this has been one of the most confusing and dramatic moments and recent russian history. we are very much still finding out how this armed rebellion came together. what the u.s. knew about it, what the fallout will be for russia and ukraine. frankly, the rest of the globe. on friday, the standoff began when the leader of a russian private military group posted a series of recorded video and audio messages on telegram. messages that under mind jet ross is justification for the war in ukraine and called for our march for justice. against the russian military. the man who posted these messages, the name you have certainly heard a lot through the past few days, yevgeny prigozhin. he is the leader of the russian private mercenary army known as the wagner group. a group that has been on the frontlines of russia s war in ukraine. now the wagner mercenaries are known to be some of the most brutal forces fighting in ukraine. they have recruited fighters in russian prisons, they have s
overthrow vladimir putin. and we re learning more about where yevgeny prigozhin might be at this hour. also ahead, ukraine tries to make the most of russia s crisis on the battlefield after a slow, bloody start to their counter offensive. plus, president biden s first public comments on everything that s unfolding in russia, and on capitol hill, lawmakers voicing their concerns but will that translate to more dollars and supplies for ukraine? our nbc news reporters are following all of the latest developments, but we begin with nbc s matt bradley who has the latest on this challenge to putin s leadership. so matt, how significant is this new audio from prigozhin who has not been publicly seen since all of those people were coming around him in russia as he was getting ready to leave. well, it s pretty significant, chris, when you consider the fact that we haven t heard from this man in the past two days. it shed just a little bit more light on an episode that has really b
yesterday. but still so many questions about the wagner group s descent into russia. it ended almost as quickly as it began. yevgeny prigozhin s mercenaries got within 120 miles of moscow, the only to turn back to the races after a deal was brokered to prevent the armed rebellion. a spokesperson for the kremlin saying the wagner group leader will avoid prosecution and be exiled in belarus. his troops will be given the option to join russian military forces. prigozhin seen leaving russia last night as crowds cheered him on. meanwhile, new reporting revealing that u.s. spy agencies had indications, quote unquote, days earlier that prigozhin has been stockpiling weapons with plans to take on russian defense officials. i m obviously not going to comment on intelligence matters. what i can say is this, i think it s been no secret that many people over many months and that these tensions were rising, they were brewing. prigozhin was already saying extraordinary things about russi
forces in america. from the voting rights crackdowns and assorted government plots, to the big lie attacks on election results that can stoke actual insurrections. we know the u.s. has faced many different types of crises before, but this era has been a perfect storm of right wing demagogues, weaponized propaganda from the internet to the fox news defamation we covered, and this is key, the perfect storm includes a high powered, elite driven effort to main streak attacks on democracy and try to write them into our rules. and that part of the effort is not, let s be clear, criminal activity like january 6th. it s not something people are going to go to jail for. it is what at least lawyers and others call arguably legal attacks that are still designed to hijack democracy from within. this is our top story tonight, because this brings us to efforts to bend or break current laws and rules, to try to foster more anti-democratic outcomes that would be technically legal if these pe
decisions in minutes with major cases like affirmative action, student loans and lgbtq rights still undecided. this as tomorrow marks one year since the most consequential decision in a generation. it was devastating on top of terrifying, on top of infuriating. one year after the court overturned roe, where the battle over reproductive rights stands today. also ahead, the titan tragedy, what went wrong, and did the navy know the search was hopeless before anyone else? plus, if you ve been waiting to buy or sell, you don t want to miss this. more on a shake-up in the housing market that we haven t seen in a decade. let s begin this morning at the supreme court where, again, we re awaiting news any moment with the court s term winding down, we could get decisions on some major cases, on affirmative action, lgbtq+ rights and student loans. while we wait, we can t forget the significance that tomorrow will bring, one year since the overturning of roe v. wade, a year tha