of his people – without bloodshed.

“How long will the population in the West believe this pathetic propaganda?”

The Russian people, military and intelligence services are responding in the simplest way, namely with full support. I assume that President Putin has never been so popular.

Western media, which report otherwise and were already rejoicing during the weekend that the government could be overthrown, are nothing but dishonest, unprofessional and weak losers. As always since February 2022, they are wrong.

How long will the population in the West believe this pathetic propaganda?