Andrew Korybko is an expatriate American scholar living in Moscow and working on an advanced degree there. We consider it a privilege to have a highly perspicacious observer of his calibre on the spot to inform us about the complex events taking place there. As the Wagner-Prigozhin affair unfolds, Mr. Korybko has written another opinion piece on that topic.
His offer of amnesty and exile to Belarus wasn’t a sign of weakness like the Mainstream Media and some in the Alt-Media Community claimed, but proof that the Russian leader was in full control of the situation and powerful enough to end it without the bloodshed that the West wanted.
Prigozhin’s attempted coup never had any realistic chance of succeeding after the Russian people and their elite rallied around President Putin in the face of the unprecedented challenge that the Wagner chief posed to him over the weekend. The only victor in another “Battle of Moscow” would have been their country’s existential enemies, which is why its leader mercifully gave the mutineers a final chance to save their lives by going into exile in Belarus, after which charges against them would be dropped.
Unlike the spin that the Mainstream Media (MSM) and even some in the Alt-Media Community (AMC) are putting on this outcome, it wasn’t President Putin who blinked, but Prigozhin. There was no way that the mutineers would have been able to breach the formidable defenses put up around Moscow as part of the military’s contingency plan for such a scenario, let alone hold the capital as Russia’s new rulers. They wisely took this deal, likely after Prigozhin realized that his fighters weren’t interested in a coup.
After all, most of them were seemingly brainwashed into thinking that this was simply a so-called “anti-corruption” campaign that had the approval of the country’s military and intelligence elite with a wink from President Putin himself. Their cell phones were reportedly taken from them before Prigozhin ordered their march on Moscow, but they would have somehow or another eventually found out that the Supreme-Commander-In-Chief told them in his national address that morning to stop right away.
This would have become abundantly obvious to them as they approached the capital and saw the improvised roadblocks that were put in their way, which signaled that their “anti-corruption” campaign wasn’t going according to plan. These heroes of Novorossiya who risked their lives for their Motherland didn’t want to shed their compatriots’ blood for the sake of one man’s ambitions, which Prigozhin would have become aware of as word spread throughout their ranks of President Putin’s earlier address.
The abovementioned assessment was elaborated on in the following analyses published on Saturday:
* “Prigozhin’s Treason Is Unacceptable No Matter One’s Opinion Of The Special Operation”
* “Prigozhin’s Attempted Coup Risks Russia Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory”
* “Westerners Cheering For Prigozhin Want Another World War”
* “Prigozhin Is Carrying Out A Preplanned Coup, Not An ‘Anti-Corruption’ Campaign Like He Claims”
Some more insight will now be shared about this incident in order to correct false perceptions about it.
Popular AMC influencer Pepe Escobar published a viral article last month which falsely speculated that FSB Director Bortnikov’s loyalty to Russia was supposedly a “special bone of contention”. It was already debunked in the first of the four hyperlinked analyses above but the points deserve to be referenced again in the aftermath of this weekend’s events. Contrary to what Escobar’s audience had been misled by his article to believe, the FSB was the first arm of the Russian state to oppose Prigozhin’s coup.
It published a statement early Saturday morning describing his actions as “a stab in the back”, the language of which was then repeated by its former Director-turned-President several hours later in his national address when he called it a “knife in the back”. As can be seen, Escobar’s reckless speculation about Bortnikov’s loyalty had no basis in reality since President Putin respected this official’s words so much that he made sure to amplify them to their over 145 million compatriots later that same day.
The other part of the Russian leader’s address to reflect on was his claim that the participants had been “dragged into this criminal adventure through deceit or threats onto the path of a grave crime – an armed mutiny.” President Putin then added that this is “treason against our country, our people and the common cause which Wagner Group soldiers and commanders were fighting and dying for shoulder to shoulder, together with our other units and troops.”
The importance in drawing attention to this is to show why President Putin mercifully gave them a final chance to save their lives since he believed that these heroes of Novorossiya were manipulated by Prigozhin’s “inflated ambitions and personal interests”. His offer of amnesty and exile to Belarus wasn’t a sign of weakness like the MSM and some in the AMC claimed, but proof that the Russian leader was in full control of the situation and powerful enough to end it without the bloodshed that the West wanted.
