recruited russian prisoners to fight in ukraine and syria by allowing the president of belarus to end the short-lived coup as prigozhin s armed forces drove to moscow in a convoy and threatened the leader. putin surprised onlookers by offering prigozhin clemency in neighboring belarus. prigozhin said he was not trying to challenge putin s authority. he met with putin at the kremlin. prigozhin was allowed to return to his home in st. petersburg, russia. but few thought that putin would forgive or forget. prigozhin was listed on the manifest of the plane that fell out of the sky north of moscow. video at the time of the crash appeared on telegram appeared to showing a russian air defense missile, which is alleged to have shot down the plane. prigozhin, challenged the
the russian mercenary army. that has deepened today. if any pagosa has not been seen since his troops marched on moscow nearly 2 weeks ago. the president of belarus had offered him refuge as part of is a deal after they had that short-lived uprising. today he said pagosa is in russia. :where is he this morning? he could have gone to moscow or maybe somewhere else. he is not on the territory of belarus. like these images released by a russian news outlet report police searching his home in st. petersburg. and beaking news has not independently verified that video. joining me now from minsk, nbc news chief international correspondent spoke with the president of belarus today. what else do we know about his whereabouts? i should say come on this program two weeks ago, about two weeks ago, the said the head of the senate intelligence committee said he is in belarus
around yevgeny prigozhin and his army of mercenaries who were until now believed to be exiled to belarus after the armed revolt in russia. keir simmons is in belarus. according to belarus s president, this is not the case after all. bring us up to speed here. reporter: well, that s right. there are two things happening right now. kind of twin track, if you like. one what we heard today. nbc news was one of the few international news organizations invited to the presidential palace in belarus. we have heard from the president of belarus. the other is those images that you showed of gold bars, stacks of dollars, of wigs, of fake passports, during a police raid on yevgeny prigozhin s home in st. petersburg. nbc news not able to verify those images, but they are all over russian media, suggesting
and looking like it was trying to discredit him. at the same time, another russian news organization publishing pictures that cannot be verified by nbc news, from a police raid on prigozhin s home in st. petersburg showing gold bars, bundles of dollar bills, fake passports. are we now seeing the kremlin moving, having president putin out there, you know, reasserting his authority? are we seeing the kremlin moving to discredit prigozhin and will prigozhin ever get here to belarus? there are so many more aspects of this yet to play out. wow. all right. keir simmons, thank you for that exclusive reporting there. i think i heard your translation in the voice as well. thank you. 40 have been injured after a missile hit an apartment building in lviv. lviv is hundreds of miles from the front line and has largely been spared the worst violence of the war so far.
cardinal dolan. watch it at 2 the p.m. shannon, merry christmas. thanks for getting up for us. merry christmas, guys. see you soon. griff: turning now to your headlines, five suspects are arrested in connection with friday s fatal shooting at the mall of america. minnesota police arresting the teenagers at a home in st. louis park saying they stopped at a white castle restaurant right after the shooting. authorities say gunfire broke out after a brawl between two groups leaving a 19-year-old male dead. prison also police also say the suspects are not cooperating. and president biden staying away from his telephone in the christmas eve, upending decades of traditional phone calls ott white house from kids. instead, first lady jill biden answered the children s questions about santa s journey. it comes a year after the father of a caller jokingly shouted let s go, brandon, while talking to president biden. [laughter]