[webmobdev]

It was inevitable - this is what happens when you allow private armies as a business. Nearly a century ago, when the British government decided to take control of a private army the British empire ultimately collapsed because of the backlash from the corporates who ran it. Putin is right to act swiftly and harshly against this kind of behaviour before they become an actual threat to the nation - Mercenaries, unlike national armies, tend to prioritise money and power. (In fact, the harsh action against them seems to suggest that is exactly how the Russians are looking at it - that this group has been paid to rebel).

[logicchains]

The reason they had a private army was to do dirty stuff in Africa that would cause an international incident if the Russian military was involved directly. Without Wagner, it'd have been much harder for Russia to force project.

The core problem is the poorly managed war; Wagner'd be unlikely to rebel if the war was going well and everyone was satisfied with the Russian leadership.

[webmobdev]

Private Armies or Private Military Contractors are desired by governments who want to deflect political accountability, and, to that end, Russian leadership isn't any different to the west on how they've been using them. In the Ukraine conflict, the Wagner group has often been used as cannon fodder. Especially in Bakhmut, where the Ukranians recently lost the bulk of their real soldiers, good soldiers, while the brunt of Russian losses was borne by the Wagner group and not the Russian military. (That is one explanation of why the Wagner group is pissed at Russian military, and, thus, the mutiny).

I agree with your perspective that certain aspects of the war weren't managed well by Russia, but disagree that war isn't going well for Russia - they appear to have achieved 80% of their strategic objectives by annexing Crimea and bordering areas of Ukraine, and holding on to it while Ukranian counter-offensives have failed to dislodge the Russians. In fact military experts in both US (Ukraine’s Chances of Victory in 2023 are Vanishingly Small - https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/06/ukraines-chances-of-vict... ) and India (Final Battle In Russia-Ukraine War? - https://youtu.be/D0oA-Y5eTs4 ) agree that the chances of a Ukraine counter-offensive being successful are quite low.