russia in crisis. the weekend mutiny by russian mercenaries exposes putin s vulnerability, forcing him to cut a deal with the man he had called a traitor just hours before. that man, hot dog vendor turned war lord yevgeny prigozhin was apparently allowed to flee to belarus. we re going to take a deep dive into what happens next for him and his wagner group. and it s becoming increasingly clear that republican voters don t care how corrupt their candidates are. donald trump s lead is actually growing in the crowded republican presidential field. make that make sense. but we begin tonight with a wild weekend in the unprecedented challenge to more than two decades of vladimir putin s grip on russia. the armed rebellion has ended, but the uncertainty it sparked continues. the russian war lord behind that attempted insurrection. wagner group leader yevgeny prigozhin remains out of sight, but he released an audio message today, claiming he wasn t seeking to overthrow putin. h
signs it seems for now perhaps cooling off. thousands of mercenaries who have fought for russia and ukraine have been marching rapidly towards moscow as they turned on vladimir putin. just in the last half hour halting their dance we are told on the capitol the head of the wagner groups and he gave the order to avoid shedding russian blood. this, after letter potent valid decisive action against what he calls treason. it is ongoing and fluid situation here at fox news we are on top of it all. hello everyone what would fox s life i am eric shawn. hi arthel. arthel: hi eric hello everyone i m arthel neville. today stunning developments represent the first major challenge to putin s decades long grip on power. the head of the wagner group is a long time kremlin. he has been increasingly critical of russia s military in recent weeks. he says his forces have seized key russian military facilities knew that near the ukraine border. again they are being ordered to return to their fi
that s in essence an app. so they re hearing prigozhin s message. and when morale breaks, it s really important to build for militaries. it s important to sustain. and once you lose it, it s very hard to regain that. i think that s the big question. why would russians want to die on the front lines? we know the ukrainian what they re doing. they re fighting for their country. so i think what we re looking for now is there going to be any cracks in russian morale which could be significant? i don t think this has any kind of i m not concerned. i don t think putin would be concerned about the overall regime stability right now. right. he should be concerned about the credibility, the loyalty of the russian military. that s what he is going to focus on in the days ahead. and that s why, of course, he is trying to clip prigozhin s wings. yeah. you know, look, quoting from monster movie, let them fight. bad guy versus bad guy, let them
history, it produces these extraordinary moments, but it produces these characters as wealth. yes, it certainly does. i think i used the word volcanic before. that certainly applies to prigozhin, not really to vladimir putin, more quiet, thoughtful man, you would have said, if he hadn t invaded ukraine so casually 16 months ago. but it is partly, i think, and these are big judgments which perhaps one shouldn t make, but it does have something to do with the internal passivity of russian society. going back to 1991, for instance, scarcely anybody rallied round the system that gorbachev had introduced,
he wasn t anybody else s because he made prigozhin, he allowed prigozhin to exist. so he made it happen, and suddenly prigozhin goes against him. and what do muscovites make of the drama? some don t notice it. others seem confused. before they told us wagner was good, svetlana says. they gave them medals. they were positive heroes. now, suddenly, they re villains? that s hard for me to get used to. meanwhile, these images appear to show that south of moscow, with trenches and barricades, they re trying to slow wagner s journey to the capital. earlier i spoke to steve rosenberg who told me more about the mood in moscow. in fact, if you go onto the streets, it is a pretty typical saturday afternoon here.