Infighting has begun in command of Russia's armies about who is at fault for failures.

[DetlefK]

Russia's fighting forces consist of three groups:
1. the russian army
2. mercenary groups like the Chechens of Ramzan Kadyrov or the Wagner-mercenaries of Prigozhin
3. a whole asortment of social-media influencers and bloggers driving the propaganda and misinformation machine

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/6/2127363/-Putin-is-Losing-Control-of-His-Minions

Against the backdrop of Russia's loss of Liman, Ramzan Kadyrov's blog discredits the Russian army: “The defense of this sector was led by the commander of the Central Military District, Colonel-General Alexander Lapin. The same Lapin who received the star of the Hero of Russia for the capture of Lisichansk …

In response, the colonel-general sent Tumso a letter in which he accused Kadyrov of not going to fight either:

It's just like in the Third Reich, with the rivalry between the Wehrmacht and the SS.

Meanwhile, Russian Special Forces arrested Alexey Slobodenyuk. Slobodenyuk runs a pro-Russian Wagner telegram channel that has been critical of the performance of the Russian army. Seeing how Wagner is Putin’s private army, it looks like the Tsar needed to remind his slaves who their master is.

The russian government sent a squad of fucking Spetsnaz special-forces to arrest a fucking pro-russian propagandist blogger for pointing out the obvious mistakes of the russian army.

The Telegram channel, General SVR, reported in a recent meeting called by a furious Putin, one of his generals could no longer contain his frustrations and told the Russian president where he could go.

General SVR said: "The most significant event of the meeting was a report to the President via video link from one of the Generals, who is located much closer to the front line than the other speakers.

"Moreover, Putin tried to put the General in his place with a blunt threat.

"The General wouldn't back down and told Putin to go you know where!"

He added: "Putin stopped the video link and ordered his officials to 'shut the f***er up.'

Sounds like Russia is winning.........................................................

Link to tweet

#Russian Newly mobilised soldiers are complaining about their old and useless weapons, they're refusing to proceed until they understand what is happening. Mutiny begins!!

* Ukraine set up hotline called 'I Want To Live' for Russian soldiers to surrender
* Andriy Yusov, military intelligence spokesman, said 2,000 have already called
* Some calls have come from troops still in Russia, about to go to the frontlines

I wonder for how long Putin can afford buying the loyalty of russian warlords like Kadyrov and Prigozhin.

[RockRaven]

1. Note that they aren't fighting over the basic premise of invading Ukraine/committing genocide.

They're just fighting over whose fault it is that they aren't succeeding (or doing it quickly and easily enough). They're all still on board with killing and subjugating Ukrainians.

So it's great that they are wasting attention and resources on in-fighting, but none of them are backing a complete reversal of their goals/behavior. And these groups likely never will (though the Russian masses might, eventually).

[DetlefK]

3. Everyone has their own reasons for fighting against Ukraine:

Putin wants to prevent a democratic Ukraine being next to Russia because that would set a precedent that would threaten the authoritarian system he has built.

The russian army has a war on their hands and feels duty-bound to see it through.

The warlords Kadyrov and Prigozhin want to use the chaos of this war to gain politcial power and money. Also they like killing people.

The russian media is starved for freedom under russian censorship. This war allows them to whip the russian masses into a hysterical frenzy and they enjoy feeling important and powerful.

The russian influencers and bloggers only care about dramatic content riling up people, getting them more followers and fame. They are parasites that wholeheartedly support the war but would never actually fight in it.




The russian people? They don't care. According to a russian commentator:
25% support the war
25% are against it
50% don't have any opinion and don't care either way as long the war doesn't affect them personally

[unc70]

2. About time to rewatch beginning of Doctor Zhivago

[Turbineguy]

4. From "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy:

"..... They called him 'Lapin', he didn't know it meant 'Rabbit' in French...."

[OAITW r.2.0]

5. One of the great movies in my mind.

I've watched it a 1/2 dozen times, I get more understanding of the world of spycraft every time.

[Eugene]

6. Sounds nice, but anything out of General SVR should be taken with a TON of salt.