it s too soon to tell exactly where this is going to go. and i suspect this is a moving picture and we haven t seen the last act yet but we can say this, first of all, what we ve seen is extraordinary and i think you ve seen cracks emerge that weren t there before. something that blinkin and top officials have been trying to stress is that this is a continually evolving situation and one thing that officials will try to ascertain in the coming days is what kind of impact this will have, a broader impact on both the war in ukraine and also, on putin s hold on power within russia as blinkin noted, he argued, there are signs that there are some cracks beginning to emerge. i would say yes that is the case. thank you. we are learning more about exactly what you is officials knew and what they were expecting as the crisis erupted in russia. alex, what have you learned? we ve been watching this anger by prigozhin growing
he admitted that russian forces were not in control of the key city of rostov on don. in a moment, we ll play you mr putin s television address to the russian people. but first, what s led up to this? tanks and armoured vehicles have taken up positions in the southern russian city of rostov on don, as a dispute between the army and the wagner mercenary group threatens to degenerate into fighting. videos on social media show heavily armed men in uniform around a government building. the wagner boss yevgeny prigozhin released video of himself inside the local military headquarters in rostov. he says all military installations in the city are under control and working normally. these pictures released form the wagner military group purport to show ngeny prigozhin with armed men in rostov. they say these pictures are taken at the southern military district headquarters in rostov and that he is arguing with deputy defence minister yunus bek yevkurov and general vladimir alexeyev. the bbc is
with you. clearly this is the bi - nest threat to with you. clearly this is the biggest threat to putin s system and government since he came to power in 2000 and i think only vladimir putin has got himself to blame for this. he has created a system in particular in setting up prigozhin as a particular in setting up prigozhin a5 a sort of frankenstein s monster which has got out of control. 0ne a5 a sort of frankenstein s monster which has got out of control. one of his techniques for keeping and power has been to divide the people below him, keep them in tension and conflict with each other, and to sit on top of it all and of course this has now exploded really in his face. i think that russia has become a pretty ungovernable and dysfunctional place in the last few years and now the chickens are coming home to roost. you monitored russia from coming home to roost. you monitored russia from an coming home to roost. you monitored russia from an external coming home to roost. you mo
from yesterday s statement which was really very crucial, that he is very critical in general on putin s initiative to start this bloody and criminal war against ukraine, initiative to start this bloody and criminalwaragainst ukraine, so initiative to start this bloody and criminal war against ukraine, so we can see quite big changes not only in the kremlin but the whole policy of the russia of today. in the kremlin but the whole policy of the russia of today. former prime minister of lithuania, of the russia of today. former prime minister of lithuania, andrius - minister of lithuania, andrius kubilius, thank you forjoining u5 kubilius, thank you forjoining us here on bbc. iju5t want to bring you up to date with some of the latest of elements coming into us here live on london. these are reports from reuters news agency creating yevgeny prigozhin responding to that televised addre55 responding to that televised address that we saw from putin. prigozhin has that we saw from putin. p
think we know, to be honest. i- what will the next stages we? do not think we know, to be honest. i get. think we know, to be honest. i get more and more the feeling of what happened in 1991 here and i think the russian federation itself is very weak in many ways and what is clear here, what is really significant here i think, two things, one is prigozhin does not seem to be coming up against much opposition. there is even talk of him having taken a second city, and the second is interesting in that he has called out the false mandate that caused this war that putin claimed ukraine wa5 that caused this war that putin claimed ukraine was being run by nazi, po5t claimed ukraine was being run by nazi, post a military threat to russia, and prigozhin has called that art is a lie and that threatens i think putin s whole system because of the failure of russian troops on the ground. of the failure of russian troops on the ground- of the failure of russian troops on the round. ., ., ., the gr