[sour-taste]

Can someone tell me why Putin let it get this far? It seems pretty foreseeable that when you have two independent militaries in constant conflict with each other, and when the heads of both are publicly insulting and threatening each other that eventually this will boil over. Did he just need Wagner that badly that he tolerated the open insults to his military as long as they were winning battles in Ukraine?

Didn't the head of Wagner have close ties to Putin? I guess those are pretty much severed now?

[timeon]

Would smart person start this war in the first place?

[rwmj]

Apparently he prefers to work by having his subordinates and departments fighting with each other (Hitler used the same "management" tactic). What worked in the past for him may not work in the future.