@VelvetDuchess @Render Wagner channels continue to say he's dead.

https://twitter.com/AricToler/status/1694432294549770683

@VelvetDuchess @Render Yup. A regime that always lies isn't the most reliable source.

@Rustbelt_Dem @LiberalLibrarian Which is why sane governments don't allow private armies.

@LiberalLibrarian I'm sure they are thinking that. But I'm sure they've also thought it before, and have so far failed to muster the guts to do anything about it...

@LiberalLibrarian But not soon enough.

@VelvetDuchess @Render More reports now that remaining Wagner leadership will soon announce his death.

We'll see.

@VelvetDuchess @Render According to Wagner sources, he just returned from Africa to Moscow.

So some Wagner sources are claiming Prigozhin decoyed Putin with a second plane.

But that plane apparently returned... to Moscow. And is now reportedly circling the city.

"Please stand by while we make sure you're dead and decide how to bring down this other plane if you're somehow not, yet."

@LiberalLibrarian And of course right-wingers want it here, with their fantasy of MAGA-aligned private armies replacing the US Army.

Israel is directly flirting with the idea by promising a private militia to nutjob Ben Gvir.

Somehow I'm skeptical that if Prigozhin did somehow decoy Moscow into blowing up the wrong plane that he'll be able to land in Moscow safely.

@LiberalLibrarian The first threats from whatever's left of Wagner.

@LiberalLibrarian Russian state media says he's presumed dead.

It seems highly likely they'll make sure presumption becomes reality.

@LiberalLibrarian @ucantstop_me Very possibly... though I'd bet the effects won't manifest immediately.

@LiberalLibrarian @ucantstop_me It is indeed. A gamble he thinks he'll win. Time will tell if he's right.

And of course a short-term success could still disguise long-term trouble... if, say, more generals decide "he's going to fuck everything up and then kill us to shift the blame."

@LiberalLibrarian @ucantstop_me Clearly, between the removal of Wagner-friendly generals and now the hit on Prigozhin, Putin is counting on Wagner being too isolated and disorganized to try again.

@ucantstop_me @LiberalLibrarian Of course it was. It's a more elaborate way of dropping him out a window.

Wagner says on social media the plane was shot down by Russian air defenses.

OMG! Prigozhin stayed in a windowless hotel, so Putin found a fancier way to drop him from a height!

@LiberalLibrarian Mine too.

@LiberalLibrarian *Sigh.* That's "its" of course, not "it's."

@cmskiera I thought it was parody at first.