the system that he is set, up again, these different thief times, these different players jockeying for his favor, nobody quite knows what happens now. so, even though we don t necessarily know exactly what prigozhin s endgame was, was a scene latching out, we still are in a new era in russian politics? in terms of the view from russia, masha, and what russian citizens make of all of this, how are you understanding this moment? how much fear should there be in russia that are wounded putin is a more dangerous putin? well, let s be perfectly clear nobody knows what russian citizens think about all of this including russian citizens. you can t have opinions in this totalitarian society you never have enough information. you never have enough ability to talk with other people in order to be able to form opinions and to form politics. i m going to disagree with dana
he went from selling hot dogs to running grocery stores to opening high and restaurants. restaurants that serve world leaders, like vladimir putin and directly bush, scene right there. it was that will, being putin s chef, that got to mr. prigozhin his fortune. biden gave prigozhin beginners loans. so prigozhin can open factories that, for more than a decade, have made school lunches for almost all of the public schools in moscow. that gave way to more government contracts. until eventually prigozhin was not just feeling schoolchildren, and was feeding the military as well. those very lucrative government contracts did not come for free. putin expected more than just food in return for the government s money. the first time russia invaded ukraine in 2014, russian-backed separatists in eastern ukraine had a mysteriously well-trained group backing them. we now know that was the first appearance of the wagner group,
dirty work off the battlefield as well as on it. do you remember, for, example of the internet research agency? it was the russian troll farm that was run out of this completely nondescript office building down at st. petersburg. it was fake accounts like that one to spread disinformation and to try to swing the 2016 presidential election for donald trump. again, this wasn t vladimir putin directly, it was certainly what vladimir putin wanted. again, it was give getty prigozhin giving vladimir putin plausible deniability. prigozhin was basically one of putin s fixers. so, when putin needed help and as more of aggression in ukraine, once again, he turned to yevgeny prigozhin and his private army. the wagner group of what some of the toughest battles in the war so far on behalf of russia. the group suffered incredible casualties and prigozhin himself became an outspoken critic of how putin s generals were running the war in ukraine. so, on some, level prigozhin s
prigozhin increasingly was taking aim at the russian military high command. particularly under the he was saying they were hanging the forces to. dry they weren t providing with ammunition or cover. threatening all kinds of things towards russian military on command. now the way putin has set up the regime, he s had this kind of competing and corrupt the thumb. prigozhin is corrupt. there are other war lords. their provincial leaders. but we have not seen thus far is somebody standing up from within the structure and taking on the center of power of vladimir putin. so, what s happened in the last 48 hours, for the first time in putin s 23 years of being a dominant force in russian, politics you had someone essentially declare that the emperor has no clothes. i m going to take him. on i m going to march with my forces. the city s rostov that he took over briefly, this is not a small city. it s over 1 million people. it s also the main logistics hub for the war in ukraine. so, he was a
stronger position when it comes to ukraine is no longer valid. so, for those of you who are actually potentially on the sidelines saying that we have to start tailoring and tampering down our support of this war, now the argument is no longer valid and we can win this war ukraine can win this war russia can and putin is not fully in control. congressman ruben gallego thank you very much for your time this evening. we will have more of our special coverage of the crisis in russia when we turn after the break. k. mm. .a chow down day. a take a big bite day. a perfectly delicious day. - mm. [ chuckles ] - .a love my new teeth day. because your clearchoice day is the day everything is back on the menu. a clearchoice day changes every day. schedule a free consultation.