Wagner mercenaries were on Thursday reported to be trying to head back into Russia after threatening retaliation over the suspected killing of their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash on the orders of Vladimir Putin. “The convoys are likely heading towards the border with Russia,” the centre said. “There’s a lot talk right now about what the Wagner Group will do,” he said.
This is a greater overall danger than many of you seem to realize. Their leader was a face and figurehead, the real power of Wagner mercenaries lies with the lieutenants. Without him, they are likely to splinter and become more brutal. Some are likely to be hired by the anti-Putin oligarchs, while others may align with Putin. This may result in Russia having to pull out of Ukraine, but that’s not the end of this. Even if Putin is slammed out of power, that just results in an internal power struggle with deadly consequences. Those will not stay inside their borders.
Woohoo unstable country with huge nuclear stockpile.
Is the nuclear stockpile as good as the military equipment they use in Ukraine?
There only needs to be 1 functional one for it to kill thousands or even millions
It takes a lot to launch a nuke and land it accurately. I’m guessing Russia lost that ability years ago and they know it hence the sable rattling.
I don’t know though my instinct says you’re overstating the complexity. Doesn’t really need to “land accurately” so much as detonate above any target population. Could just even be conventional ordinance with a nuclear payload.
I know it’s not simple. Many things need to work in a certain way so they need to be maintained. Batteries must be replaced, systems must be tested frequently and security is very high. This is all expensive and knowing how cheap Russia is and lax their maintenance is, I’m betting many components were stolen which makes a success lunch much less likely.
Russians have been successfully launching Soyuz rockets longer than Americans have been launching space shuttles.
One has nothing to do with each other though did you hear they just lost their Moon lander?
Soyuz rockets do not sit in a stockpile for 40 years without maintenance before being launched.
Ask the Reddit brigade that got shelled to death back when the war first broke out.
All true, but it does not depend on this specific group of folks or the inciting incident of their leader’s death. Violent internal power struggle spilling across borders is practically guaranteed no matter who the actors are. Even if Putin lives a long life and dies of natural causes, that’s coming.