we can t have these conversations without you, so i know you are juggling a lot of things. but thank you very much for making some time to talk to us. we re grateful. e time to talk to us we re grateful . ,. . it to the to th according to russian state media, the criminal case against yevgeny prigozhin, the head of the wagner group, a private mercenary army in russia critical to russia s ability to wage war in ukraine, will be dropped. that s what they re saying at least. and he will be an exile in belarus. so far, it is not clear if you will actually give up leadership or commands of the wagner group. but he sent a voice note signaling that his forces would stand down. that order comes after a day of putin back negotiations with prigozhin to avoid russian losses inside russian territory. with promises of safety guarantees for the wagner fighters. until just a few hours ago, wagner forces were marching toward moscow. appearing to be ready to wage an armed result against
trash. their political pariah in the international community. the billionaires, the oligarchs can t go somewhere on the riviera anymore. so this place is a real mess. putin still has the national guard, the riot police, the fsb and the ministry interior. he took maybe 4000 people keeping him personally safe in his isolated country. so in the short run, maybe we re not going to see it collapse, but putin is clearly in a weakened state, and that s good news for the west and good news for ukraine. and goo ws david, go ahead. you asked a question that i think general mccaffrey really took well. what could the was to this? for the diplomats to really go to war, can seize on the