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I didn't write that Putin's image was being strengthened by having Lukashenko act as puppet, the point is that he had to choose between being weakened or weaken
by squarefoot 3y ago
I didn't write that Putin's image was being strengthened by having Lukashenko act as puppet, the point is that he had to choose between being weakened or weakened and ridiculed. Also, in the same context they granted impunity to all Wagner soldiers; this must come from Putin, not Lukashenko, which has zero power in Russian affairs.
Moreover, note that the two Russian officials shown talking with Prigozhin in Rostov are Shoigu's #2 and Gerasimov #2. They didn't seem entirely comfortable in that video, but that sends a message nonetheless. Also, Prigozhin never addressed Putin directly. There's a lot of stuff going on there, probably too much to draw conclusions, but I'm sure we'll see some people "disappear" or die of "natural causes" quite soon.
- troupo 3y ago> I didn't write that Putin's image was being strengthened by having Lukashenko act as puppet You literally wrote "Putin couldn't negotiate in first person without appearing as weak." And you started with "it was a setup, planned by Putin from beginning to end in order to improve his strongman image". I've listed most of the things that actually happened. How does any of this improve his strongman image?
- squarefoot 3y ago> And you started with "it was a setup, planned by Putin from beginning to end in order to improve his strongman image". I never wrote that. It was a quote from a post 2 levels up.
- troupo 3y agoSorry, didn't look at the user name because "Putin couldn't talk to Prigozhin directly because that would make him weak that's why this was done by the clown Lukashenko which made Putin look even weaker" and further justifications are no different from that post.