Military Madness > Is Prigozhin only 'Mostly Dead'? Russia's Satan II ICBM Superweapon activated

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‘Everything’s OK’: Prigozhin talks assassination attempts

 in newly released video fueling rumors he’s alive

By 

Snejana Farberov

August 31, 2023 9:55am 

 Updated

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Newly released video eerily shows Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin bragging about surviving assassination attempts — further fueling conspiracies that the Russian warlord may still be alive.

The footage was released on a Telegram channel linked to Prigozhin’s mercenary group on Wednesday — a week after he is understood to have died in a fiery plane crash.

“For those who are discussing whether I’m alive or not, how I’m doing — right now it’s the weekend, second half of August 2023, I’m in Africa,” Prigozhin, 62, says in the clip released by the Wagner-linked Grey Zone Telegram channel.

“So for people who like to discuss my liquidation or my private life, how much I earn or whatever else — everything’s OK,” he adds with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Yevgeny Prigozhin is seen in a chilling video released after his death, discussing risks to his life just days before his private plane crash in Russia.

via REUTERS

The footage was posted without comment, including details on exactly when or where it was filmed.

However, Prigozhin’s camouflage clothing and matching hat, along with the watch on his right wrist, matched his appearance in a video released on Aug. 21 seemingly from Africa.

That had been his first public address since President Vladimir Putin branded him a “traitor” over his short-lived June mutiny — and the last before he was declared dead in the private jet crash two days later.

The video has further fueled conspiracies about the Wagner Group leader.

via REUTERS

Prigozhin’s “weekend” reference in the latest clip suggested that it must have been shot between Aug. 19 and Aug. 20 — only days before he and other top Wagner commanders and bodyguards were killed in a plane crash in the Tver region on Aug. 23.

The Grey Zone channel earlier released what it described as some of Prigozhin’s “last” photos from Africa, showing him posing with a large group of young black men.

The accompanying post stated that the images were taken in the Central African Republic “not long before his departure for Russia.”

Prigozhin’s camouflage clothing, hat, and watch matched his attire in a video published just days before the plane wreck.

via REUTERS

A photo released by The Grey Zone Telegram channel shows Prigozhin posing up with a group of black men.

Wagner group/Twitter

The video was released a week after Prigozhin died in the plane crash.

AFP via Getty Images

While the Grey Zone made no suggestion that Prigozhin is still alive, the timing of the release and the strongman’s comments about surviving “liquidation” attempts only added fuel to already widespread conspiracies that he is still alive.

Among them is Dr. Valery Solovey, a former professor at the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations, repeating a widely shared conspiracy that the warlord was not on the crashed jet.

“His [body] double was flying instead of him. By the way, Vladimir Putin is perfectly aware of that,” the analyst said in a recent YouTube interview, claiming that the real Wagner chief is “alive, well and free.”

Russian officials have confirmed, citing genetic testing, that Prigozhin died in the crash.

via REUTERS

Prigozhin, 62, was laid to rest at a cemetery on the outskirts of St. Petersburg Tuesday.

REUTERS

The former academic said that Prigozhin plans to exact revenge “on the people who planned to destroy him.”

The Russian Investigative Committee probing the aviation disaster has confirmed, citing genetic testing, that Prigozhin was among the 10 people who died in the crash.

The rogue mercenary leader was laid to rest in a private ceremony at a cemetery in St. Petersburg on Tuesday.

The Kremlin has rejected as an “absolute lie” the suggestion that Putin had Prigozhin killed as payback for his uprising, but has said the investigation into the crash is looking into the possibility that the plane crash was the result of “deliberate wrongdoing.”

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Russia puts nuclear-capable ‘superweapon’ Satan II missiles on combat duty

By Snejana Farberov

September 1, 2023 7:03pm  Updated

Russia announced Friday it had put its nuclear-capable Satan II intercontinental ballistic missiles on combat duty for the first time.

The missile, also known as Sarmat — and classified as a “superweapon” by Russia — was introduced in 2018 and had been scheduled to be deployed for combat duty at the end of 2022.

“The Sarmat strategic complex has been put on combat duty,” Yury Borisov, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said in a media appearance organized by Russia’s Knowledge Society, the state news service TASS reported.

The Sarmat — or Satan II — missile will replace the aging Soviet-era Voyevoda intercontinental ballistic missile, known by the NATO designation SS-18 Satan, which has been in Russia’s arsenal since 1988.

With an estimated range between 6,200 and 11,800 miles, Satan II has the capability to deliver a 10-ton payload containing 10 to 15 nuclear warheads at once to any location around the world.

After a successful test launch of Satan II last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted that Satan II had no competition and would make Russia’s enemies “think twice” before issuing threats.

In this image from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile blasts off during a test launch Friday from the Plesetsk launch pad in northwestern Russia, Friday, March 30, 2018.

Russia announced Friday it had put its nuclear-capable Satan II intercontinental ballistic missiles on combat duty for the first time.  AP

Russia’s saber-rattling leader also warned the missile “is capable of overcoming all modern means of anti-missile defense.”

Asked Friday about Russia’s “superweapon,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a conference call that he was not in a position to confirm reports that Satan II missiles had been put on combat duty.

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Corruption is Everywhere > Certainly appears to be in the Biden Family; Getting Rid of Enemies, Russian style; Former Thai PM goes to Prison

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Joe Biden used email pseudonyms while VP to loop in Hunter

on Ukraine, government business

By Josh Christenson

August 18, 2023 4:27pm  Updated

President Biden used at least three pseudonyms during his vice presidency to send messages to his son Hunter concerning both family and official government business — including meetings with Ukrainian leaders, emails found on the first son’s abandoned laptop show.

Then-Vice President Biden emailed Hunter under the aliases “Robin Ware,” “Robert L. Peters” and “JRB Ware” between 2014 and 2016, keeping his son abreast of scheduled talks with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Kyiv Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, among other communications The Post first revealed in 2021.

The elder Biden had one of his aides, John Flynn, send his daily schedule to the private email address “Robert.L.Peters@pci.gov” at least 10 times between May 18 and June 15, 2016, copying Hunter on a May 26 message with a note about an “8.45am prep for 9am phonecall [sic] with Pres Poroshenko.”

President Biden used various aliases during his vice presidency to send messages to his son,

Hunter Biden, on family and official government business.

Teresa Kroeger

Biden had pressured Poroshenko five months earlier to fire Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the natural gas company Burisma Holdings, where Hunter earned roughly $1 million per year while serving on the board between 2014 and 2019.

The vice president, who was in charge of Ukraine policy at the time, discussed reforms to Shokin’s office after the prosecutor’s ouster, according to an archived readout of the May 27 conversation.

The year after leaving office, Biden publicly stated that he had threatened during his December 2015 visit to Ukraine to withhold $1 billion in US loan guarantees if Shokin was not ousted.

A June 15, 2016, meeting with Prime Minister Groysman led to an announcement of “$220 million in new assistance to Ukraine,” records show. Hunter had also been cc’d about that meeting on his father’s schedule the day before.

There is more on this story in the NYPost.

This story seems to be not very horrible, Dad keeping his son abreast of his schedule, but for the fact that the content often referred to Joe's interference in Ukraine politics in order to shut down an investigation into Hunter's fleecing of Burisma for access to his father. 

This story also reveals Washington's control over Ukraine after the Maidan coup. 

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Russia doesn't fool around when it comes to getting rid of political enemies. But, I'm sure this was just an accident...

Russian dissident Yevgeny Prigozhin reported dead

after a plane crash outside Moscow

By Olivia Land

August 23, 2023 1:26pm  Updated

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian dissident Vladimir Putin labeled a “traitor,” is believed to have been killed when a private jet crashed outside Moscow Wednesday evening – less than two months after he led a mutiny against the Kremlin’s military top brass.

Prigozhin, the leader of the controversial Wagner paramilitary group, was on the passenger list of the Embraer aircraft that crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino, 60 miles north of Moscow, the TASS news agency said Wednesday, citing the Federal Agency for Air Transport. 

“An investigation of the Embraer plane crash that happened in the Tver Region this evening was initiated. According to the passenger list, first and last name of Yevgeny Prigozhin was included in this list,” the agency stated.

Although it is unclear if Prigozhin boarded the flight, footage of the wreckage shows the last four digits of the aircraft’s registration number are 2795 — a match for the Wagner leader’s plane, which is RA-02795, CNN reported. The engine color is also similar to Prigozhin’s jet, the outlet said.

Flight data indicates that a jet registered to Wagner that Prigozhin used previously took off from Moscow on Wednesday evening and stopped transmitting signals around 6:11 p.m. local time.

A second jet possibly linked to the Wagner Group chief landed safely in St. Petersburg at 6:19 p.m. local time, flight data indicates

Prigozhin has been reported dead in a fiery private jet crash.

TELEGRAM / @ razgruzka_vagnera/AFP via Getty Images

There were 10 people on board the plane when it went down less than 30 minutes into its journey from Sheremetyevo Airport outside the Russian capital to St. Petersburg, officials told TASS.

The aircraft burst into flames on impact, according to the state-run agency, which has been accused of spreading Russian propaganda during the Ukraine war.

Thus far, eight bodies are believed to have been recovered from the crash site.

Wagner commander Dmitry Utkin was also possibly on the doomed flight, the Wagner Group-affiliated Telegram channel Gray Zone said.

“Various sources” alleged that the jet was downed by Russian “air defense systems,” the channel added.

An unverified video of a jet matching the description of an Embraer Legacy 600 tumbling out of the sky was circulated online by the Russian outlet RIA Novosti.

The investigation into the crash is under the “personal control” of the governor of the Tver region, Igor Rudenya, according to TASS.

There is also a criminal investigation underway headed by the Russian Investigative Committee, CNN said.

The case is grounded in Article 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which includes violations of the operations of air transport, the outlet explained.

The aircraft went down en route from the Russian capital to St. Petersburg.

Twitter / @Azovsouth

Was Prigozhin's plane shot down? Was he even in that plane or did he switch to the second plane? Is it an attempt by Prigozhin to disappear himself? Anything is possible in Russia.

There is more on this story at the NYPost.

Kuzhenkino, RU

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin jailed for 8 years

after return from exile

By Paul Godfrey

Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra greets members of the Pheu Thai party, which he backs, 

and well-wishers Tuesday at Don Muang International Airport in Bangkok on his return to Thailand

after 15 years in exile. Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA-EFE

Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Exiled former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand on Tuesday 15 years after fleeing corruption charges after he was ousted in a military coup.

Thaksin, who has spent most of his time abroad living in Dubai, announced his comeback on social media after a previously announced return on Aug. 10 was postponed to allow time for a medical.

"Tomorrow at 9 o'clock I would like to request permission to return to live in the land of Thailand and breathe the same air as my Thai brothers and sisters," Thaksin wrote in a Twitter post on Monday.

The 74-year-old, who touched down from Singapore at Bangkok's Don Muang International Airport as parliament sat to vote for a new prime minister, was detained and taken to the Supreme Court where he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Since departing the country in 2008, Thaksin's sentence has grown into a 12 year-term across at least three separate corruption cases by the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Office. Thaksin has always maintained that his legal woes are an effort by political opponents to neutralize him.

Given he has evaded the long arm of the Thai legal system for such an extended period of time, speculation is widespread that the manner of Tuesday's highly choreographed return suggests he has cut a deal that will see him serve only token jail time.

Thaksin might also possibly launch a bid for a royal pardon from King Vajiralongkorn with authorities at Bangkok Remand Prison where he is being held saying he can submit a petition immediately, although it can take up to two months to know if it will be successful.

In court he received a three-year sentence and a two-year sentence, to run concurrently, for a conflict of interest case involving the loaning of $114,400 to Myanmar in 2004 at a below-market rate of interest to enable it to purchase goods from his Shin Satellite company and abuse of power in establishing a lottery without legal authority.

The five-year term was for misconduct in relation to phone concessions and conflict of interest during his term in office which ran 2001 through September 2006 when he was deposed in a military coup while he was in New York attending a U.N. summit.

His return comes as parliament voted to select a new prime minister three months after elections failed to produce a clear winner, with the second-placed Pheu Thai Party that Thaksin has thrown his considerable weight behind leading efforts to form a government after Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat was unable to secure the premiership.