the kremlin says it s dropped charges and prigozhin will go to belarus, while promising his fighters contracts with the russian military. for now, a crisis apparently averted. but this very public betrayal and the mercenaries short but unimpeded march on moscow reveals deep weakness at the heart of the putin regime. ivan watson, cnn. there appears to be no clear winners russia from this rebellion. the head of the mute news wagner group has agreed to exile in belarus to avoid prosecution. but for now, no sign of with a he might be, adding to a long list of questions over his future. cnn s fred pleitgen has our report. reporter: there is still a lot unclear about what s going to be in store in the future for the wagner private military company. one of the things we ve heard from the kremlin is they say that the fighters for wagner, buzz of their military achievements on the battlefield will be able to apply to join the russian military.
and, look, coup d etats aren t military-only events. they re political events with military components. and prigozhin provided the military component of this, but he couldn t come through with the political side. he didn t have political support. and the fact that nobody gave him that support in moscow is indicative that putin still has control, control of the security services, and he has the control and the loyalty of at least enough of the elites. i want you to listen to the u.s. secretary of state, antony blinken, on how he sees the bigger picture here for vladimir putin and for russia. listen to this. 16 months ago, russian forces were on the doorstep of kyiv, ukraine, thinking they were going to take the city in a matter of days, erase the country from the map. now they have to be focused on defending moscow, russia s capital, against mercenaries of putin s own making. so this raises lots of profound questions that will be answered,
battlefield, will be able to apply to join the russian military. that s something that s been in the cards for a while. there was a decree by the russian defense minister a couple of weeks ago where he said that all of the private military companies needed to have contracts with the russian army if they wanted to operate in the future. now, yevgeny prigozhin or the wagner private military had always said they were not going to do that. that was, of course, also one of the things that escalated the feud between prigozhin and the russian military leadership. but all this is about a lot more than that. the private military company wagner is one thing, but yevgeny prigozhin owns a lot more than that. he has media holdings like, for instance, the internet research agency, which the u.s. says meddled heavily in the 2016 presidential election. prigozhin was indicted for that. what happens to his media empire? then there s always his dealings in the middle east, oil fields in syria, in africa,
that s something that s been in the cards for a while there was a decree by the russian defense minister where he said all of the private military companies needed to have contracts with the russian army if they wanted to operate in the future. now yevgeny prigozhin or the wagner private company always said they were not going to do that. and that was also one of the things that escalated the feud between prigozhin and the russian military leadership. but all this is about a lot more than that. the private military company wagner is one thing. but yevgeny prigozhin owns a lot more than that. he has media holdings, like for instance the internet research agency which meddled heavily in the 2016 election. prigozhin was indicted for that. what happens to his media empire? then of course there is all his dealings in the middle east. oil fields in syria, in africa exploiting things like gold and diamonds, also training local forces there. so there are definitely still a lot of questions abo
minister and general gerasimov. this looks very much to me like a putin win. and the most important thing here is the elites, the oligarchs, that everybody keeps waiting to turn on putin, well, this was their shot, and they didn t take it, john. so i think that hope that putin is going to be ousted is really gone now, because there is no other insurrection come anything fi time soon. there is no other prigozhin in the wings? there is no other prigozhin in the wings. look, coup d etats aren t military-only events. they re political events with military components. and prigozhin provided the military component of this, but he couldn t come through with the political side. he didn t have political support. and the fact that nobody gave him that support in moscow is indicative that putin still has control, control of the security services, and he has the control