No, a former Marine general is not working for an infamous Russian mercenary group
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sabang
Ex-US Marine General Among Russia's Wagner Mercenaries: Founder
he Defense Department’s top spokesman has called bullshit on a recent claim by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s Wagner Group, that a former Marine Corps general officer works for the private mercenary company. Prigozhin made his dubious claim on Nov. 25 to the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, when he said that about 20 Finnish citizens are fighting with Wagner in Ukraine.
“I have a very good opinion about the Finns on the battlefield,” the French wire service Agence France-Presse quoted Prigozhin as saying. “They are fighting in a British battalion (as part of Wagner PMC), which is commanded by a US citizen, a former general of the Marine Corps.”
Notably, Prigozhin did not identify this alleged Marine officer whom he claimed to have on the payroll. It was also far from clear why a former Marine general officer would opt to work for Wagner instead of embracing the bosom of America’s defense industrial base (F-35s, after all, cannot sell themselves).
On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder dismissed Prigozhin’s comments as Russian disinformation.
“We have seen those press reports; we’ve seen no names associated with those press reports; we’re not aware of any names associated with those,” Ryder said at a Pentagon news briefing.
“And so, I think, again, very likely that this is – not surprisingly – propaganda. I would refer you to the Marine Corps, but I don’t know how much credibility I would put into the Wagner Group.”
The Marine Corps had nothing to add beyond Ryder’s comments on Tuesday. Task & Purpose also asked two retired Marine general officers if they had heard of any of their colleagues joining Wagner, and the answer was a resounding nyet.
To most Americans, it is not surprising to hear that the head of the Wagner Group, which has been accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine and elsewhere, is not the most trustworthy source of information. In fact, Prigozhin has about as much credibility as a James Bond villain.
A video posted in September shows a man who looks a lot like Prigozhin recruiting Russian prisoners to fight in Ukraine. The man in the video says that while Wagner is careful about accepting prisoners convicted of sex crimes into its ranks, the company also understands that “mistakes happen.”
If Wagner actually employed a former Marine general officer, the Russians would have certainly published this person’s picture, military records, and other personal information to humiliate the U.S. military, said Olga Lautman, an expert on Russia and Ukraine at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, DC.
Lautman noted that in June, Russian television showed two American military veterans who had been captured in Ukraine. Alex Drueke and Andy Huynh were eventually released after 104 days in Russian captivity thanks to a chance call to the VA’s crisis hotline.
Prigozhin’s claim about having a Marine general officer on his company’s payroll was likely intended for a Russian audience, Lautman told Task & Purpose on Tuesday.
“I think it’s more for internal purposes, domestic propaganda, to show: Look, we can buy former U.S. military members, to show the weakness of the U.S. military; and also to pollute social media, like western audiences, with more garbage,” Lautman said.
Prigozhin’s dubious claim about having a Marine general officer leading a Wagner battalion is emblematic of how the Russians approach propaganda campaigns, said Marek Posard, an expert on disinformation with the RAND Corporation.
“Typically, the Russians will try to cook up falsehoods that are ripped from recent headlines,” Posard told Task & Purpose. “Earlier this month, there were reports of former allied personnel aiding foreign adversaries. I wouldn’t be surprised if Russia is trying to piggyback on this story to undermine the perceived legitimacy of the U.S. military.”
So, remember: Whenever Russian President Vladimir Putin or one of his allies or subordinates make outlandish claims about American military personnel, you can always smell a big, fat rat.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/mari...ussia-ukraine/
Hey snubski- check this guy out!
Reality on the Ground in Ukraine
Russia is accomplishing its military objectives in Ukraine.
Its long-range, high-precision, hypersonic munitions cannot be intercepted by US/Western air defense systems used by Kiev.
“The goal of (Russia’s) strikes (is being) accomplished, its Defense Ministry explained.
“All designated targets have been hit.”
Military ones exclusively, no civilian ones.
Damage or destruction of nonmilitary sites in Kiev and elsewhere were caused by regime munitions falling in residential areas.
Deployment of regime troops, weapons, munitions and equipment to areas of combat by rail has been significantly disrupted.
The scourge of made-in-the USA/Nazi-infested Ukraine is already defeated.
Only its obituary remains to be written.
Propaganda by US/Western regimes, Kiev Nazis and their MSM press agents can’t change reality on the ground.
Continuing a lost cause as ordered by US-dominated NATO assures greater destruction and mass casualties.
Russia won. Kiev lost with zero chance to turn things around.
Sensible leadership would capitulate to cut its losses.
Ukraine is virtually owned and controlled by the empire of lies and forever wars on invented enemies.
Having long ago abandoned the rule of law in pursuit of its diabolical aims, its ruling regimes — especially undemocratic Dems — are indifferent toward the lives, rights, and well-being of ordinary people at home and worldwide.
At this time, most of Ukraine lacks electricity, heat, tap water, santitation and ability to communicate electronically.
The cost of restoring what’s lost will require billions of dollars, what the regime lacks, what US/Western regimes won’t likely keep supplying for a lost cause.
And Russia’s super-weapons are technologically superior to the best in the US/West — developed, produced and deployed at a tiny fraction of what hegemon USA pours down a black hole of waste, fraud and abuse to enrich its merchants of death and human misery.
On the issue of most Ukrainians without electricity, heat and tap water, without sanitation, without the ability to flush toilets, normally in their lives lost, Russia’s UN envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, stressed the following:
Months after the Obama/Biden regime’s Kiev coup, no one in the West expressed concern after Ukrainian Nazis cut off electricity and tap water in Crimea.
Their regimes supported years of Kiev’s aggression against Donbass residential communities.
They and their MSM press agents consistently blame Russia for Ukrainian war crimes.
Instead of denouncing the scourge of Nazi-infested Ukraine, US/Western regimes actively support it, while suppressing information about its widespread use of torture and mass-murder of Russian POWs, Russian nationals in Ukraine and others suspected of being sympathetic toward the Russian Federation.
Separately ahead of Russia’s winter offensive getting underway in earnest, Eurasian expert, Gordon M. Hahn, said the following about what’s upcoming:
Russia’s “hammer is about to” come down much harder on Ukraine than already.
“The gloves are coming off.”
“Electric energy stations, bridges, and ‘decision centers…are being targeted,” significantly damaged and destroyed.
“After (the regime’s) infrastructure (is) completely destroyed or incapacitated, Russia’s reinforcements of 380,000 regular and newly mobilized troops will have been fully (deployed) across (frontline positions in) southeastern Ukraine.”
“A winter offensive (with) half a million troops will make substantial gains…”
They’ll “multiply Ukrainian losses in personnel (arms) and materiel.”
“(C)ollapse of” regime troops along front line positions will likely follow.
And at this time, “the West is suffering from Ukraine fatigue.”
Arms supplies of NATO regimes are fast depleting.
It’s at a time of greatly eroded “social cohesion…in the face of double-digit inflation and (deepening) economic recession.”
Largely self-sufficient Russia is strategically defeating hegemon USA-dominated NATO’s agenda.
At some point ahead, the empire of lies and its European vassals will be forced “to seek at least a breathing spell by way of a ceasefire.”
Yet as ordered by his US master, puppet Zelensky, an out-of-touch with reality buffoon, keeps “pushing Ukraine’s (military) commander, Viktor Zalyuzhy, to” continue pursuing a lost cause.
Things are approaching “a watershed moment” at a time when most of Ukrainians are suffering, when its military and society are unravelling.
Russia’s winter offensive may prove to an endgame in what began last February.
Dominant Ukrainian Nazis must choose between capitulation or annihilation.
It’s their choice.
https://stephenlendman.org/about-me/
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Is Chicago Tribune Channeling ‘Baghdad Bob’ on Ukraine War?
Reading the Chicago Tribune’s November 21st editorial ‘Memo to the new Congress: Ukraine needs your help, not your grandstanding’, one might surmise Ukraine is winning the Russo-Ukraine war. As proof the Trib offers “Ukraine just carried out one of the most significant battlefield victories in the nearly nine-month war, with its triumph in the southern city of Kherson. Russia’s defeat in Kherson added strong evidence to the notion that Ukraine has the upper hand against Putin’s illegal, ruinous invasion.”
The reverse is true. Ukraine is being systematically annihilated by the Russian military. Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson is primarily tactical. Kherson will be reversed as Ukraine collapses. It is being grasped by the Trib, and all promoters of current US weapons support, as proof of eventual Ukraine victory.
The Trib does allude to the destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure which has plunged much of the country into cold and darkness on the cusp of winter. But then the Trib reverts to its feelgood delusion that “What will assist Ukraine through this perilous period is an unwavering commitment from the U.S. and Europe to provide military and economic aid.” Let’s see, upwards of $100 billion in weapons aid with the upcoming $37 billion from the Lame Duck Congress, has done nothing but extend Ukraine’s death and destruction for 9 months now. Much of the destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure did not occur till US weapons needlessly prolonged the war. Had the US signed on to fellow NATO member Turkey’s brokered 15-point peace agreement in March, the war would have ended by April. US torpedoing that peace agreement was a dastardly betrayal of Ukraine’s people. With the exception of the Iraq-Iran war of 1980-88, the US has always worked to end foreign conflict thru diplomacy, not prolonging it with endless weapons.
Instead of castigating conservative Republicans, some of whom plan to end the US weapons transfers in the 118th Congress in January, the Trib should be supporting their efforts to curtail more weapons which will set the stage for sensible negotiations.
The Trib should also cease telling its readership Ukraine is winning this war. Doing so congers up the ghost of Baghdad Bob, the infamous Iraqi Minister of Information, who popped up daily on TV to tell the world that Iraq was vanquishing Great Satan America in its criminal 2003 US war there.
Is Chicago Tribune Channeling ‘Baghdad Bob’ on Ukraine War? - Antiwar.com Blog
