Icarus27k

US officials saw signs Prigozhin was planning challenge to Russian military but surprised by rapid escalation Washington CNN — US intelligence officials believe that Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the private Wagner military group, had been planning a major challenge to Russia’s military leadership for quite some time, but it was unclear what the ultimate aim would be, three people familiar with the matter told CNN. Intelligence officials briefed congressional leaders known as the Gang of Eight earlier this week concerning Wagner group movements and equipment buildups near Russia, two of the people said. US and Western intelligence officials saw signs that Prigozhin was making preparations for such a move, including by massing weapons and ammunition, one Western intelligence official and another person familiar with the intelligence said. A source familiar with the intelligence said “it all happened very quickly,” and it was difficult to discern how serious Prigozhin was about threatening the Russian military and where he would take his troops. https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/24/politics/us-western-officials-russia-prigozhin-putin/index.html

Putin has had a group of private mercenaries called Wagner fighting as part of the war in Ukraine. They turned on him and starting attacking Russia yesterday.

Thank goodness Hunter is off the hook now.

Man. Pro-Russia people are quite the characters. They're like: Hooray! We just barely avoided complete catastrophe! Suck it, our enemies. You must feel like total losers, huh?

Message deleted.

I feel like I was so close to not being compelled to care about Russia until yesterday. (I feel the Ukraine war is settling down somewhat; I was giving it till the Ukrainian counteroffensive culminated.) But then, all this *waves hand around* suddenly happened.

Russian air force is attacking the Wagner convoy that's trying to go north towards Moscow.

So it's probably connected to the Russian MoD demand that independent mercenaries officially join the Russian military. This was supposed to occur in July.

I think Prigozhin is going to get whacked.

Lindsey Graham. Really tells you everything you need to know about how serious the proposal is.

I imagine there would be a lot of slapping.

When I die, I hope I go in a hilarious way. And I'll be disappointed if the ASMB alums don't make fun of it.

Silver Banshee, but she looks more sci-fi than supernatural here.

What is this long object in the middle? Is it a spacecraft? This is a stretch, but the only DC thing that's ringing a bell is the Anti-Monitor's tuning tower. In that case, maybe the red-eyed figure in the background is NOT Darkseid but the Anti-Monitor.