Civil War in Russia?

Has it finally started?

Prigozhin's Wagner Group is on the march to Moscow, having conquered Rostov. That is the command center for the Ukraine war, and Prigozhin has reportedly captured it.

Reports also indicate Putin has fled Moscow!

They are heading to a civil war, it seems.

Post the latest updates here for more information.

 

Here is the latest from the UK's Guardian News, an impartial source if there ever was one.

Moscow mayor urges people to stay home as Wagner soldiers advance – Russia-Ukraine war live | Ukraine | The Guardian

 

Even if Wagner rebellion fails, Putin’s presidency has never looked weaker

Images of tanks in streets of Moscow evoke memories of a faltering Soviet Union’s final months in 1991

Even if Wagner rebellion fails, Putin’s presidency has never looked weaker

 

Russia Slides Into Civil War
Is Putin facing his Czar Nicholas II moment?
Russia Slides Into Civil War



"The hall of mirrors that Vladimir Putin has built around himself and within his country is so complex, and so multilayered, that on the eve of a genuine insurrection in Russia, I doubt very much if the Russian president himself believed it could be real.

Certainly the rest of us still can’t know, less than a day after this mutiny began, the true motives of the key players, and especially not of the central figure, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group. Prigozhin, whose fighters have taken part in brutal conflicts all over Africa and the Middle East—in Syria, Sudan, Libya, the Central African Republic—claims to command 25,000 men in Ukraine. In a statement yesterday afternoon, he accused the Russian army of killing “an enormous amount” of his mercenaries in a bombing raid on his base. Then he called for an armed rebellion, vowing to topple Russian military leaders."

 

Prigozhin said they're turning around and heading away from Moscow.
Wagner chief says mercenaries are turning back after advance toward Moscow
Prigozhin said his forces had gotten within 200 kilometers of Moscow, and now “we turn our columns around and leave in the opposite direction to the field camps according to the plan.”

Apparently they made a deal with Putinl.
Showed a little muscle, strong armed Putin.

​

 

Interestingly it fell apart because they seized Prigozhin's cash stash - which he foolishly left in vans parked in a hotel parking ot in St Petersburg.

He pays all his troops with cash, so that was that.

Of course offers of amnesty to all involved from Putin smoothed the situation over.

But the questions remain:

1 How does this affect the Ukrainian War?

2 Does this harm Putin's reputation in Russia? Or solidify his authoritarian rule?

 

That is interesting to hear about the bombers dropping their loads in the English channel, I had never heard that.

I think you are right, in that without public support continuing a war is difficult.

I can only hope that the Russians realize the folly of Putin's War and it ends soon. It is way beyond folly and a disaster for all involved. I pray that Putin doesn't go totally nuts and decide to blow up Zaporhiza's Nuclear Power Plant, which would destroy life in the entire area, or use tactical nukes. Disaster piled on top of disaster leads to no winner, only losers all around.

Civil War in Russia may have been averted, for the moment, but it seems like a house of cards almost ready to collapse.