fact, answer a question that we keep asking. will these wagner fighters, however many there may be, be absorbed back into the russian military. the kremlin said that was part of the deal on saturday that nobody would be prosecuted and they would be allowed to sign on with the russian military. it looks as though, if you believe prigozhin, that s not going to happen. so in that case, you do have this very effective fighting force taken out of the battlefield picture in the war on ukraine. you still have a huge number of soldiers fighting for the russian federation, no doubt about it, and it is still a very difficult fight. the ukrainians will say that they ve been gaining ground. it s bit by bit. they re small pieces of land. there are villages here, villages there. another one yesterday. we ve talked about this video of ukrainian soldiers raising the flag in a small village, i believe in the donetsk region just across the border from the
services in the world, is fb intelligence that keeps a close eye on what s happening in russia. he was taken by surprise here. there s no other way to take this. they were putting dumpsters in the middle of highways. he did not know this was coming, which was pretty shocking. prigozhin wouldn t, i think by most accounts, be a much better leader than vladimir putin if he were to take charge or somebody like him. again, there s the largest nuclear stockpile in the world that russia is in control of. are you concerned about instability when it comes to that, those nuclear codes, and wherever they are over there falling into even worse hands? sure. you know, we have to be mindful of it. we have to be very careful of it. there are nuclear arsenals around the world that i m concerned about. it s not just in russia either. we always have to keep a close eye on, that and we do. our intelligence services do keep a very close eye on it. we have to be looking at what
group. and that is the same group that owned the internet research agency. we were talking election 2016 in the u.s., they ve been used prolifically in nearly every election campaign the russians have meddled in and in terms of africa. a lot of the wagner group troops are supported by media. where does that play out at? that s principally in telegram. if you went to telegram channels, you will see some debate, and wagner very much controls many of those channels. separately, wagner s been doing its own recruitment, not only in social media, but even things like going out to gaming communities, trying to recruit young people to be drone operators or do cyber operations or trolling operations. one of the weird things about this is putin went for plausible deniability to prigozhin years ago to do the dirty work of russia around the world, and now they ve lost control of it. in terms of the media space, it s not going to be readily accessible inside russia but a
and that s where he is right now. and he is at this point potentially in an erratic or volatile moment. that s the fear in the west. what does he do in this moment to reassert himself, to a show he is the czar, to show he is the boss in effect. does he do something in ukraine, something he might not have cone before. that s where you re most concerned. over the weekend american officials told us they saw no evidence of any issues with the russian nuclear arsenal. that, of course, is concern number one in the west. but you never know what he might do as a result of feeling cornered. peter baker, thank you for that. joining us now, clint watt, at microsoft who worked as a consultant to the fbi counterterrorism decision. he s also an msnbc national security analyst ask retired four-star general barry mccaffrey. we ve been watching ukraine, watching vladimir putin s moves
our options are to assist country and securing that. you know, whether there s a coup in russia, an insurrection in russia or any place else, we cannot have nuclear weapons being used by rogue individuals in rogue states period. that s something we all should be able to get behind. this administration is doing the right things. they re keeping a close eye on it. we have con contingency plans in place. i have a lot of confidence that president biden will look at all options. the washington post editorial board talked about the many concerns that are posed by instability in russia. obviously nukes, first, but they also point out that this is somebody who sends a message as a cornered rat he will always strike back. as you launch in the coming hours and days, what are you looking for from vladimir putin? what is your concern in terms of vladimir putin and what, again, are the questions you have and that you will have about where