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The West must now consider the possibility of a Russian political collapse
CNN ^ | June 26, 2023 | Stephen Collinson

Posted on 06/26/2023 7:16:21 AM PDT by Cronos

The world just got a hint of a tantalizing but possibly even more dangerous future without Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Western stakes in the Ukraine war rose significantly as a result.

A mutinous weekend that saw mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin flagrantly mock the Kremlin before aborting his march on Moscow evoked Russia’s blood-soaked history of revolutions and coups. Meanwhile, efforts by the White House and its foreign allies to find out exactly what was happening underlined the volatile nature of a war that could rewrite the map of Europe and modern history. Ultimately, a civil war that seemed about to burst out was averted – at least for now.

...The West truly doesn’t have a side in the internal strife that erupted this weekend. This was a showdown between Prigozhin – whose men are accused of brutal human rights abuses in Ukraine, Syria and Africa – and Putin, who has revived World War II-style horror in Europe, who flouted international law by invading a sovereign neighbor and who faces an arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.

..After months of heavy losses on the battlefield and economic pain at home caused by Western sanctions, it was noticeable that the most potent resistance to Putin came not from a democratic movement that he spent years crushing. It was from a force even more brutal than him – Prigozhin. And another extreme and bloodthirsty war lord, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, offered on Saturday to help suppress the Wagner rebellion on Putin’s behalf, which is one reason why there were fears of a bloodbath on the streets of Moscow.

(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Russia; Ukraine
KEYWORDS: dyingregime; putingoingdown; stephencollinson; thisdidntagewell; unpopular; wannabetsar
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To: LS
The USA is closer to “political collapse” than the Russkies.

We've already had a non-natural born citizen as Pres_ent, a stolen election in 2020, and currently have a non-natural born citizen as vice president.

We have government officials aiding and abetting illegal alien invaders.

We have government officials sending billions of dollars to Ukraine to pay for the salaries and pensions of their government employees.

41 posted on 06/26/2023 8:34:22 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: Cronos

“Dream the Impossible Dream”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbO2MY7GB3s


42 posted on 06/26/2023 8:36:19 AM PDT by alloysteel (Take back the rainbow. Its use by LGBTQ is cultural misappropriation.)
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To: T.B. Yoits

Precisely. Meanwhile, Pootiepoot announces death penalties for pedos, supports the Church, bans homosexual pride marches, and encourages family formation.


43 posted on 06/26/2023 8:36:26 AM PDT by LS ("Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually" (Hendrix) )
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To: Sequoyah101; Cronos

“must consider collapse? Really? Why?”

Because unexpected things can happen very quickly.

1. The fall of the Roman Empire was wholly unexpected just a year before it happened.

2. No one expected the USSR and its Eastern Bloc to collapse in 1989.

3. No one expected the COVID shutdowns in February 2020.

4. This time a week ago no one thought Prigo would march on Moscow.


44 posted on 06/26/2023 8:40:14 AM PDT by MeganC (There is nothing feminine about feminism. )
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To: iamgalt
This is state generated propaganda using CNN as their mouthpiece to prop up continued support for dumping more into Ukraine. The story is a load o BS.

Spot on.

45 posted on 06/26/2023 8:42:25 AM PDT by Allegra (Stop the Zeepers from Censoring FReepers)
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To: Cronos
Russia has been around for more than a thousand years. The government there has collapsed several times, including twice in about the last hundred years.

Even if we do consider the possibility of another collapse, the West seems to be completely unable to find a way to work with Russia in any sort of meaningful and productive way. Certainly, they bear much of the blame, but we have made them a enemy for such a long time that there is a great deal of mistrust.

46 posted on 06/26/2023 8:43:14 AM PDT by Repealthe17thAmendment
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To: LS

he also molests innocent kids on the street, poisons political opponents with radioactive Polonium, and bombs apartment buildings with hypersonic missiles

because Putin is “a follower of Christ” doncha know, LOL


47 posted on 06/26/2023 8:53:22 AM PDT by canuck_conservative (there would be no more need for NATO, if Russia could just stop attacking its neighbors)
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To: Bayard

It’s the new narrative (of the day).

just go with it.


48 posted on 06/26/2023 8:55:08 AM PDT by jimjohn (We're at war, people. Start acting like it.)
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To: Cronos

The Russian state stood universally united behind Putin.

Not even a single voice of dissent when an armed insurrection was afoot. No generals, no Duma members, no governors...NOBODY but Prigo voiced dissent.

That looks like a very stable government to me.

And the US in the same circumstances would certainly split into factions, Senators...generals...governors all picking sides.


49 posted on 06/26/2023 9:08:25 AM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Cronos; UMCRevMom@aol.com; SpeedyInTexas

Russia remains, a socialist workers union-group-think soviet-solidarity-thug-power (”deep swamp”) that brutally dominates Russian workers-society and supports the mix of police-state and military-state authoritarian “Moscow Club” stratosphere.

The brief rebellion by PMC Wagner, was mostly stopped from proceeding to Moscow, by the government-socialist-workers “deep swamp” who defended their reign over all of the Russian Federation, by disrupting communications (electronic [Internet] and physical [ie roadways]).

From June 23 - June 25, the “soldiers” (workers party thugs) recorded as much of the public activity as would be expected, and like the brutal authoritarians “ruling” Iran, will support the disappearance - the fearful police state that has trained most people about the limits of their so-called “freedoms.”

As in Iran, so it is in Russia, that there are many good people, but other than the arrival of some on-the-street rebellious force that momentarily provides refreshment of the wish for individual freedom, good people live daily in fear of the authoritarian state.


50 posted on 06/26/2023 9:10:37 AM PDT by linMcHlp
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To: Cronos

Where is the surprise here. One of the biggest instigators of Putin’s failing regimes was the US and has been for over 70 years. The US has been at the throat of Russia starting right after the end of WW II.

The latest attack in disguise is our support for the Ukraine. the second line in this article reads:

“The Western stakes in the Ukraine war rose significantly as a result.”

The public has no idea how much we already have invested in the Ukraine from nuclear technology:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/18/politics/us-warns-russia-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant/index.html#:~:text=The%20US%20has%20sensitive%20nuclear,energy%20firm%20Rosatom%20last%20month.

to import/export gains:

In 2018, of the $1.4 billion in U.S. imports from Ukraine, the top commodity sectors were Base Metals (68.4%), Agriculture (9.3%), and Machinery and Mechanical Appliances (5.7%).

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS957US957&q=What+interests+does+the+US+have+with+Ukraine%3F&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjy1oPGp-H_AhUPAzQIHdVqDwoQzmd6BAgSEAY&biw=1731&bih=873&dpr=1.1

to military:

Besides having over 100 special forces with boots on the ground there, we’ve had the folowing bases and posts on high alert for deployment since early 2022:

Fort Bragg, North Carolina (82nd Airborne Division and 18th Airborne Corps)
Fort Campbell, Kentucky (101st Airborne Division)
Fort Carson, Colorado (4th Infantry Division)
Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona
Fort Hood, Texas
Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington
Fort Polk, Louisiana
Robins AFB, Georgia
Fort Stewart, Georgia
Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio

The media also uses the term currently by saying we have no political (CIA) prisons in the Ukraine at this time. That’s talk around for we did, or we can’t talk about them, and will probably have again.

Our government is not going to trust the citizens of the US with the info they are hiding calling it sensitive. The voters have been kept in the dark too long to understand what is really happening.

wy69


51 posted on 06/26/2023 9:17:29 AM PDT by whitney69
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To: Bayard

Me neither.


52 posted on 06/26/2023 9:27:55 AM PDT by sauropod (“If they don’t believe our lies, well, that’s just conspiracy theorist stuff, there.”)
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To: Vermont Lt
They [China] are much more likely to make a move on the resources in the Russian East. They will roll in there to “secure the peace and stability” of their sources.

I've thought the same thing. China would love to grab Lake Baikal north of Mongolia, as they need sources of fresh water to sustain growth in that region and beyond.

53 posted on 06/26/2023 9:32:05 AM PDT by Towed_Jumper (“A nation without a central bank is like a digestive tract without a tapeworm.” F. Saunders)
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To: Bayard

I don’t know that Russia is about to collapse but does any coup attempt, failed or not, that gets reported on to the public ever end up helping the intended target of it? The fac this played out in public, or was allowed to for a bit, is fascinating in itself.


54 posted on 06/26/2023 9:32:47 AM PDT by desertsolitaire ( )
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To: Towed_Jumper
Chiba needs these water resources for population growth in Manchuria, and the area around Vladivostok was Chinese territory that the Russians seized as a result of treaties in 1858 and 1860.

However, the collapse of Russia or the rise of a pro-Western regime in Moscow would politically isolate China. Russia is the most militarily strong Chinese ally. If it imploded or became Western dominated, the BRICS+ alliance would collapse. India, Brazil, and South Africa would seek an accommodation with the Western powers, and Saudi Arabia and Turkey would re-enter the American orbit. The CCP wants a new world order as much as the Western ruling classes, but one they dominate, and not Wall Street or the City of London.

55 posted on 06/26/2023 9:46:33 AM PDT by Wallace T.
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To: Cronos

Such a collapse will not come if and when Putin is replaced. If and when Putin is replaced it will be an internal coup within the Kremlin and not a military rebellion. The deep state in the Kremlin is still the strongest force in Russia. But, someday long down the road in the future, Russian disentegration may come, who knows when. The birth rates of Russians is declining and the birth rates of many minorities in the Russian federation are not.+

Her’s a map:

https://www.quora.com/Russias-fertility-is-only-rising-because-of-Turkic-Muslim-groups-and-ethnic-Russian-fertility-is-1-1-Yakutia-Kazakhstan-and-Moscow-were-once-majority-Russian-but-are-no-longer-so-Will-ethnic-Russians-be-a-minority

Yet, while the decline of the fertility rate of ethic Russians compared to some ethnic minorities in Russia, the Russian ethnic group is still about 80% of the population, so the effects of their fertility rate are many, many decades off from having a major political affect, and during that time events could cause a reversal in those trends. So, “ethnic turmoil” in the Russian federation is unlikely to “topple the Kremlin” in our lifetimes.


56 posted on 06/26/2023 10:21:09 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: Cronos

Oh I see, it makes a difference that they stopped, gave up, and “somehow” there will be no reprocussions.

My bad, them giving up is actually worse.

There is no way to spin this as a loss for Putin, its actually a really big win for him when his opponents quit and run.


57 posted on 06/26/2023 10:26:05 AM PDT by Bayard
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To: Cronos

2nd most peaceful “insurrection” I’ve seen in the last three years.


58 posted on 06/26/2023 10:39:51 AM PDT by yuleeyahoo (The nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one. Hamilton)
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To: Cronos

If I were Prigozhin I would watch the bank accounts of his bodyguards. Pootie as a tendency to eliminate those that disagree with him.


59 posted on 06/26/2023 11:02:58 AM PDT by Rappini (Hope means coming in second.)
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To: Wallace T.

CNN wants to keep this Russia news on the front burner to get the heat off of Hunter and Sleep joe’s laptop issues.


60 posted on 06/26/2023 11:05:45 AM PDT by Rappini (Hope means coming in second.)
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