[needle]

Here's Seymour Hersh reporting the view of an unnamed source "in the American intelligence community":

"... the big army and Putin slowly changed their strategy from offensive conquest of greater Ukraine to defense of what they already had. Prigo refused to accept the change and continued on the offensive against Bakhmut. Therein lies the rub. Rather than create a public crisis and court-martial the asshole [Prigozhin], Moscow simply withheld the resources and let Prigo use up his manpower and firepower reserves, dooming him to a stand-down. He is, after all, no matter how cunning financially, an ex-hot dog cart owner with no political or military accomplishments.

“What we never heard is three months ago Wagner was cycled out of the Bakhmut front and sent to an abandoned barracks north of Rostov-on-Don [in southern Russia] for demobilization. The heavy equipment was mostly redistributed, and the force was reduced to about 8,000, 2,000 of which left for Rostov escorted by local police.

“Putin fully backed the army who let Prigo make a fool of himself and now disappear into ignominy. All without raising a sweat militarily or causing Putin to face a political standoff with the fundamentalists, who were ardent Prigo admirers. Pretty shrewd.” 

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/prig...dium=email

It's a good theory presented by a major critic of American support for Ukraine in this war, so keep that in mind.

I think analyses that conclude Putin acted "shrewdly" foolishly downplay what seems to be widening dysfunction within Russia's fighting forces, which I do believe is good for Ukraine. However, I feel like too many American talking heads overstate things the other way, painting a picture of a Russian military basically teetering on the verge of collapse w/mass desertions. We'll see, but it doesn't seem very likely to me.

[needle]

Here's Seymour Hersh reporting the view of an unnamed source "in the American intelligence community":

"... the big army and Putin slowly changed their strategy from offensive conquest of greater Ukraine to defense of what they already had. Prigo refused to accept the change and continued on the offensive against Bakhmut. Therein lies the rub. Rather than create a public crisis and court-martial the asshole [Prigozhin], Moscow simply withheld the resources and let Prigo use up his manpower and firepower reserves, dooming him to a stand-down. He is, after all, no matter how cunning financially, an ex-hot dog cart owner with no political or military accomplishments.

“What we never heard is three months ago Wagner was cycled out of the Bakhmut front and sent to an abandoned barracks north of Rostov-on-Don [in southern Russia] for demobilization. The heavy equipment was mostly redistributed, and the force was reduced to about 8,000, 2,000 of which left for Rostov escorted by local police.

“Putin fully backed the army who let Prigo make a fool of himself and now disappear into ignominy. All without raising a sweat militarily or causing Putin to face a political standoff with the fundamentalists, who were ardent Prigo admirers. Pretty shrewd.” 

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/prig...dium=email

It's a good theory presented by a major critic of American support for Ukraine in this war, so keep that in mind.

I think analyses that conclude Putin acted "shrewdly" foolishly downplay what seems to be widening dysfunction within Russia's fighting forces, which I do believe is good for Ukraine. However, I feel like too many American talking heads overstate things the other way, painting a picture of a Russian military basically teetering on the verge of collapse w/mass desertions. We'll see, but it doesn't seem very likely to me.