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Susan Katz Keating

Putin Arrests General ‘Armageddon’ Surovikin Over Ties to Wagner Mutiny

Russian authorities appear to have detained General Sergei Surovikin over his suspected connection to the Wagner Group’s mutiny last week, according to media reports. The specific details surrounding Surovikin’s status remain blurry, but top Russian and U.S. officials have said the senior general has been detained, the Financial Times and The New York …

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How Prigozhin’s Non-Coup Unfolded From Russia’s Rostov-on-Don

From RFEL/RL Russian Service ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia – The first inkling that something unusual was happening came when uniformed men with weapons at the ready blocked traffic at the intersection of Budyonnovsky Prospekt and Bolshaya Sadovaya Ulitsa. Although cars were turned back, pedestrians were allowed to enter the underpass and proceed …

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The 24 Hours That Shook Putin’s Presidency: Echos of Soviet KGB’s Failed Effort to Oust Gorbachev

In early 1991, an article by then-correspondent Susan Katz Keating appeared in Soldier of Fortune, describing how the KGB likely would try to overthrow Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The article, “How to Stage a Soviet Coup,” was published shortly before the KGB targeted Gorbachev in a failed coup attempt. In …

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The Coup That Wasn’t: Prigozhin Takes Deal With Putin; Cancels Uprising, Moves to Belarus

Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who turned his fighters against the military leadership in Moscow, has moved to Belarus, and the criminal charges against him for mounting an armed rebellion will be dropped, the Kremlin said Saturday.  Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko negotiated the deal with the Wagner Group chief, his …

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Meet Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Ex-Convict Who Made a Run on Moscow

by Mike Eckel Yevgeny Prigozhin, a convict who parlayed a St. Petersburg restaurant business into lucrative Kremlin contracts, founded the private military company Wagner, and became a relentless critic of the Russian military command, made and then stopped a run on Moscow as part of a truncated rebellion. Who is …

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Kremlin Charges Wagner Chief With Mutiny, as Prigozhin Asks Russians to Join Uprising Against Defense Minister

The Kremlin charged Yevgeny Prigozhin with mutiny on Friday night after the bellicose Wagner Group chief called on all Russians to join his forces in an uprising against the country’s defense minister. Prigozhin accused his wartime nemesis, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, of ordering Russian troops to shell Prigozhin’s forces in …

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At ‘OP Baby’s Head’: Water for the Cartels, Cross-Border Mules, and a Skull in the Badlands

by Heath Hansen Editor’s note: In the remote no-man’s land just north of the Arizona border with Mexico, SOF correspondent Heath Hansen stationed himself at OP “Baby’s Head,” in a place where weapons, dope, and a fractured human skull have been spotted in the brush.  Here in this treacherous spot …

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Blackwater’s New Camo Pattern Becker Patrol Pack Blends Rugged With Off-the-Charts Coolness

Our good friends at Blackwater sent us a preview of their rad new rucksack, the Blackwater Camo Pattern Becker Patrol Pack Mk II. If the model name sounds familiar, it’s because Blackwater made it in coordination with Ethan Becker, a famed knife designer who created the original pack in the …

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Chinese Spy Base in Cuba: Images of a Secret Site in a Remote Village

This Cuban farm village once was the site of a secret military base where Soviet nuclear missiles stood capable of striking the United States. Today in the hamlet of Bejucal, the working nukes are gone; in their place is a communist Chinese spy station, barely 100 miles off the coast …

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