Can someone explain this to me in a way a public school kid can understand with political leanings?
This is the way that I understand it, right or wrong. Putins Military is overrated. Russia had built a separate military of mercenaries so that it could have plausible deniability in foreign conflicts. This is Wagner.
The Actual Russian Military pays for shit. The mercenary group Wagner pays much better, but only takes the cream of the crop from what was available.
This leads to a division between the Actual Russian Military & Wagner. Animosity….
They’re separate. Wagner was used as an extension of the Russian Military. Wagner, during the Ukraine “Special Three Day Engagement” or whatever Putin called the last 18 months or so…Wagner wasn’t considered “Real” Russian Military. Lead to infighting. Lots of dirty shit happened between the Actual Putin’s Russian Military and Wagner. More animosity. Some actual fighting between the two groups over short resources from the Russian Government.
Putin sides with the Actual Military, Wagner is left with the cream of trained soldiers but without ammunition at times, etc…more infighting between the two groups.
Head of Wagner with an unpronounceable Russian name is more than pissed. He sounds off against Putin. That’s not something that’s smiled upon in Russia. This escalates.
Open fighting between the two groups happens. Wagner decides, enough of this shit!!….& here we are now. Wagner heading towards Moscow with better trained soldiers, what’s left of the actual Russian Military trying to fortify their own capital city…& Putin, most likely in hiding somewhere, but claiming to actually still be in Moscow.
24 hours from now, the story could be completely different. That’s my best short short version.