Originally published at: BBC reports mercenary boss Prighozin met with Putin after "mutiny" | Boing Boing
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“Prighozin met with Putin”?
Putin: “I’m on the ground floor.”
Prighozin: “Be down in a minute.”
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Maybe Putin wanted to find out how Wagner successfully invaded Russian, while Russia continues to fail to invade Ukraine?
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It’s like if Biden met with the QAnon Shaman (and QS had an army of mercenaries instead of a mob of idiots).
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Putin gave Prighozin several hundred billion dollars to “end the uprising”. When it comes down to it, all Putin and the other oligarchs care about is cold hard cash.
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I don’t see how that simile works.
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For all his chest beating, Putin is constantly in a precarious position when it comes to maintaining his power. That’s why he’d meet with the leader of the warlord faction even after the orc tried to take power.
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Or… the whole thing was a set-up to get 50,000 Wagner troops and their leader in a position to have unfettered access to Belarus? (And by implication be much closer to Kyiv.) 
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Just a little family squabble. Nothing to see here, folks.
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Source?
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I’m not loving these memes/jokes. There have been plenty of them around the internet lately. And while they may portray Putin as an evil murderer, it also portrays him as decisive, capable and ultimately kind of badass.
In reality he’s a dithering old fool who can’t stand up to his mercenaries, who is unable to put food on the table for his citizens, and who has been bumbling through an almost 10 year old war with little to show for except Crimea and de facto control over some bombed out ruins in the east of Ukraine.
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Nope, I would definitely describe him as a murderer, but I would never describe him as a competent badass, no matter how many horses he straddles bareback.
Just check out the latest front cover of Private Eye if you fancy any more fifth-floor window humour.
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If Putin wants to send troops to Belarus he can call it a training exercise, as he did before the invasion.
ETA: Lukashenko has already done Putin a solid by putting enough soldiers on the border to force Ukraine to keep a significant number of soldiers on the border.
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Again, I’ve seen this idea bandied around the internet a lot lately. It’s complete garbage and may very well have started in a Russian disinformation factory. You may not consider it praise, but you’ve got to admit that it transforms Putin from the deer in the headlight we saw on the 24th of June into Putin the 4D chess master.
Like others have already commented, he has been able to freely move his soldiers and mercenaries into and around Belarus the entire time. There was absolutely no reason why he would need send this particular lot to Rostov or Don first, and then have them go on to shoot down his planes and helicopters.
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Not the thing that can be found out in the open. Just a student of history. SOMETHING made him back down, and what usually makes an oligarch back down is MONEY.
When I read your posts it’s like I hear your words spoken in the voice of the Comic Book Guy in the Simpsons.
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What we are seeing with Putin’s handling of Prighozin is the steely grip of a strongman at the top of his power.
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Thank you!
Prighozin: Can we stop for a sandwich?
Putin: Sure! Polonium or novichok?
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The second paragraph of this item from the Guardian’s Ukraine liveblog should put to rest 5D chess theories that the mutiny was a charade to get Russian troops to Belarus.
Reuters reports that Belarus is waiting for fighters from the Wagner mercenary group to deploy on its territory and plans to exchange combat experience with them when they do, the state news agency Belta cited the Belarusian defence ministry as saying on Tuesday.
Belarus is also waiting for a new batch of regular Russian troops to arrive to take part in joint training with the Belarusian armed forces, the ministry was cited as saying.
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