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— Putin probably approved Prigozhin killing, western officials say
— plane may have been destroyed by a bomb on board, rather than a surface-to-air missile
— Russia’s own investigation is examining the bomb theory https://t.co/hQ9kZe23jk
— Alex Wickham (@alexwickham) August 24, 2023
Apologies (trigger warning) in advance; we all have our niches. Adam is an expert on such topics, whereas I bricolage bits off the internet…
Having mastered epidemiology, large language models, and submarine engineering, I would now like to explain why Yevgeny Prigozhin's crash was most likely the result of adverse weather conditions…(1/87)
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) August 23, 2023
Like Teremok, Prigozhin can be found in locations all across Moscow.
— Jean-Michel Connard ?? (@torriangray) August 23, 2023
https://t.co/F6rqBBYmHU pic.twitter.com/qBxbbie6cJ
— zeddy (@Zeddary) August 23, 2023
Knock Knock
Who's there?
Prigozhin.
Prigozhin who?
Prigozhin a pine box, if they can find enough of him.
1/?
— David Avallone (@DAvallone) August 24, 2023
shot down by an s-300
I fought the tsar, and the tsar won
I fought the tsar, and the tsar won pic.twitter.com/VNh2ohRS75— Robert Marchini (@rhcm123) August 23, 2023
Prigozhin’s last words were “What airdefense doing”
— Darth Putin (@DarthPutinKGB) August 23, 2023
Evgeny Prigozhin, to whom Vladimir Putin gave his solemn word no harm would come in exchange for ending his fighting, was shot out of the sky by Russian air defenses today.
Anyways, here's why Ukraine needs to negotiate with Russia right now…
— Joel Wasserman (@joelw_762) August 24, 2023
What is an airplane but a mobile balcony? https://t.co/XRWVDunSZO
— The Mall Krampus (@cakotz) August 23, 2023
Blowing up pipelines, assassinating oil executives, shooting down private jets, collapsing GDP… truly, Vladimir Putin is degrowth's strongest soldier.
— Quantian (@quantian1) August 23, 2023
Shoddy, badly done foreshadowing:
Trump muses about fleeing to Russia pic.twitter.com/1dbZ8XynXQ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 22, 2023
Finally a REAL journalist asking the important questions like, "did the US sneak into Russia and fire a rocket to do a false flag in order to take out the guy who Putin was beefing with (b/c he tried to do a coup a month ago)?" Thank you, Max! https://t.co/i5IodlzcQZ
— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) August 23, 2023
PUTIN WORRIED
??Putin has urgently returned from Kursk???? to Moscow????.
The situation in ???? is unstable: Politically, economically, and militarily.
Putin’s core support is hardcore nationalists: Those who loved Prigozhin.
The situation can spiral out-of-control at any moment. pic.twitter.com/gZNHC18yPc
— Jason Jay Smart (@officejjsmart) August 23, 2023
He just died? Wow. I didn’t know that. You are telling me now for the first time. He led an amazing life. What else can you say. Whether you agreed or not, he was an amazing man who led an amazing life. I am actually sad to hear that. I am sad to hear that. pic.twitter.com/mM2JeLXbEe
— forcefemmed calvinist (@Sharon_Kuruvila) August 23, 2023
One advantage the "woke" US military has over the Russian military is that its institutions and chain of command are strong enough to avoid reliance on external private mercenaries loyal only to their leader who then mutinies against the state before his own unceremonious demise
— Joey Politano ?????? (@JosephPolitano) August 23, 2023
our way is better
— post malone ergo propter malone (@PropterMalone) August 23, 2023
President Biden on the death of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin: "I said I would be careful of what I drink and what I rode in. I don't know for a fact what happened, but I'm not surprised." pic.twitter.com/2J8dS8nqe8
— CSPAN (@cspan) August 23, 2023
Odie Hugh Manatee
Forest fires suck… The Smith River Fire is clogging our area with heavy smoke and Crescent City had their power cut off because the feed lines run through the burn area. Crescent City is getting power fed to them via generators at the power company but it is limited. The moon is blood red, there’s lots of lightning tonight (great, maybe more fires!) and just a smattering of rain is grazing us.
Good morning!
ETA: Just for Steve and just this time… 👍
Frist!
Shalimar
I am sure Prigozhin was paranoid and taking precautions against being murdered given Putin’s history. I am not sure he foresaw the danger of flying given that all of the other suspicious Russian deaths were defenestrations, poisonings, and physically impossible “suicides”.
patrick II
It sounds like the honeymoon suite.
Tony Jay
Poor, weak Putin. Too weak to control the monster he created, too weak to put him on trial for treason, to weak to leave him alive, too weak to take credit for having him wacked, too weak to guarantee the wacking won’t trigger an even more dangerous coup attempt. Maybe he needs more iron in his diet.
As usual this reminds me of one of those Star Trek episodes showing how the Mirror Universe Terran Empire operates. By the end of the episode so many characters have been backstabbed, betrayed, sacrificed, killed in single combat or just plain old phasered into atoms that you’re left wondering how anything there is supposed to function when 99% of vital positions are filled by whoever happened to be closest to the chair when the previous occupant fucked up.
Lumpy
Doug J Balloon is a national treasure.
Ian R
Tuberville is trying to change that.
Nukular Biskits
Merriam-Webster – Definition of “bricolage”
Thanks, AL! I learned a new word today and I’ve only been awake 15 minutes!
gkoutnik
Thanks for the shout-out to Warren Zevon. I just found, and played, “Roland…” What interesting music we’d have if Warren were still with us!
I remember a few work colleagues coming over to my house in the evening to listen to that album, which was the style at the time.
bookworm1398
“One advantage the “woke” US military has over the Russian military is that its institutions and chain of command are strong enough to avoid reliance on external private mercenaries.”
instead they rely on mercenaries because they don’t have enough people. Or maybe for some other reason, they certainly use a lot of them
Frankensteinbeck
@bookworm1398:
People don’t ask the Russian army to occupy their country. They pay Wagner to.
bjacques
I read that first Xeet as “bomb therapy”. That’s also acceptable.
Another Scott
I heard a bit of a Q&A with Fiona Hill yesterday on NPR ATC. She noted that Wagner shot down a military plane during the brief putsch attempt, killing around a dozen. So it wasn’t a surprise that Prigo died the same way, almost exactly 2 months later.
Makes sense.
Cheers,
Scott.
p.a.
hashad enough scratch to buy his own island somewhere and enjoy what life he had left until the day Vlad woke up in a bad mood and decided to take him out. Hanging around just made it easier for Putin.JAFD
Good morning*, fellow jackals and gentlebeings !
Have a great weekend !
*if you’re sufficiently East of Greenwich that it’s afternoon or evening already, enjoy that part of your day !
Suzanne
I was musing on whether or not it’s could be considered a defenestration if 1) it’s an airplane window, and 2) the rest of the airplane also falls. Maybe “explosive defenestration “.
krow10
“Fly Putin Airlines” … Where Every Seat is a Window Seat!
Baud
@krow10:
Heh.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@JAFD: Huh? It’s 7:38 AM in East Greenwich Village
OzarkHillbilly
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
You know, like London, Madrid, Paris…
zhena gogolia
The Wasserman tweet is spot-on.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@p.a.: How would buying an island somewhere bring him safety? Ukraine could drop in and arrest him. NATO/INTERPOL/Jack Smith could do the same. And of course Russia could drop in and break him up.
You can’t expect a set of rules to save you when you don’t play by any rules.
Frankensteinbeck
@p.a.:
Almost all Putin’s assassinations are in Russia, and the ones that aren’t are not well defended people. I figure Prigo, with loyal guards on his own land outside Russia, would have been reliably safe. Rumors of Putin’s omnipotence are greatly exaggerated. Prigo made himself an easy target here.
Ten Bears
Heh ~ he took his command staff with him …
Ken
There’s still a chance that the Russian investigation will determine the explosion and crash was suicide. They’ll claim Prigozhin brought the bomb on the plane, and point to the original Airport movie as precedent.
(I almost wish they would; the reactions in the US media and congress would definitely let us know who’s on Putin’s payroll.)
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@OzarkHillbilly: perhaps if I said the punch line in Emily Litella’s voice it would have worked
Spanky
@Ken:
Can they claim precedent if no one in living memory has seen the movie?
Ken
@Spanky: Made me look. I meant the 1970 Airport with Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin*, not the 1934 Airport documentary short narrated by Carleton Hobbs.
* Though Helen Hayes stole the show.
Doug R
@Frankensteinbeck: Maybe he could “pick” Mexico City?
Betty
@Shalimar: This is very close to the scenario in a John LeCarre novel, “Our Kind of Traitor” where the betraying oligarch’s plane was blown up. I guess Prigozhin didn’t read that one.
SiubhanDuinne
Wow. That forcefemmed calvinist tweet is genius! (For those who may not recognise it, it’s word-for-word what TFG said about RBG, except for the pronouns.) Just brilliant.
kindness
Trump can’t fly off to Russia soon enough for most of us.