they didn t know what, but the predictions were there from the cia director i think putin is someone who generally thinks that revenge is a dish best served cold. secretary of state mr. prigozhin, i would remain very concerned. nato has an open door policy. russia has an open windows policy. even president biden himself. if i were he, i would be careful what i ate. i would be keeping my eye on my menu. she has written many books on russia and putin and spent time on the ground reporting how ordinary people view russian. it s been two months since prigozhin started his coup. did you think this day was inevitable? yes. and in this sense, i am not
said. putin likes revenge as a dish served cold. a perfect segue. i will play for you, susan, this what several officials said over the last couple of months about what is going on here. if i were he, i would be careful what i ate. i mean, i would be keeping my eye on my pen u. if i were mr. prigozhin, i what remain very concerned. nato has an open door policy, russia has an open windows policy. i think putin is someone who generally thinks that revenge is a dish best served cold. susan, i mean, this is stunning, but not surprising. it seems like u.s. officials perhaps western officials broadly understood this was likely to come? yeah, i think you re right to underscore the extent to which this was essentially previewed by the cia director, the secretary of state, by the president himself. and the reason is because we have a lot of experience with vladimir putin and when you challenge the kremlin in such a
state media reports he was on the passenger manifest of the small plane that crashed into the tver region north of moscow. nbc news has not confirmed the reporting but here is the video, again, this is according to russian state media. the plane falling from the sky. and then the burning remains in a crash. if the reporting is true, the timing is obviously suspicious. it is two months to the day since prigozhin tried to lead a mutiny against the kremlin. when that uprising failed, experts predicted it was only a matter of time before prigozhin met his own fate. here s what secretary of state antony blinken told our andrea mitchell, quote, if i were prigozhin, i would remain very concerned. nato has an open door policy. russia has an open windows policy. and he needs to be very focused on that. again, we have not confirmed any of the circumstances around the crash, and we don t know if prigozhin actually was on the
taking out life insurance on prigozhin. jim, you and i were at an aspen security forum a month ago where we re heard secretary of state blinken almost jokingly that he was concerned that moscow had an open windows policy. certainly american official himself been looking for this and the big question is did putin need just a month or two to sort out how he would replace the role that the wagner group played for him and that prigozhin played for him and then move on to both dismantle it as he s been doing and then deal with prigozhin. no question. and to your point, enormous influence in the russian military and primary operation right now, which is of course the invasion of ukraine, much of those wagner forces left in recent months, they played a major role in the fighting of
state antony blinken talking about russia s open windows policy, a reference to kremlin critics who have mysteriously fallen from open windows and died. then there was the director of the cia, bill burns, who knows russia and putin very well. a former ambassador to russia. he said that essentially that putin was biding his time. he was trying to figure out what to do with prigozhin and with wagner. and that he said that he would be surprised if prigozhin didn t face further retribution. take a listen to a little bit more of what director burns had to say. i think putin is someone who generally thinks that revenge is a dish best served cold. so he s going to try to settle the situation to the extent he can. in my experience, putin is the ultimate apostle of payback. reporter: the ultimate apostle of payback. burns said that putin is someone who doesn t like to appear rash, he doesn t like to rush things.