when putin wanted to give his invasion of ukraine impetus, prigozhin and his fighters were called in. but as wagner s death toll grew, so did prigozhin s fury. expressed first in video rants. and then in a short lived mutiny. in the aftermath, putin condemned the the mutineers and traitors . but for prigozhin, charges were dropped, no arrest followed. and we asked why wasn t putin punishing prigozhin? perhaps he was biding his time. i m joined now by ian bremmer, founder and president of the political risk consultants, eurasia group. thank you forjoining us. i want to get right to the question of your reaction. he had set up to that mutiny attempt that yevgeny prigozhin was a dead man walking. i guess you re not terribly surprised by hearing this. tell us a
their demands, the removal of russia s senior military leadership, who they blamed for setbacks on the battlefield. there were these extraordinary scenes as the paramilitary chief admonished russian generals. and then they marched on in the direction of moscow in a direct challenge to the authority of president putin. the kremlin leader called it treachery. russia he said had been stabbed in the back, the mutineers would be punished. but by evening a deal had been done to end the insurrection. even though russian servicemen had been killed, there would be no charges against yevgeny prigozhin and his wagner troops. they would have to leave russia but the agreement left the kremlin looking weak. this was vladimir putin today, commemorating the soviet victory in a famous world war ii battle. there has been no comment yet from the president
people getting similar ideas. if this crash is no accident, it is sending a message to other nationalists in russia who have been critical of the russian leadership. what could we see next? well, certainly those other people that might have been inclined to be critical or even worse to take action against the russian leadership will be reassessing their risk calculus now from having seen prigozhin actually survive an attempt to do so. so, yes, it will have a chilling effect on any kind of dissent within russia itself, but it also have effects beyond russia as well, because wagner has been part and a key part of this campaign of spreading russia s global influence, including in a belt of coups across central africa. now, rather than a group is actually left leaderless, then it remains to be seen who would actually be taking the initiative in either holding on to power there or continuing to spread russia s power further. and it also leaves a band of trained, angry, armed people within r
welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i m monica miller. the headlines. yevgeny prigozhin head of russia s wagner mercenary group is confirmed to have been on board a plane that crashed, killing all those on board. i don t know what s happened but i m not surprised. it s two months since prigozhin challenged president putin, with a short lived mutiny against the regime in moscow. we ll have full analysis. trump ally rudy guiliani is arrested and then bailed over alleged election interference. it comes as republican presidential candidates face off for the first televised debate. and despite regional opposition, japan prepares to release treated radioactive water from the fukushima nuclear plant into the pacific ocean.
prison with the help or the promise of a pardon. he had been sending these men, who had nothing else to lose, headlong into ukrainian defenses and killing them by what looked like the hundreds. they were expendable men. we heard from the ministry of defense. they made an announcement in text saying for the first time, acknowledging the name wagner. we had not heard that before because private military groups are illegal in russia, even though this group has been leading the fight not just in soledar but in bakhmut. that name is one to watch because when it comes to the fighting inside russia, inside moscow, and we can only look at that through a peephole through thing like this, that s somebody who you re going to watch. he s on the ups and really he s climbing the ranks and climbing in esteem by stepping on the backs of the corpses of his own men from his own private army. so glad you re there on the ground bringing us that