sk crisis in russia. i m michael smerconish. putin warns those involved in the mercenary group will be punished. p prigozhin says they killed a, quote, huge amount of his men. a long-time ally of the kremlin, he claimed troops had taken control of facilities in the russian cities of voronezh and rostov-on-don without firing a shot. one general called it a coup d etat, but prigozhin deniesoco. there was an announced a criminal investigation of prigozhin and they were to stop and detain their leader. in an address to the nation, putin said this. translator: i repeat, any internal turmoil is a mortal threat to our statehood, to us as a nation. this is a blow to russia, to our people. so our actions to defend the fatherland against such a threat will be severe. all those who deliberately chose the path of treachery, who prepared a mutiny, who chose blackmail and terrorist methods will face punishment. joining me to discuss is retired u.s. attorney alexander vindman, on the
here. we want to receive the chief of general staff and shoygu. until they aren t here, we will be located here, blockading the city of rostov, and we ll go to moscow. president putin calls the alaskas by p actions by prigozhin a betrayal and a backstab to the people of russia, and those who follow him will pay the price. translator: all those who chose the path of trejachery, wo chose mutiny, who use blackmail and terrorist methods will face pan punishment and answer to the law and our people. joining me now, chief international correspondent nick paton walsh. nick, what is the view from london? reporter: yeah, extraordinary how fast this is indeed moving. it appears as are wagner s vehicles, we don t know how many, towards the capital moscow. that is their stated aim. prigozhin saying they re headed in that direction. initially, it seemed to remove
so rostov was the operational objective. to me, it s quite clear why. when i was in government, when i was in moscow, i spent enormous amounts of time driving up and down the road from moscow to rostov. this was you know, i had a job to observe and report for the u.s. government at the beginning of this war, in 2014. i know this terrain quite well. rostov is the seat of russian military power. it is the headquarters of the southern military district. it is the joint operational command for the war in ukraine. to me, if he wanted to undermine shoygu and plant his flag, the first objective was going to be rostov. he did that very, very quickly. it took half a day to get there. there are, you know, significant reports now that columns, hundreds of vehicles potentially, are moving north, halfway to moscow, hours away
attacking shoygu and the general for not doing enough. with that rope, prigozhin became increasingly emboldened. i think the objectives are shiftingshift i ing. now, it s clear putin is targeting prigozhin directly. he is saying prigozhin is going to face consequences. the wagner folks that follow him are going to face consequences. it s now an existential threat for wagner to extract major concessions from the putin regime in order to survive. so this is now transitioning from, you know, what i defined as an insurrection for the first roughly 24 hours to a coup, where prigozhin will be fighting for his survival. he is no longer going to be serving as a good lieutenant to vladimir putin. potentially, he might be looking to seize power. it is early days. it is shocking, what s occurred. to me, this is a huge surprise. i was not surprised at all by russia s war against ukraine. i thought this was a distant black swan event, kind of fringe
okay. thank you for continuing, by the way, to lay this out in bite-sized pieces that many of us can follow. what is it that prigozhin now wants? so my initial thought is that he s likely he was likely looking to replace the minister of defense, shoygu, and the chief of the general staff for incompetence and ineffectively running the war. still serving in putin s interests, basically being the good lieutenant. going after those people in putin s inner circle that have failed him. the folks that have been providing false reports. that, to me, gives precedence for, you know, lieutenants going after folks that have failed the king. in this case, that being putin. but something has been evolving. i think the fact is that prigozhin has felt a sense of impunity with his actions. he s been given enormous amount of rope. i think putin felt there was some utility in prigozhin