Jan 6, 2025
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Venceremos—Solidarität mit dem Volk Chiles GDR stamp commemorating Chilean president Salvador Allende (1908–1973)
A dress rehearsal for a revolution to come like Potemkin? The last act of rebellion before totalitarianism like Kronstadt? A footnote in an American history book like Storozhevoy? Maybe just another Friday in Russia…
Wagner troops entered the city of Rostov and took positions inside the main military headquarters for southern Russia, as authorities in Mos
“Russian authorities stepped up security in Moscow and issued an arrest warrant for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner paramilitary group, on charges of mutiny after he called on his troops to oust the country's military leadership.
(…)
As Russian soldiers in armored personnel carriers secured key installations in Moscow, leading Russian military commanders who had worked with Wagner urged the group's fighters to stop before it was too late. "The last thing we need is to unleash a real civil war inside the country. Come back to your senses," urged Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev, the deputy chief of Russian military intelligence.
(…)
"The evil that the military leadership of the country brings forward must be stopped. They have forgotten the word justice, and we will return it," Prigozhin said in an audio recording posted on Wagner's social media Friday. "Anyone attempting resistance will be considered a threat and immediately destroyed. This includes all the checkpoints on our path and any aircraft above our heads."
Friday's events showed the depth of political crisis inside Russia after 16 months of grueling war marked by a series of military setbacks. Pressure is rising on Putin to squelch any threat that Prigozhin now poses to his power, and to Russia's ability to continue waging the war. Putin, so far, hasn't made any public statements about the drama unfolding in Russia.
(…)
For the past several months, Prigozhin has been focusing his vitriol on Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov. Earlier on Friday, he accused Shoigu of leading Russia into war in Ukraine on a false narrative in order to get awards and a promotion in rank.
Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the former commander of Russian troops in Ukraine who, unlike Shoigu and Gerasimov, has been repeatedly praised by Prigozhin, made a late-night video appeal asking Wagner's troops not to obey the group's owner.
"Whatever your intentions are at the moment, as valiant as somebody told you they may be, this is a stab in the back both for the country and the president," he said. "This is a military coup."
(…)
In Friday's recordings, Prigozhin said that he has 25,000 men under arms but also considers the entire army, and the entire Russian society, his strategic reserve.Russian commentators reacted to this turn of events with shock.
(…)
Earlier in the day, Prigozhin said Shoigu lied to Russians and to Putin when he told a "story about the crazy aggression from the Ukrainian side and the plans to attack us with the entire NATO bloc." In an implied criticism of Putin, he added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would have agreed to a deal if the Kremlin had deigned to negotiate.”
“Vladimir Putin has vowed to crush an armed insurrection led by the warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, describing the rebel militia making their way towards Moscow as a treasonous “stab in the back”.
The Russian president labelled the first coup attempt in three decades as a “deadly threat to our statehood” and compared it with the 1917 revolution that led to the collapse of imperial Russia.
(…)
Russian military helicopters fired on a convoy of Wagner troops and armoured vehicles, including tanks, rumbling north along a highway towards the capital, according to unverified videos published on social media.
The convoy, which also appears to contain mobile air defence systems, advanced steadily from Rostov towards Moscow despite “combat operations” by regular armed forces, and in the early evening of Saturday was abound 350km from the capital’s outer ring road, where Russian troops have set up checkpoints.
If the convoy is able to advance without hindrance, they could reach Moscow before midnight local time.
(…)
The insurgency is the most serious threat to Putin’s decades-long rule, and comes after months of public infighting between Prigozhin and the country’s armed forces.
“Prigozhin’s mutiny is the greatest challenge to date of the rule of Vladimir Putin,” said Andrius Tursa, eastern Europe analyst at Teneo. “Even if the mutiny fails, the crisis events will only exacerbate perceptions of the regime’s weakness.”
Wagner’s rapid advance sparked an emergency call between G7 nations who agreed “to co-ordinate closely”, and enhanced security measures in Nato countries bordering Russia, which possesses one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals.
(…)
In Kyiv, the crisis was a “window of opportunity” for its forces to push ahead with a counter-offensive to liberate territory occupied by Russian troops, said Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister. She added that the decision to invade Ukraine had triggered “the inevitable degradation of the Russian state”.
Putin’s pledge on Saturday to crush the attempted coup came hours after Prigozhin announced he had “blockaded” Rostov and the headquarters of Russia’s military command centre, responsible for Ukraine operations, as armed, masked men with tanks and armoured vehicles surrounded government buildings.
Putin’s grave address, which did not mention Prigozhin by name but accused his organisation of “blackmail and terrorist methods”, suggests the president has left no room for compromise with his former acolyte. “What we are dealing with is treason. Unchecked ambitions and personal interests have brought about betrayal of our country and our people,” Putin said.
Prigozhin issued a defiant response, saying his Wagner force no longer wanted to live “under corruption, lies, and bureaucracy”.
Sixteen months of war against Ukraine has hamstrung Russia’s economy because of a barrage of western sanctions and an exodus of foreign capital. The conflict has cost tens of thousands of lives and created a dangerous patchwork of competing militias and security forces.
(…)
The extraordinary decision to launch a motorised assault on Moscow was part of what Prigozhin said was a “march of justice” against defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, commander of Russia’s invasion forces, whom he has accused of mishandling the Ukraine invasion.
(…)
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said the events had laid bare “Russia’s weakness”.
“The longer Russia keeps its troops and mercenaries on our land, the more chaos, pain and problems it will have for itself later,” he tweeted. “Everyone who chooses the path of evil destroys himself.””
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's plane left Moscow on the afternoon of June 24 amid an ongoing rebellion led by PMC Wagner chief Yevgeny Pr
“Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's plane left Moscow on the afternoon of June 24 amid an ongoing rebellion led by PMC Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Belarusian Hajun monitoring project said on Telegram on June 24, citing data from the Flightradar24 service.
The Russian government’s Il-96−300PU aircraft took off from Vnukovo Airport at 14:16 local time and headed for Valdai, one of Putin’s residences, it said.
(…)
The plane reportedly disappeared from radars near the Russian city of Tver (about 150 kilometers from Valdai), the independent Russian website Important Stories (IStories) said on Telegram on June 24. The media outlet claims that the plane is “equipped to control the armed forces.”
(…)
The Ukrainian online publication Ukrainska Pravda cites an unnamed source in the Ukrainian special services who states that “Putin is leaving Moscow, he is being taken to Valdai.”
The Insider, a Russian investigative journalism project, also writes that as of 3 p.m. local time, another Russian special forces aircraft had landed in St. Petersburg.
The independent news outlet Mozhem Obyasnit, in turn, reports that Russian officials are fleeing from Moscow on business jets – at least three flights served by the Special Flight Unit “Rossiya” of the Russian President’s Administration have already departed for St. Petersburg.”
Mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's declaration of "war" against the Russian military is "not likely to turn into a civil war," Dmitri Alpe
“Dmitri Alperovitch, founder of the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Silverado Policy Accelerator, shot down suggestions that the conflict would result in the development of a new Russian civil war, predicting in a series of tweets that Prigozhin's forces would quickly be defeated.
"No, this is not likely to turn into a civil war," Alperovitch tweeted. "It is what in Russia is called 'razborki' (gangland warfare) And it looks like one gang is about to get totally crushed because the other has all the weapons and the security services on their side."
(…)
In additional tweets, Alperovitch suggested that Prigozhin "might not survive the weekend" due to his declaration of war, while commenting that "this show is very entertaining but unfortunately it might be a very short one."”
Mick Ryan, a retired major general, told Insider reports of a coup in Russia will lead to more chaos in the war no matter the outcome.
“Mick Ryan, a retired major general in the Australian military and fellow for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Insider that while exactly what is happening on the ground in Russia remains unclear, "this is the kind of thing where no one wins — everyone loses something."
(…)
"Prigozhin is likely to be the biggest loser," Ryan told Insider. "But Putin and his inner circle will look like they don't have their hands on all the levers of power in a way that some Russian elites would expect them to. And the Russian army will be looking forward at the Ukrainians attacking them and looking behind themselves and their nation, seemingly in chaos — whether that's a reality or not — and it will cause deep disquiet among senior Russian leaders."
Ryan said the deep unease felt by Russian troops after hearing a regime-affiliated official disparage military leadership could be used to Ukraine's advantage as they continue to fend off Russian attacks.
(…)
"I think Prigozhin probably crossed a Rubicon of some type. This is probably the end of the tolerance for his outbursts and demands of the military," Ryan told Insider: "I think it's most likely that things won't turn out well for him. I certainly wouldn't be booking or reserving places in an old people's home if I was him."”
König Ubu: “So a Schoiße, Schooooiiiiiße”
… am “13.″ des sechsten Monats, Künstlerkollegen im Atelierhaus mit intensiver Diskussion über die künstlerische Arbeit und die gegenwärtige “Schoiße” dieser Welt. PROF. em. MATTHIAS KOEPPEL und SOOKI bei ANDRIOTTA und ARATORA.
Ohne Lachen ist kein Leben, ohne Leben ist man tot. Ohne die durchsungenen Nächte, weiß man nichts vom Morgenrot. Jede Stunde soll man feiern, dankbar und voll Leidenschaft. Aus den sinnlichen Momenten, strömt für uns die größte Kraft. Und, und, und, und, und, wir rauchen Papirossi, und es gibt gefillte Fisch, und die alte Hannah Rosner tanzt am Ende auf dem Tisch. Und die Teller sind zerbrochen, und die Gläser sind geleert, und die Schlechtelauneheiden wenigstens für heut bekehrt. Schau, wir sind ganz ohne Alter, leben jetzt im Augenblick, und die Himmel schicken Segen, alle Wege führen ins Glück … Text André Heller
“Sooki’s rot/blau beklebtes Cellular-Phone mit Zitronen und Küchenmesser” Holztypendruck mit Zusatzelementen, 30x30 cm, Unikatdruck, 13.VI.22, Sammlungsbeitz SMK
Ex-president among 14 who face charges in killing of former leader Thomas Sankara 34 years ago.
The trial of 14 men, including a former president, has begun in Burkina Faso over the assassination of the country’s revered revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara 34 years ago.
Former President Blaise Compaore and 13 others face an array of charges in the death of Sankara, described by his followers as the African Che Guevara.
The killing of Sankara, an icon of pan-Africanism, has for years cast a dark shadow over the Sahel state.
A young army captain and Marxist-Leninist, Sankara came to power in a coup in 1983 aged just 33.
He changed the country’s name from Upper Volta, a legacy of the French colonial era, to Burkina Faso, which means “the land of honest men”.
He pushed ahead with a socialist agenda of nationalisations and banned female genital mutilation, polygamy and forced marriages.
Like Ghana’s former leader Jerry Rawlings, he became an idol in left-wing circles in Africa, lauded for his radical policies and defiance of the big powers
“The trial will mark the end to all the lying – we will get a form of truth. But the trial will not be able to restore our dream,” Halouna Traore, a comrade of Sankara and survivor of the putsch, said in a TV interview.
March 4
For all those right wing Q nutjobs today’s the day The Revolution’s gonna happen. I’m gonna make popcorn and watch as all their dreams get crushed a second time!
They’ll never learn from anything this, they’ll be disappointed in the moment but then rebound and say “oh, well, we just got the date wrong, it’s actually gonna be June 14!” And then when that date comes and goes they’ll move their prediction to July 4, then September 11, then November 3, November 8, December 25, January 3, January 20, etc etc etc
June 14 is a ways away, I’d actually put money on April 4 being their next big putsch. Easter Sunday, the day their Lord and Savior will rise again (typing that made me vomit a little in my mouth; I’m sorry Jesus, but they literally worshipped a golden idol at CPAC, they’ve relegated you to second fiddle)
Let’s roll them bones, see how much momentum they actually have. The feds probably won’t be as kind to them the second or third time around, so finger’s crossed for a spectacle. I mean, I hate conspiracy theorists and cops equally, it’s not like I’ll be rooting for one group over the other, there are no heroes in this situation, I just want to see more arrests.
In unserem ersten Post zum Neokolonialismus führen wir in Nkrumahs Analysen ein.