he became a hot dog salesman in st petersburg. but by 1997 he was running a top restaurant and winning lucrative catering contracts. those brought connections to the top. prigozhin even served food to world leaders. and to putin himself. and prigozhin s role was becoming about much more than food. in 2014 russia annexed crimea and launched an insurgency in eastern ukraine. prigozhin was involved. of that time, he s said a group of patriots was born , which later acquired the name wagner battalion. and soon the wagner group reached far beyond ukraine. the fbi accused prigozhin of interfering in the 2016 us election. in syria, wagner fighters supported pro government forces. more recently there are multiple reports of wagner s military and commercial activity in africa. with the eu accusing the group of committing. torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings . and then came the war.
of patriots was born , which later acquired the name wagner battalion. and soon the wagner group reached far beyond ukraine. the fbi accused prigozhin of interfering in the 2016 us election. in syria, wagner fighters supported pro government forces. more recently there are multiple reports of wagner s military and commercial activity in africa. with the eu accusing the group of committing. torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings . and then came the war. when putin wanted to give his invasion of ukraine impetus, prigozhin and his fighters were called in. but as wagner s death toll grew, so did prigozhin s fury. expressed first in video rants. and then in a short lived mutiny. in the aftermath, putin condemned the the mutineers and traitors . but for prigozhin, charges were dropped, no arrest followed. and we asked why wasn t putin punishing prigozhin? perhaps he was biding his time.
vladimir putin, because he is now calling into question the premise upon which this work was initiated and he s saying that frankly, it s not going well, and he was maybe just something for the elites defense minister, showing who in the armed forces commander there is some of general. he hasn t called that vladimir putin by name, but by calling into question this war and again, the premise that that rationale that vladimir putin gave to his people, which was that they were going to rescue the ukrainians from a neo-nazi western-controlled government, light, of course, by the jewish president and jewish prime minister in ukraine. the irony that is not lost, as we were watching from the outside. that was the rationale that the russians got, that they were going to save their ukrainian presidents. you can see prigozhin has called this into question. he called this elite edgemere and it s not going well, and
from moscow. and seems to be intent on taking out senior leadership in the russian military and the defense department and the intelligence community. this is a real serious threat. to the continuation of putin s regime. how concerned should the west be by prigozhin s march north? ? whenever you have any kind of revolution or revolution like activity like this, you worry about well, what comes next? we have to remember that there are no good guys in this battle. prigozhin s asog. he is a murderous thug. when people deserve the search that wagner group, when he captures them, he kills them with a sledgehammer to make an example out of them. he is a brutal, murderous thug.
are now fighting against and trying to prepare for a big fight against prigozhin. we can expect him to really focus on that. now, that s very interesting, because what he cannot do at the same time its focus on ukraine. he has now to focus on prigozhin, which gives him a focus inside the country. and so that is going to be his priority. he s got big problems. one more question for you, ambassador taylor. really quick, as the hours go by, what are you most watching for? the loyalty of the other security forces in russia. there are many different private corporate, private military companies. different parts of the ministry of defense, security services, the fsb, there are other border guards, there are other military forces in russia, and each of them will be under pressure. each of them will have to decide themselves either individually or as leadership,