monster rival, the threads app now live and millions are signing up. we re going to begin this hour with that surprising announcement regarding the potential location of the man who led an uprising in russia last month. in a rare news conference this morning, belarusian leader alexander lukashenko said the head of the wagner group yevgeny prigozhin is in russia, not in belarus, despite saying last week he was in his country. nbc news cannot verify that claim. it is raising new questions, though, about the supposed deal that ended the attempted rebellion. joining us now from the presidential palace in minsk is nbc chief international correspondent keir simmons. you attended the news conference. you spoke with lukashenko, what did he say? reporter: yeah. yeah, as you can see, we re not at the presidential palace anymore. we were there. nbc news one of the few international news organizations invited to that conversation. and after an incredibly unpredictable almost two week
good morning, it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, i m katy tur here from new york. and i m chris jansing with special coverage on what is happening inside russia. for the first time, we are still waiting to hear from vladimir putin. now, we haven t heard anything since his former ally and the head of the ruthless mercenary wagner group attempt add revolt, and this new video released by russia, is it new or just something put out by the kremlin? who knows when it was taped. we can t say. and where is the man responsible for the dramatic weekend events, yevgeny prigozhin. right now we still don t know and he hasn t been seen since saturday when he decided to turn his forces back after marching toward the kremlin. and seemingly agreed to live in exile in belarus. so now russia, a country armed with more nuclear weapons than any other nation led by a man desperate to proclaim the old soviet union glory is at a crossroads. and while the world watches, ukraine is acting. ukrainian forces
peace talks, they will at least have a basis to be able to start that discussion. and that comes as the u.s. and all of its allies in the west are really starting to signal that they want to see this move toward peace talks sooner than later. everyone is closely watching that, ukrainian counteroffensive currently under way. but the nato allies who are supporting ukraine really have an increasing sense of urgency to move this into the diplomatic sphere by the end of this year to hopefully bring an end to the violence. josh lederman, thank you so much on that exclusive reporting. appreciate it. joining us right now to discuss both of these story, david ignacious, foreign columnist and associate editor with the washington post, also an msnbc contributor and peter baker, chief white house correspondent with the new york times and an msnbc political analyst. he s also the former moscow co-bureau chief for the washington post. so, peter, first to you, if prigozhin is in fact still
ukraine is acting. ukrainian forces say they have captured another village, the ninth since the counteroffensive began. we re going to discuss what they re doing to try to exploit moscow s instability. but we begin with msnbc political analyst peter baker who spent years in russia as the moscow co-bureau chief for the washington post. it s so good to have you here. first of all, two-part question, should we be surprised that putin is master of disinformation has put out no information, so i want to ask you about your assessment of the situation that faces him after 23 years in power. but we re also learning that there s some sort of audio message coming out from prigozhin. we are waiting, we re getting that interpreted. what do you make of this situation on the ground right now, peter? yeah, it s of course very curious that president putin has not been public since the resolution of this short-lived mutiny. remember, he gave that speech to the nation at the beginning of