In Related News...

 ... he also wanted to sleep with her, I am sure. 

The deceased leader of the Wagner Group, Evgeny Prigozhin, attempted to foment a coup in Moldova with the aim of overthrowing the country’s pro-Western government, President Maia Sandu has claimed. Sandu has long accused Russia of trying to remove her from office, all while leading a crackdown on her pro-Moscow opposition. “The information that we have is that it was a plan prepared by [Prigozhin’s] team,” Sandu said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Friday. According to Sandu, the late Wagner chief planned on encouraging anti-government protests to turn “violent,” without providing any further details.

Yes, I am positive. 

Yes, she invokes so many desires to "overthrow" her. Same amount as any CNN or PBS anchors do. Or any Gender Study Ph.D. from Harvard.

Larry On Prigozhin, Scott On Russia.

Larry wrote excellent piece on Prigozhin's histrionics. As good CIA analyst Larry presents three possibilities. 

Personally, I call bullshit. For starters, Prigozhin is not a military commander nor does he have any military experience. He can whip up a great Chicken Kiev and is an incredible marketeer, but he ain’t Clauswitz or Sun Tzu. I will not bore you with the conventional analysis that insists Prigozhin is either a whistleblower on steriods or someone who is on the verge of a mental breakdown. I fully understand why some will draw those conclusions, but I am not buying it.

Read the whole thing because it is an excellent food for thought piece. But there is a fourth possibility, which Lt. Colonel Oleg Shalandin, Vera and me discussed today with a huge caveat that Prigozhin's histrionics may and most likely will now cost him a lot. Especially after distasteful video with Wagner's KIAs. The fourth possibility being the fact that he may be removed from Wagner's control because, in the end, Wagner is a commercial corp initiated by Russia's Defense Ministry and Prigozhin, methinks, overstepped. Keep in mind that "suddenly" General Mizintsev is IN Wagner and as Oleg described him--he is an outstanding general, very competent and his "retirement" may, actually, be the sign of Wagner being in the process of "whipping in shape". It is clear that Akhmat is now in process of deployment to Artemovsk to finish off mopping up or the remnants of VSU.

Meanwhile, Scott travels across Russia with his new book and that is what he has to say about "sanctions".

Yes, sanctions aren't working against Russia. In fact, they accelerate Russia's economic development. On the other hand, sanctions inflicted an immense pain on combined West and now we see cracks all over Western-run institutions ranging from NATO, to EU, to what have you.

No Comments Needed.

Well, sort of. 

The share of the euro in Russia’s National Wealth Fund (NWF) will be reduced to zero in 2023 as Moscow further reduces its exposure to the currencies of ‘unfriendly’ nations, Deputy Finance Minister Vladimir Kolychev has revealed. “It [the euro] will definitely be reset to zero this year,” Kolychev told reporters on Thursday while answering a question on what would happen to the funds in euros remaining in the NWF accounts. The official also added that the ministry would gradually bring the structure of the NWF in accordance with the new standards in such a way that only rubles, Chinese yuan and gold would remain there.

Calmly, without grandiose gestures and PR. Just like that. It is also known that China was dumping treasuries since 2022 and, looks like, the arrangements are being made to completely remove any remnants of "credibility" from moribund US Dollar and Euro, whose fate is pretty clear now because of upcoming (when, don't ask me, I don't know) collapse of the EU and, finally, NATO. How will this develop is very difficult to predict but it is now the matter of WHEN, not IF. SMO is designed to address this issue. 

For doubters, here is my friend Colonel Vladimir Trukhan (in Russian) explains on fingers what is going on and what aims Russia pursues--very successfully--in former 404. 

The title of interview is:

The Enemy Could Not Defeat Us Economically, Hence Transition To Real War.

Use Google translate, Volodya explains it in simplest terms and reserves more emotional responses, LOL, for upcoming Friday when three of us: Vera, Volodya and me will meet yet again (I lost count already) on podcast and will discuss--and you have guessed it--SMO from operational and strategic POV. In related news, pay attention to Alexandr Rogers excellent columns. And if you followed even intermittently Russian info-space, you may have noticed a dramatic reduction of "noise" from all those military "reporters" in Russia, who, such as Sladkov, Pegov, Kotz et all. completely discredited the profession. As with the US Dollar, you know, reputations are built for a long time, but are destroyed in an instance. 

In related news CNN asked Evgenii Prigozhin (Wagner's leader) the next question: Good afternoon, Can you please explain why recruitment in the Russian prison system has ended for Wagner? What is the reason behind this? 

Prigozhin's response: After the release of Wagner PMC advertisement aimed at American audience we received more than 10 million applications from US citizens wishing to join the Wagner PMC to fight against NATO. At the moment, we are considering about one million American citizens for employment. Therefore, we temporarily suspended the recruitment of volunteers from Russian prisons, however, if there is a corresponding request from the US State Department, we will recruit from American ones."

He did actually respond like that. Of course, this part was ignored by CNN, LOL. But on a more serious note on this issue: Vladimir Rogov today informed (in Russian) that several thousand of citizens of other countries, such as UK, US, Canadians, French, Germans, Portuguese, in all from 47 countries, want to join Russian Armed Forces to fight. He stated that after resolving logistics issues and background checks by FSB they may join. He also underscored that for many of those people it is the matter of not only fighting globalism but defeating it for their own countries to survive and reform. How strange, in a good way, to see today the rebirth of Internationalist Brigades fighting for a good cause. This is your primer.

Saving The Honor...

 ... and Allied spirit. As Mr. Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner Group stated today: 

Как сообщил бизнесмен, отвечая на вопрос финской газеты Helsingin Sanomat, граждан Финляндии в составе ЧВК «Вагнер» есть «не очень много», около 20 человек. «По понятным причинам я не могу давать точную информацию о них», — указал он. При этом предприниматель отметил, что это, как правило, «высококлассные специалисты, очень идейные и мотивированные». По словам Пригожина, у него сложилось очень хорошее мнение о финнах на поле боя. Бизнесмен добавил, что они воюют в британском батальоне в составе ЧВК «Вагнер», командиром которого является гражданин США, экс-генерал морской пехоты.

Translation: As the businessman said, answering a question from the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, there are “not very many” Finnish citizens in the Wagner PMC, about 20 people. “For obvious reasons, I cannot give accurate information about them,” he said. At the same time, the entrepreneur noted that these are, as a rule, “highly qualified specialists, very ideological and motivated.” According to Prigozhin, he had a very good opinion about the Finns on the battlefield. The businessman added that they are fighting in a British battalion as part of the Wagner PMC, commanded by a US citizen, ex-general of the Marine Corps.

How about that! British Battalion! USMC General fighting Nazis. A very pleasant surprise. Deepest respect to those people of good faith all around the world. Not everything is lost with such people in the West.

In related news: this is the first MC-21 in Rossiya airline livery.  

This is experimental MC-21 which will fly for now without passengers in order to iron out all issues which may appear during commercial use of the upcoming fleet of MC-21s. So, there you go.