first of all, what message is putin sending with this latest appearance? i think it s a pretty cheap bit to replicate the scenes. we saw in rostov on saturday when yevgeny prigozhin, the unsur ekz leader had people coming embracing his hand in an suv. we saw from test against some of the mobilization that we saw last year with a crowd that looks, frankly, pretty staged, very adoring and very close to him and not the putin that kept everyone at a distance during the pandemic and for quite a while after it, but it comes after a day in which more reporting is emerging suggesting the split and dangers from his own military top brass. i spoke to a european intelligence official who said it was possible that there had been prior knowledge amongst the russian military and establishment of this insurrection. they said they heard of hints to that effect and possibly some of
so, you know, things moving and changing all the time. extremely unsettling developments, certainly within russia, both politically and, of course, in terms of the military leadership there. events over the weekend unfolded rapidly. on friday, yevgeny prigozhin releases a video stepping up his feud with russia s military top brass. for the first time he questions putin s justification for invading ukraine. in response, russia s fsb security service opened a criminal case against him. by saturday, wagner fighters enter the southern russian city of rostov on don. they quickly take control of the all important army headquarters. under intense, pressure vladimir putin makes a televised address. he accuses prigozhin of treason and a stab in the back . he urges a consolidation of all forces. reports say wagner mercenary troops are heading north in a convoy. some estimates predict they will reach moscow by saturday evening. russian soldiers set up defence positions around moscow, according
and this has tapped - into an anti elitism, this has tapped into, you know, a sense of anti corruption, which, of course, for obvious reasons, - has a strong constituency in russia, so it s a difficult position. i think if i were to put myself in his shoes, i somewhat reluctantly, i would say that probably the most likely option is going to be that whatever happens with shoigu i and the sort of military top brass, there s going to be an effort - to try to distract by going harder within the counteroffensive. - i sorry, within the sort of fightingl back against the counteroffensive in ukraine, you expect to see sort of many more missile attacks, - not that they ve been let up, i and this focus on trying to show that they can succeed, - they can succeed in the war, but with morale as it is, - and even further destroyed, that could be a hard task. with regard to that war, there is a question i want to put to you all in a moment, with regards to possible ploys or deception that some
chief had agreed to the halt the movement of his forces and deescalate tensions in exchange for guaranteed security. and the wagner boss with gave the orders for his troops to return to field camps in ukraine to avoid, yes, the risk of blood being spilled. and we had seen in the last half hour or so signs that just being the forces headed to moscow, also those in rostov, probably a complete withdrawal from russia of the wagner forces in this latest entry. there are also reports, eric, that putin had agreed to some changes in the military top brass. you know, as you noted, that was a big demand of prigozhin, but we have no confirmation of that and no confirmation that these security guarantees a means that prigozhin is off the hook. remember, he was the top of this, he basically invaded russia. there was blood shed, there were russian helicopters and planes down, so there was damage.
we often get kind of unexpectedly accurate pictures of the real situation on the battlefield in ukraine, although these people support the kremlin, support the war in ukraine, they often also criticise what russia is doing a fair. especially the kind of military top brass. one incident we saw last week was when several official sources, russian government, social media accounts, things like that, posted a video allegedly showing ukrainian soldiers harassing civilians, it was then clear to quickly form open source information is that that video is fake. the programme in bloggers where writing about this, saying how embarrassing the russian authorities have put out such a crudely fake video. ,., ., have put out such a crudely fake video. h, ., ., i” have put out such a crudely fake video. , ., ., ,, ., , video. good to get your thoughts, thank ou video. good to get your thoughts, thank you for video. good to get your thoughts, thank you for the video. good to get your thoughts, tha