# Putin. Is. Pissed.  Fires "everybody"



## Ooh-Rah (Jul 12, 2016)

Putin sacks EVERY commander in his Baltic fleet in Stalin-style purge

Vladimir Putin has sacked every single commander in Russia's Baltic fleet in what has been described as a 'Stalin-style' purge.

Up to 50 officers of the fleet were fired alongside Vice Admiral Viktor Kravchuk and his chief of staff Rear Admiral Sergei Popov after they reportedly refused to follow orders to confront Western ships.

Reports in Russia also suggested the purges followed an alleged cover-up of a submarine accident, flaws in recruitment and military construction projects.


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## Devildoc (Jul 12, 2016)

Damn.  To do that is....big.  I will be curious to see if they were just 'fired' fired, or 'disappeared' fired and made an example of.  THAT's how Stalin would do it.


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## DA SWO (Jul 12, 2016)

They will disappear/die over the next few years.


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## Red Flag 1 (Jul 12, 2016)

Devildoc said:


> Damn.  To do that is....big.  I will be curious to see if they were just 'fired' fired, or 'disappeared' fired and made an example of.  THAT's how Stalin would do it.



Huge sweep. Stalin was a pure paranoid personality. He trusted no one, and would make similar sweep on just a hunch/rumor. Such changes have been part of the Russian culture for over a century. Putin is not doing anything new, but it does end any hopes of Putin being seen as a moderate.

Since this was done for Putins's Navy not engaging Allied Naval vessels, it will be interesting to see what the European, and US response will be.


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## AWP (Jul 12, 2016)

Red Flag 1 said:


> Since this was done for Putins's Navy not engaging Allied Naval vessels, it will be interesting to see what the European, and US response will be.



None. It will be considered an internal issue, which it is and we have no business responding. Where it matters is IF this story is true it will force their replacements to become more aggressive. Hell, they are pushing it as is, but Putin wants more? That's when it becomes interesting.


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## Brill (Jul 12, 2016)

HUMINT guys just got on some planes with blank checks!

(Seriously, I have no knowledge of any operations but if I did "Don't Hillary me, bro!".)

Regarding that link, why does Vladimir have a Naval Infantry guy holding an umbrella for him?


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## Red Flag 1 (Jul 12, 2016)

Freefalling said:


> None. It will be considered an internal issue, which it is and we have no business responding. Where it matters is IF this story is true it will force their replacements to become more aggressive. Hell, they are pushing it as is, but Putin wants more? That's when it becomes interesting.



Yup, this will be interesting to see how things play out on the waters. Is the Air Force next?


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## Salt USMC (Jul 12, 2016)

No mention of this on RT.com
Interesting


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## Gunz (Jul 12, 2016)

Vlad misses the good old days of the Cold War when brinksmanship was SOP and when the Soviet Union was a feared adversary. And when he had more hair. 

Go hard like Vlad. It's a song.

PS. Vlad would not be going so hard if Western Leaders had the balls to stand up to him.


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## Diamondback 2/2 (Jul 12, 2016)

lindy said:


> HUMINT guys just got on some planes with blank checks!
> 
> (Seriously, I have no knowledge of any operations but if I did "Don't Hillary me, bro!".)
> 
> Regarding that link, why does Vladimir have a Naval Infantry guy holding an umbrella for him?



Funny I was thinking to myself while reading that, must be a few americans running around with bags of money in Russia today. LOL


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## SpitfireV (Jul 12, 2016)

I lol'd at you guys thinking these guys will get offed in the next few years or even soon. 

They do that to opponents, not to military staff. 

I suppose they're just trying to be like the US Navy.


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## Red Flag 1 (Jul 13, 2016)

SpitfireV said:


> I lol'd at you guys thinking these guys will get offed in the next few years or even soon.
> 
> They do that to opponents, not to military staff.
> 
> I suppose they're just trying to be like the US Navy.



The knee jerk reaction to Russian sweeps from power are drummed into us after decades of observations. Maybe it will be different this time.


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## SpitfireV (Jul 14, 2016)

They haven't had proper purges since the 50s when Stalin was around. They learned from him . 

These knee jerk reactions aren't conducive to an objective assessment of what is actually going on in Russia.


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## Devildoc (Jul 14, 2016)

SpitfireV said:


> They haven't had proper purges since the 50s when Stalin was around. They learned from him .
> 
> These knee jerk reactions aren't conducive to an objective assessment of what is actually going on in Russia.



Most of Stalin's purges were just before and during WWII.  At least the ones we know about.  By the early 50s he had already had his time in the sun.  There were some "bloodless" purges in the 50s, but not nearly on the scale as the decades before.

But the idea of "purging" the Party or the military isn't new, and Putin tries to straddle the days of yore and the modern world.  One of the questions is, is the "purge" (or if you prefer "forced mandatory retirement") of the officers merely firing them, or will there be other, more dire consequences and punishments?  Also, why this group?  What's happening with the rest of the military leadership?

Putin is most definitely more worldly and sophisticated, but no less Russian and Slavic.  And Stalin sure killed the hell out of a lot of his military leadership, and true that it appeared that it essentially stopped at Khrushchev, but even so, some military leadership just seemed to disappear throughout the 50s-70s.


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