stopped his advance on moscow and apparently pulled at least some fighters out of rostov-on-don. they had made to it within 120 miles of the capital when they suddenly decided to turn around. the kremlin saying they have putin s word he can go safely to belarus free from prosecution. you can see him being cheered by the folks. they even went to shake his hand. prigozhin saying he made the deal because he didn t want to shed russian blood. translator: therefore, russian blood would be shed from one of the sites we turn our column around and turn in the opposite direction according to the plan. we also see here some of his departing fighters who seem to get some cheers from residents as they stood on top of the tanks. so we have full team coverage for you over the next hour. our team of correspondents and guests. i start with nic robertson. so prigozhin has been seething at russian leadership. he s been saying for months, attacking the defense minister shoigu and others. he
because of an insurrection led by the leader of the wagner mercenaries that ended nearly as soon as it started. an apparent clash between wagner and russian troops which was followed by a fire at that oil refinery you see on your screen there. under the deal done, the kremlin says wagner troops will not face any legal action, but they ll sign new contracts with russia s defense ministry while moscow will drop its charges against prig prigozhin, who will go to belarus. wagner s leader says he agreed to that in order to avoid bloodshed. translator: therefore, realizing all the responsibility for the fact that russian blood will be shed from one of the sides, we turn our columns around and leave in the opposite direction to the field camps, according to the plan. the kremlin says it doesn t know where prigozhin is right now. what you see there is video of people cheering as he left ross stor-on-don where his troops seized military facilities on saturday. officials now tell c
this. he s already seeing putin botch the war. this is not good, i think, for any type of respect that the chinese would have for the russians. must be in the basement at this point. it is really a disaster. so it strengthens china. china comes out looking strong in most of this. and russia looking very weak and disorganized which it really is, and chaotic. and then other countries might have been look the at putin let s say as a source of selling weapons. north korea, iran. they, too, must be questioning, will putin be in power in it is very unclear. it weakens him domestically. very weak, and internationally. i remember reading an oral history of ethiopia. one of the ways he kept power
are. i think that he felt threatened that wagner group will be integrated into ministry of defense, and then he will lose his power base. he will lose his business. he also witnessed that a lot of ukrainian nationals who were used by the kremlin in 2014 and 2015 when russia launched its first stage of war against ukraine and donbas were later eliminated and killed. he knows that once wagner is fully under ministry of defense control, he himself is useless. so i see that this is an attempt to remain important, flu influential, and also liked. it s a fascinating point. i think what s interesting we saw him being, you know, cheered as he left rostov-on-don by some people at least. how much does his message of anger at the elites resonate,
question, to the extent that he had some influence here that in a way got putin out of a jam, right? you had an open rebellion against putin s leadership with forces marching on moscow. and lukashenko able to play a role, at least, in defusing that situation for now. and now, if russian officials are to be believed, this is where prigozhin is going to end up. the thing is, belarus is effectively an extension of russia. there are borders between them, but russia largely controls belarus, so his safety there, far from guaranteed. it should be noted that some russian forces began the war invading ukraine from belarusian territory and lukashenko has said his country will host russian tactical nuclear weapons. the chaos that unfolded in russia on saturday caught much of the international community off guard. but many of ukraine s european allies were on edge.