crimea. i thought it was interesting today, general, that putin in his remarks, public remarks, he tried to shore up his hold on power, but he also admitted that the russian state funded the wagner group to the tune, he said, of about a billion dollars just in the last year. how significant is that? and could it actually wind up backfiring on putin? well, i m sure he mentioned, again, as demetri suggested, this could be grounds for an investigation. by the way, i m not sure that that was necessarily funding for the wagner group, per se, in entirety. i think some of it also was literally that the wagner group that prigozhin himself had contracts for life support for the russian forces. so, this denies him that part of his revenue. of course, the decision by the minister of defense to force the wagner group soldiers to sign contracts with the ministry, rather than to stay under the wagner group, that was another
to make sure that he preserves his empire. that means as he gets money from let s say the operations in africa, whether he ll be allowed to keep those, whether he gets anymore money, i doubt it, from the russian government, but i think it s really preserving what he can, and maybe not ending up either dead or in prison. jill dougherty, as usual, thanks very much. demeetry alparovich, thanks to you as well. let s get more on all these dramatic developments unfolding right now. i want to bring in retired u.s. general david patreas, general, thank you so much for joining us as we see these devastating images from this latest deadly russian strike on ukraine how do you expect the wagner mutiny will influence putin s approach to this war in ukraine?
for sure. but i thought it was interesting that on the show with danny yesterday, david patreas pointed out if putin were to lose power who s to say someone more dictatorial, who may be more feared if prigozhin were successful wouldn t just fill that void? prigozhin is not the democratic answer to russia s problems. one of the problems, though, is putin has not allowed anyone to develop popularity, leadership skills to take the reins after him, which is one of the fears the fact he s imprisoned people like inavalny who have gained a following. only as a useful tool. one of the questions now is what happens with the wagner group which was run a bit like a mafia enterprise, personality-based.
david patreas with an ominous warning for yevgeny prigozhin following his attempted revolt. all eyes now are on the kremlin and vladimir putin and what he does next. the world is asking, is putin s iron grip on power slipping? we are joined this morning by former trump national security adviser and john bolton. ambassador, we re so happy to have your perspective this morning. is this the beginning of the end for vladimir putin? i think that is a possibility, but i have to say, i think all of us have to avoid strenuously drawing overbroad conclusions from insufficient data. right now we have radically insufficient information about a whole host of things, starting with the coup and attempted coup, and what happened to it, and what the future holds. i have my own doubts about how serious this coup effort was, and what kind of threat it
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