{"id":270410,"date":"2023-06-26T07:00:56","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T07:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=270410"},"modified":"2023-06-27T07:14:57","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T07:14:57","slug":"the-russian-coup-that-wasnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=270410","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cRussian Coup\u201d That Wasn\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Craig Roberts \u2013 paulcraigroberts.org June 25, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Yesterday I posted a video discussion that Larry Sparano and I had about the \u00a0alleged \u201cRussian coup.\u201d https:\/\/www.paulcraigroberts.org\/2023\/06\/24\/the-russian-coup-that-wasnt\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking back at our discussion, I am satisfied that we did a good job given the unresolved situation about which there was not much information.\u00a0 I am addressing the \u201ccoup\u201d again because there is a great deal to be learned from it that is not being learned.<\/p>\n

It is discouraging to see that the Russian media is as capable of creating false narratives and setting them in stone as Western presstitutes.\u00a0 The Russian media has set in stone the narrative that Prigozhin, the commander of the Wagner Group which has done most of the fighting in the liberation of Donbass, launched an \u201carmed rebellion\u201d against Putin despite the fact that there is no evidence of an armed rebellion.<\/p>\n

The so-called \u201ccoup\u201d has many curious aspects and raises many neglected questions.<\/p>\n

I acknowledge that Prigozhin had become increasingly displeased with the Russian military command.\u00a0 The Kremlin had not addressed the feud between Prigozhin and the Russian military brass.\u00a0 The Kremlin\u2019s failure to resolve the differences is the most likely cause of events mischaracterized as a coup.\u00a0 For Prigozhin, the final straw was his belief that an encampment of his troops was hit by a missile from the rear, that is, from Russia, not from Ukraine.\u00a0 Perhaps Prigozhin was given false information for the purpose of worsening the relations between the main fighting force and the Russian high command during a Ukrainian \u201ccounter offensive.\u201d\u00a0 Perhaps a missile strike occurred, but has a different explanation.<\/p>\n

The situation exploded when the Russian Ministry of Defense denied Prigozhin\u2019s accusation when the proper response would have been to send an investigatory team to establish the fact and if a missile strike did occur to determine the source.<\/p>\n

In addition to tensions between the Wagner Group and the Russian military bureaucracy stemming from, for example, inadequate ammunition supplies at critical stages of the fighting, the Russian military bureaucracy was determined to exercise command over the Wagner Group, a demand or desire that Prigozhin would not accept.\u00a0 Getting rid of Prigozhin became a priority for the Russian military bureaucracy.\u00a0 As I illustrated in the discussion with Sparano, conspiracies against military commanders during war are commonplace, so an attack on Wagner forces designed to set Prigozhin off is a possible scenario.\u00a0 This possibility gains credibility from the immediate denial instead of investigation and from the instant official narrative of an \u201carmed rebellion.\u201d As there was no investigation, all that Putin knows is what the generals tell him, and that will be their side of the story.<\/p>\n

What the \u201carmed rebellion\u201d amounted to was Prigozhin starting out to Moscow with a convoy of his troops to, in Prigozhin\u2019s words, \u201cconfront corrupt generals.\u201d\u00a0 Prigozhin announced in advance that he intended no coup.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s assume he intended a coup and let\u2019s accept the exaggerated claim by presstitutes of a convoy of 25,000 troops traveling with him on the roads to Moscow.\u00a0 How is a convoy of troops going to get to Moscow without being decimated by air attacks, and, should they arrive, how are 25,000 troops going to overcome the Russian Army, occupy Moscow, and establish a government?<\/p>\n

The question that immediately jumped to my mind is:\u00a0 Why did Putin rush to embarrass Russia by announcing an \u201carmed rebellion\u201d unless he had no army with which to defend Moscow?<\/p>\n

The question of the whereabouts of the Russian Army has been growing on my mind.\u00a0 Why, as I have repeatedly asked, has Putin, instead of using sufficient force to end the conflict, permitted it to ever-widen with increasingly provocative participation on the part of Washington and NATO?\u00a0 This makes no sense.\u00a0 It serves no Russian purpose.\u00a0 Why is Putin fighting a dangerous conflict not merely with Ukraine but with the West with a small private military group and Donbass militias?\u00a0 Where is the Russian Army?\u00a0 Is there one?<\/p>\n

Or has Putin been warned by his central bank and the neoliberal Russian economists not to risk the ruble and the budget deficit by spending money on the military?\u00a0Surely Russia has its own David Stockman.\u00a0Has Putin been convinced that the economic threat is greater than the military threat?\u00a0 Has Putin decided that with his vast superiority of nuclear forces over ours he doesn\u2019t need an army?\u00a0 Why do Russian leaders keep warning of nuclear war if they have sufficient conventional forces?<\/p>\n

Perhaps Putin doesn\u2019t use sufficient conventional force to end the conflict in Ukraine because he doesn\u2019t have the troops.<\/p>\n

If this is the case, then the prospect for nuclear war is more likely than I have thought, and I already thought such a possibility was extremely high.\u00a0 If Western provocations finally cross a line that Putin cannot ignore and his only possible response is nuclear, Armageddon is upon us.<\/p>\n

The unfortunate effect of the Russian government and media joining those of the West in proclaiming an \u201carmed rebellion\u201d and setting the narrative in stone is that it serves the West\u2019s purpose of discrediting Putin and serves the neoconservatives\u2019 propaganda that \u201cwe can win\u201d if we fully commit to the task.\u00a0 Clearly, no one in the Kremlin or Russian media was thinking when they joined the propaganda against themselves by endorsing the portrait of dissent in the Russian military that threatens the regime.\u00a0 The picture created of internal dissent plays into the hands of the West.<\/p>\n

The danger is that now with more confidence, the West pushes harder against Russia.\u00a0 This is the unfortunate result of the failure of the Russian military brass to placate Prigozhin.<\/p>\n

In the West the misunderstanding of last Saturday\u2019s event is total.\u00a0 Even normal level-headed analysts, such as Scott Ritter and Moon-of-Alabama, have contributed to the gross misunderstanding of the event.\u00a0 Ritter described Prigozhin as being in \u201cVictoria Nuland\u2019s pocket\u201d and working with Ukrainian intelligence cells inside Russia.\u00a0 Moon-of-Alabama blames the event on Putin\u2019s use of an independent military force in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most absurd of all is the self-serving claim by unidentified \u201csources\u201d of \u201cUS intelligence agencies\u201d that they had advanced knowledge of Prigozhin\u2019s \u201ccoup.\u201d\u00a0 How could they unless they were responsible for the missile strike, knowing that it would light Prigozhin\u2019s fuse?\u00a0 (Even the Russian media reported this absurd claim:\u00a0 https:\/\/sputnikglobe.com\/20230625\/american-media-claim-us-intelligence-learned-about-prigozhins-plans-for-mutiny-in-mid-june-1111453277.html<\/a> ).<\/p>\n

I will end this essay, which I hope provokes thought and awareness of how much more dangerous the situation is now, with a final observation.\u00a0 If there was actually a coup attempt and Prigozhin and his Wagner Group troops constituted a danger to the Russian state as Russian leaders declared, why was the situation resolved by permitting Prigozhin refuge in Belarus and the Wagner troops to be enrolled in the Russian Army?\u00a0 Does this indicate that the Kremlin knows there was no coup?\u00a0 Or does it mean that the Kremlin lacked an army with which to confront the coup and had to come to terms with Prigozhin?<\/p>\n

Is this the appropriate conclusion of a dangerous threat to Russian national existence?:<\/p>\n

\u201cKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Saturday evening that the criminal case against Prigozhin had been dropped and that he would leave for Belarus under guarantees given by Putin. The spokesman added that the members of the Wagner PMC involved in Saturday\u2019s events would not be prosecuted given their distinguished service during Russia\u2019s special military operation in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/sputnikglobe.com\/20230625\/american-media-claim-us-intelligence-learned-about-prigozhins-plans-for-mutiny-in-mid-june-1111453277.html<\/a><\/p>\n

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