Prigozhin. what does it say that they were able to take over rostov-on-don, where russia s headquarters for its war for ukraine are headquartered, that they were able to take that city, or take that headquarters, without firing a shot? so, they say. what does that say about the morale and the loyalty of russian forces as this is going on? i think that s the big question. as we see events unfold, how loyal are the rank and file in the russian military going to be to vladimir putin? and to the russian cause in ukraine? but the fact that prigozhin was able without firing a shot, apparently, to take over the entire military command in rostov-on-don, which is the central command of control, centerpiece for russian activity in ukraine, is a very
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Put in prison under the soviet system for stealing. he came out, you know, he served his time, came out, he apparently ran a hotdog stand, got into catering, which led him through a introduction to vladimir putin into catering for the military, he started to build a business. one part of his business, we should not forget, was this huge disinformation troll farm we called it, that was used to frankly, you know, influence our elections in 2016. and that continues all the way through, as far as i know, they are still active. but russians certainly are active. the, and he started a mercenary organization, and this mercenary force is worldwide. mostly focused on helping strong armed leaders in africa, but also, there importantly, prigozhin with his wagner group got involved in syria. that was the only place where
To happen, indeed. nbc s aly rousey. thank you so much for that report. joining me now is william taylor, former u.s. ambassador to ukraine and vice president of russia in europe at the u.s. institute of kyiv, ambassador, thank you very much for coming to the show. kremlin critic bill browder tells nbc news that the wagner mutiny quote, it s the most credible threat to putin since the start of his regime. from the 23 years of growth, 23 years, ago do you agree? absolutely,. jonathan this is a big threat to putin. he is facing this. he doesn t know where the loyalties are going to be. he doesn t know if his troops are going to be loyal, he has been very close with prigozhin, and for precocious to turn on him with significant forces, significant military forces that have done practically pretty well in ukraine, but for rick ocean to turn away from the fight in ukraine and turn
Now, prigozhin was saying that this wasn t a crew he was trying to get rid of the defense minister, shoigu, and the head of the armed forces, but this is a direct challenge to putin s authority when you re trying to remove his top military brass during a conflict with ukraine. what key right now, jonathan, is what happens over the coming hours. the loyalty of the russian security forces and the national guard are going to be key in how this crisis plays out for moscow. so far, the russian military don t seem to have put many obstacles in the way of prigozhin s forces that are heading north. many of them seem to have acquiesced, seeing that these troops were able to move north with much ease, which shows the sense of complacency among the russian troops that are there,