assessed, actually that public narrative of prigozhin marching on moscow, lukashenko intervening and vladimir putin forgiving him over the days ahead, that s what really happened. there isn t a hidden private story that is more complex. that is interesting. he said that putin cut that deal to save his own skin. but he used some kind of color words to describe how putin has flip-flopped over prigozhin. here s what he said. he really didn t fight back against prigozhin. he cut a deal to save his skin using the offices of the leader of belarus. so, look, i can t see inside putin s head. but the only person who has been well, the only people who have been talking about escalation and nuclear weapons are putin and a handful of
our viewers joining us in the united states and all around the world, i m max foster in london, bianca is off this week, but just ahead on cnn newsroom there are growing questions about vladimir putin s leadership going forward and whether his iron whip on russia is weakening. it s too soon to tell exactly where this is going to go. i suspect this is a moving picture. it was a deal or somehow behind the scenes putin exerted some form of leverage over prigozhin. i think that called that putin is going to be out there is really gone now because there s no other insurrection coming anytime soon. announcer: live from london this is cnn newsroom with max foster and bianca nobilo. it is monday, june the 26en. 9:00 a.m. here in london, and
figure than putin and far weaker than a few years ago. how is it that he now has the power to negotiate this deal where the kremlin points out that lukashenko and prigozhin have a 20-year history. lukashenko was able to play only to have influence over prigozhin. did prigozhin realize that he miscalculated? he didn t get the support that he wanted? was this always his plan and this was his best option, his get out of jail free card, apparently, because otherwise he would have been put up against a wall or similar and shot. were those the options presented to him? it is so hard to tell. but looking shenko s role in this. does this upend the power balance between putin and loo lukashenko? i don t think so. it shows how much the previous status quo is changing.