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
good eveningmism i m anderson cooper in new york. this is special coverage of the extraordinary and still confusing events we have been reporting on for the past 24 hours out of russia and of what will be a critical day ahead for vladimir putin. what we witnessed over the last 24 hours appears to have been the most serious threat to putin s hold on power in decades. at this hour we know a lot, but it s important to point out there is a lot that is not known. for instance, what will be the fate of the man in the back seat of this suv, prigozhin, cheered by some as he appeared to be leaving the southern russian town, his mercenary force had just occupy. this video taken just hours after he called off his mercenaries from their push toward moscow and agreed to a deal brokered by russia s ally, belarus. 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 d
catering company and became known as putin s chef, and from there things really went up for yevgeny prigozhin. he started a media company which turned into a media propaganda empire, which of course the u.s. says meddled heavily in the 2016 election. yevgeny prigozhin was actually indicted for that in the united states. but then there was also the wagner private military company, and i saw them in action really at the beginning when they were starting to go to places like syria, and on the ground in syria their forces back then were pretty much doing base protection for the russian military that was on the ground in syria, but from there things really did evolve. they started getting involved in the oil business in syria, and then of course also things like gold and diamonds in african countries and started training the forces of african countries as well. but it really wasn t until the war in ukraine that wagner turned into pretty much a full on army with really heavy
i saw them at the beginning where they were going to places like syria and their forces back then were pretty much doing base protection for the russian military that was on the ground in syria. but from there, things really did evolve. they started getting involved in the oil business in syria and then things like gold and diamonds in african countries. but it wasn t really until the war in ukraine that wagner turned into pretty much a full-on army with really heavy weapons. if you look at the battle in bakhmut for instance, some of the firepower unleashed there by the artillery, by the tanks that wagner had in its possession, that certainly seemed to be a very professional army and now prigozhin sealed to be at the he seemed to be at the height of the power but it appears he s gone one step too far. earlier kim brunhuber spoke
and from there things really went up for yevgeny prigozhin. he started a media company which then turned into a media and propaganda empire which of course the u.s. says meddled heavily in the 2016 presidential election. prigozhin was actually indicted for that in the united states. but then there was also the wagner private military company, and i saw them in action really at the beginning when they were starting to go to places like syria. and on the ground in syria their forces back then were pretty much doing base protection for the russian military that was on the ground in syria. but from there, things really did evolve. they started getting involved in the oil business in syria and then of course also things like gold and diamonds in african countries and started training the forces of african countries as well. but it really wasn t until the war in ukraine that wagner turned into pretty much a full-on army with really heavy weapons. if you look at the battle in bakhmut, for ins