[Tee tiong huat]

I believe it is very likely. This "staged" coup probably allowed Russia to achieve several goals.

1. Disassociate Wagner from the Russian gov and military.

2. Sieve out US/NATO-backed moles within Russia, especially their military, who would have surfaced to offer monetary n military aids to the Wagner boss and his "rebel" forces.

3. Also to sieve out western-aligned military commanders who had joined the coup.

4. To lure the Ukrainian side to move its military assets towards the eastern front, exposing them to Russian strikes.

5. With the Wagner boss in Belarus, Wagner is now able to launch attacks towards Kiev or even Lviv.

Headline-grabbing decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) last month to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges has caused nervousness among the Russian elite, according to current and former officials who spoke to The Moscow Times.

Read the article on themoscowtimes.com >