"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (14 Viewers)

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Thumpalumpacus said:
Another Russian mercenary turns on Putin:

[...] The 53-year-old Zakrevsky is no liberal and no good guy. He served in the KGB and Soviet army, earned a law degree and got "involved with secret activity, information about which is forbidden." He then moved on to "independent military consulting" and founded the mercenary outfit Paladin.

[...]

Here's Zakrevsky's diatribe against Putin, in my translation:

"Our country is not just on the brink of disaster or already right next to it; our country is already in trouble. In big trouble. Drones are flying all over central Russia, right up to Moscow and St. Petersburg. They even attacked the Kremlin. Our Black Sea fleet is being pushed out. It's being pushed out as if we were not a great power with a great fleet, but some third-rate country.

"Our air force is practically not working because it is also being pushed out. We are standing in the same positions that we took more than two years ago, and partly in those to which we retreated. The population is dying out, becoming impoverished, drinking itself to death: no one cares. All they have time to do is bring in migrants."

Zakrevsky minces no words in assigning blame for this sad state of affairs: "And all this was done by the so-called 'president.' The 'Great' Putin."

After accusing army officers of incompetence and worse, Zakrevsky concludes his screed with an appeal "to those who are in the trenches. You know very well what kind of indecency is happening there now….You know very well the faces that are mocking you and your relatives…. We call on everyone to join our union to save our country. The point of no return has already been passed."

Note that Zakrevsky doesn't say "I call on you," but "we call on you." The plural is presumably a reference to "our union," Paladin, but it may also be a reference to other military men, whether in the private mercenary companies or the regular armed forces.

[...]

Zakrevsky's appeal, which has supposedly been distributed widely among Russia's military and civilian elites, can't be dismissed as the unrepresentative grumbling of a disgruntled mercenary. Zakrevsky, like Prigozhin before him, represents Russia's military class. If he's unhappy and willing to risk his career — and possibly his life — by going public with his call for Putin's removal, there must be many others who share his discontent. That may be why he hasn't been arrested or killed — yet.

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Wow! That is an extreme declaration in uncle Vlad world.

Beware of Windows, tea cups and hand grenades in aircraft Mr. Zak.
 
Thumpalumpacus said:
If nothing else they can provide further training. That would probably be a better use than committing to the combat front. Let them spread their knowledge and give these Ukrainian pilots new to the airframe more insight.
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Think about it: The Ukrainian pilots have probably been lucky to get 100 - 200hrs on the F-16 during their compressed training. But if the Ukrainians are able to contract a few pilots who have 1000+ hrs they would be invaluable.
 
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