for absolutely free doctors preferred better science, better results welcome to all viewers watching in the us and all around the world. by max foster in london, ahead on cnn newsroom, we aren t counting down to the first us presidential debate. of this election season happening right here on cnn this week joe biden and donald trump, how they re preparing plus deadly attacks on churches and synagogues in russia has no claim of responsibility so far, but authorities believe they were coordinated and the end of a pga tour event interrupted when climate protesters carrying smoke bombs invaded the 18th green cnn s a stored presidential debate is now just three days away. us president joe biden will debate his predecessor donald trump for the first time. since 2020. mr. biden and mr. trump had very different approaches to debate preparations whilst trump hit the campaign trail this weekend, courting christian conservatives president biden has been hunkered down at camp david
other wagner figures were listed on the plane s manifest. citing early intelligence tonight, pentagon officials say it s more likely that prigozhin was likely killed. they do believe it was deliberate. russian investigators have recovered ten bodies and flight recorders from the site. cnn s international correspondent ivan watson has covered the war in ukraine and president putin himself extensively. ivan, we ve got these flight recorders now, but they re in the hands of russian investigators. what is the latest on the work being done tonight? and will we ever really find out what s on these black boxes? reporter: well, that will all be in the hands of the russian authorities to reveal that. yevgeny prigozhin is presumed dead. he was on the flight manifest, as were several of his top lieutenants from the wagner mercenary group. there are already memorials that
just before the mutiny, prigozhin said, this whole war against ukraine was a lie, that putin had been lied to, the generals were incompetent, that there were no nazis in kyiv, there was no threat to russia from ukraine. these were all the stories that putin had told the russian people on why they were invading ukraine. and that was a challenge to him. so, you re right, kaitlan. that s exactly what he had to do. when you hear dmitry peskov vehemently denying today that russia had anything to do with this or was behind it, what s your reaction to that? we were talking earlier about the point that if this did happen and putin didn t know about it, it would similarly reveal a concern about his grip on power and what that looked like. ivan mentioned that prigozhin s actually got a lot of following. he was very popular among a lot of people both op the left and on the right and in the
camera, and he has said he does not know who caused this crash. he does not believe, he says, that his close ally, putin, could have done it. his answer was, quote, it was too rough and unprofessional work for this to have been putin. and he is, of course, very close to putin. ivan watson, thank you for the latest. joining me now, bill taylor, who served as u.s. ambassador to ukraine in the george w. bush and obama administrations. the perfect person to talk about this with. ambassador, someone who threatens putin s power ever die unintentionally in russia? i don t think so, kaitlan. i think president putin felt challenged. he felt humiliated. i mean, ivan described it well. when prigozhin mounted that mutiny, that was a direct threat to putin. that was a direct challenge.
the kremlin says it s dropped charges and prigozhin will go to belarus, while promising his fighters contracts with the russian military. for now, a crisis apparently averted. but this very public betrayal and the mercenaries short but unimpeded march on moscow reveals deep weakness at the heart of the putin regime. ivan watson, cnn. there appears to be no clear winners russia from this rebellion. the head of the mute news wagner group has agreed to exile in belarus to avoid prosecution. but for now, no sign of with a he might be, adding to a long list of questions over his future. cnn s fred pleitgen has our report. reporter: there is still a lot unclear about what s going to be in store in the future for the wagner private military company. one of the things we ve heard from the kremlin is they say that the fighters for wagner, buzz of their military achievements on the battlefield will be able to apply to join the russian military.