In an interesting development in the ongoing Russia - Ukraine War the leader of Wagner, a Russian mercenary group revolted against Putin and started marching towards Moscow. Then he did a U - turn, cut a deal with Putin and backed out.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary unit used to sell hot dogs in Moscow street before becoming Vladimir Putin's Chef. His rise was meteoric as he was a great asset to Russian military until recently before turning rouge and becoming a liability to Putin. Though a shrewd guy, with this move Prigozhin protested to drive a point that all is not good on the Western front war with Ukraine. He clearly knew that with his 8,000 fighters he couldn't take over Moscow. It is akin to imagining a breakaway Indian Army consisting of 10,000 soldiers marching to Delhi to take over the government. They will be routed in no time. The head of the Wagner unit was trying to send a message to Putin by daring to take him by horn.
War is a business of performance. Humans and History always side with the winners. Putin and Russians, including your humble blogger too and most of the world anticipated Russia taking over Ukraine in few months. It has not only failed miserably, nearly one and half years down the road Russia is nowhere close to achieve its primary goal of capturing Kiev and replace its leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy with Putin's puppet.
It is sad that Russia, once a superpower, is at the mercy of hired mercenaries rather than its regular soldiers who neither have an appetite or any incentive to fight a futile war. Why should they get motivated to fight the Ukrainians who not long ago were part of nation called U.S.S.R along with Russia. Do you think we Odias will be dying to fight and die fighting against Bengalis if our leader says so, a state with which Odisha has deep links and have similar language, culture and traditions for centuries !
The American President Joe Biden just gave a statement that US has no role to play in the uprising of Prigozhin. It reminds me of a line I read about diplomacy - "Don't believe anything until it is officially denied".
Now it will be interesting to see where the Putin fans, especially the supporters of Modi and BJP stand ? They used to be rabidly against US and Joe Biden at the beginning of the Ukraine War throwing their lot behind Putin. Now that Biden fecliliated their Mahaprabhu on American soil, accorded him a State dinner, followed by Mahaprabhu gifting Biden's wife with diamond, their bonhomie has left our Bhakts a highly confused lot - "NA E KULA RA HELE, NA SE KULARA HELE" or "can't chose between rock and the hard place". They might consider telling their darling RSS to send a battalion of Khaki wearing, Lathi (stick) wielding Sanghis to fight on behalf of Putin's fledgling army. They will swing their Lathis so fast that Prigozhin's Wagner mercenaries will run away.
No comments:
Post a Comment