this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
1304 points (97.6% liked)

World News

38278 readers
2223 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is a greater overall danger than many of you seem to realize. Their leader was a face and figurehead, the real power of Wagner mercenaries lies with the lieutenants. Without him, they are likely to splinter and become more brutal. Some are likely to be hired by the anti-Putin oligarchs, while others may align with Putin. This may result in Russia having to pull out of Ukraine, but that's not the end of this. Even if Putin is slammed out of power, that just results in an internal power struggle with deadly consequences. Those will not stay inside their borders.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Woohoo unstable country with huge nuclear stockpile.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Is the nuclear stockpile as good as the military equipment they use in Ukraine?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There only needs to be 1 functional one for it to kill thousands or even millions

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It takes a lot to launch a nuke and land it accurately. I'm guessing Russia lost that ability years ago and they know it hence the sable rattling.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know though my instinct says you're overstating the complexity. Doesn't really need to "land accurately" so much as detonate above any target population. Could just even be conventional ordinance with a nuclear payload.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I know it's not simple. Many things need to work in a certain way so they need to be maintained. Batteries must be replaced, systems must be tested frequently and security is very high. This is all expensive and knowing how cheap Russia is and lax their maintenance is, I'm betting many components were stolen which makes a success lunch much less likely.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Russians have been successfully launching Soyuz rockets longer than Americans have been launching space shuttles.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Soyuz rockets do not sit in a stockpile for 40 years without maintenance before being launched.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

One has nothing to do with each other though did you hear they just lost their Moon lander?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Ask the Reddit brigade that got shelled to death back when the war first broke out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

All true, but it does not depend on this specific group of folks or the inciting incident of their leader's death. Violent internal power struggle spilling across borders is practically guaranteed no matter who the actors are. Even if Putin lives a long life and dies of natural causes, that's coming.