[hurflmurfl]

Another option (which I'm partial to) is something like "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".

Not everyone is on top of who's part of the mercenary company and some people could just see this as "a change", so they would offer some support.

Not making a statement of "how things really are" here, just saying that sometimes an explanation might be "jeez, finally there's some change, maybe something will happen out of this" and not "let me go support these genocidal mercenaries".

[sidibe]

Yeah I agree. Prigozhin going after the war and saying it was always unjustified yesterday was an olive branch to at least a sizable minority of Russians who are not as GP says supporting a genocidal war.

He knows the regime is weak and pulled all the levers he could to make it look weaker and get himself more support. He's not tricking anyone, others know what he is but by suddenly speaking against the war he's signalled clearly they have the same immediate goals. I'd imagine that also went through some conscripted or otherwise unenthusiastic soldiers heads when they decided not to confront his mercenaries.

I think Putin expected Russian soldiers to resist when he gave a tough speech last night. They all watched except the air force.