JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia’s next civil war has already begun” – The Telegraph (UK)/ Richard Kemp
“Factions in the military establishment are vying for position, at the expense of Putin’s invasion effort.”
“One of the bloodiest battles in modern European history …. may also be the site of an extraordinary Russian civil war, playing out on Ukrainian soil between different factions. … the Wagner Group and the Russian ministry of defence. … [a] confrontation … eight months in the making. … [W]hile his mercenaries have been at the forefront … [in] Bakhmut, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has been waging a political battle … to gain influence in the Kremlin. … Some think his ultimate goal is to usurp the Russian ministry of defence. Perhaps he wishes to bring all Russian forces under his personal command. Since May … Prigozhin has been striking a public contrast with the Russian army’s [battlefield] humiliation …. [F]or Putin … [there is] is a big gamble … that he [might] lose[] control of his disparate fighters. Other mercenary groups, including Shoigu’s own private military company and … Kadyrov’s Chechen army, are presumably watching and learning. It may … be too late to suppress Prigozhin … support[ed] [by] top officials and … lauded [by] … patriotic media. Prigozhin’s popularity reached new heights … when he gave public approval to … killing … a Wagner defector … battered to death by a sledgehammer. If those are his tactics, Putin had better hope the civil war in Bakhmut doesn’t reach Moscow.”