and i think what goes on inside of russia in the next few days will be enormously important. no question, prigozhin is a targeted man. maybe putin s, to, but prigozhin is. and i don t know how secure he will be. but i think his followers aren t going to go away if this happens. i think a crackdown inside russia now is very bad news for putin s prosecution of the ukraine war. very bad news. but again, message discipline, calm the rhetoric, let s watch. congresswoman, what does it say about the morale, maybe even loyalty, of russian forces that prigozhin has been able to get as far has gotten? well, again, i think that the loyalty certainty will see defectors in ukraine. i think that s a call a big loyalty. these kids don t have full information. remember, it s not called a war
alarming development from vladimir putin s point of view, or should be. and it does raise questions about the loyalty of russian troops as prigozhin continues his march, apparently, to moscow. will they stay loyal to the state? or will they step aside, or will they defect to prigozhin? i think that s why we see putin in his public statements and in his speech if you hours ago actually showed real concern and talk about the possibility of a civil war. and clearly, he s concerned about the wagner group. potentially, may be concerned about the loyalty of the russian forces, perhaps, but what about the loyalty of the russian people? i mean, you are on the house foreign affairs committee. have you seen or heard any indicator that what s happening in russia right now might be giving license to russian citizens to more actively or
effect on any of those internal dynamics. we need to be prepared. we need to protect our allies, nato allies are on high alert, we need to continue to support the ukrainians when they push the russians out of their country. this, now it s the time to double down on the support that we give to the ukrainians, so that they can push the russians out. and ambassador taylor, we ve talked about prigozhin, we ve talked about the ukrainians, and their counteroffensive. let s talk, now, more concretely about russian president vladimir putin. how damaging is this to his standing inside russia? this could be very damaging. he has said, and we could expect, him to try to cross this rebellion, to crush this mutiny. we can certainly expect him to be getting the orders to the ministry of defense forces that
maybe we shouldn t have done it all, is what he said thing at. evelyn farkas, former deputy assistant secretary of state for russia, ukraine, and eurasia. thank you very much for coming back and bringing your expertise. joining me now for more on the latest coverage is nbc s matt wagner. matt, thank you for being here. what are you hearing about what s happening in russia right now? thank you, jonathan. well, there s definitely a lot of information floating around right now on rachel social media, particularly on an application called telegram, which is kind of that main white the stakes that russians share information. wagner, prigozhin s group, is very active on this platform. we are seeing a lot of videos, many were still trying to verify. of course, of wagner occupying at least parts of central rostov, that main rusher city on the russian ukrainian border. they appear to be making their way towards voronezh, which is about halfway to moscow. prigozhin himself has said in numero
in russia. it s a special operation to eliminate not sees. the cruelty of that is just unbelievable. but nonetheless, that s what they say, that s what they hear, and a lot of them have been conscripted and taken out of prisons, as we know, and told, this is what you have to do to get out of prison. and of course, they are put in the front of the front, with no training, no weapons, and they re just target fodder. so, this is, again, i m calling my own rhetoric. i think what s going on there is, has been atrocious, and i think families are now going to wake up to the fact that their kids we re used in a very cruel way. and i do think that will make a big difference inside of russia. congresswoman, prigozhin has threatens to send his forces towards moscow. we know that they are headed in that direction. talk about the significance. what that would mean if he did, indeed, make it to moscow?