The Dog Who Nearly Catches the Car

The goal was to preserve Wagner. He thought that he could pressure the military and Putin would continue to stay out of it. And initially things went his way, right? You had the military there in the Southern military district headquarters - literally the nerve center for running the war in Ukraine. It's sort of analogous to Sencom during the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, getting occupied by a mercenary force. That's what it was, and they just rolled in without firing a shot and took it over.