soldier in the trench is under no illusions that the war is being badly managed and that the leadership is terrible and is not looking out for their well-being. the fact that prigozhin is bringing this not-very-well-kept secret into the light does not have much impact on the day-to-day struggle of the russian soldier. as far as how this plays out, you got shoigu still sitting in his office in moscow, and now prigozhin is exiled off to belarus or elsewhere. i imagine that shoigu s probably safe for the near term, and then prigozhin s going to have to figure out how to pick up the pieces and move on from here. biana, we have talked about this sprawling wagner empire. prigozhin talked about the threat of wagner ceasing to exist. how much do you think what he s doing now is motivated by his business interests and his own personal gain? i think quite a bit, alex.
military. i think basically prigozhin has said as much if that kind of subordination he saw as basically the end of wagner as it had been known, and that s probably true. and i think that shoigu probably did want to put an end to it. reporter: how does this end and who wins between yevgeny prigozhin and sergei shoigu? analysts say that s far from clear right now. they say it s possible that putin and shoigu move to dismantle wagner and sideline or possibly even imprison prigozhin himself. general hertling, i want to pick up on brian todd s report there. do you think it s safe to say that putin has sided with his military leadership with shoigu, with gerasimov at least for now? and do you think that that is a mistake by putin? you know, alex, this is so complex. yes, it s a mistake, bottom
said he called it off to avoid russian bloodshed. he also noted the russian defense ministry had plans for wagner to cease to exist in july, and his movement was designed to preserve his private military company. the purpose of the march was to prevent the destruction of the wagner pmc, and the prosecution of those who made a huge number of mistakes in the course of the special military operation due to their unprofessional actions. the society demanded this. all the soldier who s saw it supported us. reporter: prigozhin has said he is heading to benzlarus, who leader brokered a deal allowing the wagner chief to go into exile without penalty.
with now russia, that is experiencing instability, to put it lightly. yeah, u.s. officials and european capitals largely kept their mouth shut over the weekend, wanting to see what was going to unfold in moscow. perhaps we ll hear from the president on it later today. he has a public event. certainly, this is seen as encouraging for ukraine and seen as a moment where, perhaps, some doubts could be assuaged, doubts in other capitals, about how much longer can we support this effort? now, point to the tumult in russia. hey, it was our support for ukraine that led to russia s war going so badly, that led to this unrest in the country. the nato summit in lithuania in a couple weeks takes on heightened importance. marc, let s talk about the wagner group and what happens next. we don t know why prigozhin called this off. there was some agreement brokered with lukashenko, but we don t know the particulars. we don t know whether it was due to threats or inducements, why
for justice. but, by attacking the entire premise for the war in ukraine by suggesting that president putin has been lied to by his military leadership, isn t that undermining putin? yeah, i think that was a step too far even from vladimir putin who s known to drag his heels. it s no secret that prigozhin has been very outspoken about how he views the defense leadership and how this war is being managed since day one, saying wagner has done a much better job. that having been said, he has never come out and specifically condemned the rationale for this war, which is the first time that we ve seen that happen. i don t think that brings this war to an end any time soon regardless of what happens with vladimir putin. but i do think that that was notable and that is something that vladimir putin could not defend or allow to happen without a response. everyone stand by. coming up next, cnn s new reporting on the extremely detailed intelligence that the united states had gathered on th