sk crisis in russia. i m michael smerconish. putin warns those involved in the mercenary group will be punished. p prigozhin says they killed a, quote, huge amount of his men. a long-time ally of the kremlin, he claimed troops had taken control of facilities in the russian cities of voronezh and rostov-on-don without firing a shot. one general called it a coup d etat, but prigozhin deniesoco. there was an announced a criminal investigation of prigozhin and they were to stop and detain their leader. in an address to the nation, putin said this. translator: i repeat, any internal turmoil is a mortal threat to our statehood, to us as a nation. this is a blow to russia, to our people. so our actions to defend the fatherland against such a threat will be severe. all those who deliberately chose the path of treachery, who prepared a mutiny, who chose blackmail and terrorist methods will face punishment. joining me to discuss is retired u.s. attorney alexander vindman, on the
khrushchev, joins me from moscow with her take on wagner s prigozhin. renewing micro moisture fofor continuous care. new dove body wash. chanange is beautiful. lactaid is 100% real milk, just without the lactose. delicious too. just ask my old friend, kevin. nothing like enjoying a cold one while watching the game. who s winning? were, my friend. we are. -oh, hi! -you re in a hurry. i m off to america s best i heard what you said about not overpaying for glasses. two pairs and a free, quality eye exam starting at just $79.95? yes! the exam alone is worth. 59 bucks. which is great, because i hate getting overcharged. you have no idea. i mean, people deserve breaks, right? yeah, brakes.! [out of control] let s go save! can t stop won t stop!!! comin in hot!! two pairs and a free exam starting at $79.95. book an exam today at americasbest.com.
possibility that something like this could happen. most likely from prigozhin, but it s happened and things are unfolding extremely quickly. one thing i can say is the biggest beneficiary of all this is ukraine. ukraine is going to have enormous opportunities. it is going to have it is going to be facing a completely incoherent russian response from the strategic standpoint, russia is extracted with defending its own territory. it is shocking. russia is losing a war and opening up a second front on its own territory, not a very, very effective strategy for winning the war in ukraine. so ukraine is likely to make huge gains, probably fight unopposed. there s early reporting that ukraine is already making big gains based on the actions of a coherent response from russia. we ll see how this unfolds, but ukraine will be a huge beneficiary to the unrest. colonel, help me understand, help us all understand the geog geography, the lay of the land. is rostov the objective, or is he headed
defense of the security apparatus of russia. they had some autonomy, but they relied heavily on russian support, russian munitions, russian transportation assets, logistics. they were at arm s length, but they were kind of integrated. over the course of this, over the course of probably, you know, several different complications, they ve distanced themselves and, frankly, been ostracized by the ministry of defense, as prigozhin has been increasingly critical of minister of defense, the chief of the general staff, and other senior leaders. so, to me, i ve always perceived them to be kind of distant extensions of the state, but certainly, clearly, over the course of months and this war, they ve become increasingly difficult relations. they ve separated. they ve gone their own different ways. prigozhin and wagner have become increasingly radicalized.
from moscow, and largely unopposed. looks like some helicopters, maybe some aviation assets have attempted to attack some of these cowboys, but prigozhin looks like he planned this pretty well. he has integrated air defense that is shooting down a russian air assets that are charged at impeding movement. he is making quick progress. what it comes down to, russia has enormous state power. even in spite of the commitments to ukraine, it has enormous forces just in broad numbers it can bring to bear. it has air power. it has, you know, paramilitary forces. it has, you know, fsb response forces, things of that nature. they re fighting a hardened military, a hardened mercenary that seems to be pretty well prepared, has the logistics in place to get all the way to moscow. what prigozhin has in his favor is surprise. the russian state is reeling from these events. it has prigozhin has speed