St Pete tells Yev to take a hikeas Ukraine conflict support dives

A major Russian political brawl is erupting over the Ukraine "special military operation" as disgusted Petersburg officials bar Vladimir Putin's erstwhile(?) ally, Wagner Group tycoon Yevgeniy Prigozhin, from further maneuvers that are stirring up rather than calming down the conflict down south.

From the Institute for the Study of War:

Wagner Group financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin is increasingly wrestling with St. Petersburg officials over expanding Wagner Group operations in the city. Prigozhin’s press service stated that St. Petersburg officials refused to provide a permit for the newly opened Wagner Center in St. Petersburg on a technicality.

The press service noted that St. Petersburg officials are deliberately refusing to issue the permit based on their "ideological” differences, given that Wagner received the permission to construct the center in July.

The press service added that Wagner had petitioned the court and will take the issue further if the court recognizes St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov and his government have committed any “crimes.”

Prigozhin also accused Beglov and other St. Petersburg “liberal” businessmen of financially supporting Ukrainian “nationalists” and betraying Russia in response to the situation. Prigozhin has previously accused Beglov of failing to support the Russian war effort and demanded his resignation, likely as a result of resistance from Beglov on expanding Wagner’s presence in St. Petersburg.

ISW also reported that a Russian nationalist outlet Pravda.Ru, which consistently reports on Prigozhin-related news, published a defamatory piece on Beglov’s uninterest in creating volunteer battalions in August.

Prigozhin is increasingly weaponizing his role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine to push his business aspirations.

Prigozhin is known as a brash militarist who thinks his big talk is justified by his purported prowess in owning a mercenary organization which has only been used for small-scale operations. Yet somehow he thinks of himself as a great field marshal to whom even Vlad Putin must defer. No wonder St. Petersburg officials are fed up with him. It's their boys (and a few girls) being fed into the stupid meatgrinder down south.

Rotten deal for draftees

 A group of imprisoned men in Zaitseve, Luhansk Oblast [province], told [media persons] that they were sent to the frontlines around Oct. 20 after very little training, whereupon their officers abandoned them without communications or logistics capabilities for eight days. The men walked about 60 kilometers [about 40 miles] to Starobilsk, where their relatives rented a bus to bring them home.

Russian forces detained the men at the border and imprisoned them in a Zaitseve basement instead.

Relatives of forcibly mobilized Russian men in Vologda Oblast shared a video on Nov. 10 demanding that their mobilized family members be returned from Svatove, Luhansk Oblast due to poor training and leadership on the front.

Other Russian refuseniks have been put in hellish basements, where they are beaten, starved and deprived until they agree to go into battle, where they face vastly better led and equipped Ukrainian forces, which often make short work of Putin's broken regiments.