We discuss on yesterday s show was senator chris according to russia, russia has completed a, quote, molecular genetic examination, and quote, of the bodies from wednesday s plane crash outside of moscow. russia says that yevgeny prigozhin was among the dead. now, as you can tell, where parsing rushes claimed confirmations, sensitive absolutely no way of confirming any of that information independently, as is the case of everything that comes out of russia these days. for its part, the kremlin is denying any involvement in the crash. seems to have killed prigozhin, who is the former russian catering oligarch turned founder of the russian allied wagner mercenary force. fought for russia in ukraine before leading a mutinous march on moscow. u.s. officials and experts
Join ukraine. and to finish their march on moscow. david? david: that would really be something. tom soufi burridge tonight. tom, thank you. tonight, japan has gun releasing radioactive waste water from the fukushima nuclear power plant into the pacific ocean. china immediately banning japanese seafood. more than a million tons of radioactive water has been collected in 1,000 tanks since the nuclear meltdown caused by an earthquake and tsunami, that was 12 years ago. it will take decades to release it all. china imposing that import ban over concerns of radioactive contamination. tonight, japan says it will reimburse japanese businesses for their losses. back here in the u.s. tonight, the race for the white house, and the first republican primary debate. the fireworks on stage, with donald trump not there. eight candidates taking aim at each other. nearly all of them saying they would support donald trump, even if convicted, if he s the nominee. rachel scott is there. reporter:
Mid-air, crashing to the ground, with u.s. officials now saying it s likely prigozhin was killed. prigozhin and putin close allies before the mercenary boss and his men marched on moscow. putin calling that a stab in the back. today, the russian president initially offering what he called his sincerest condolences to the families of all ten victims onboard the plane. but then calling prigozhin someone with a complex destiny, and making a veiled reference to that mutinous march on moscow, saying the wagner boss made, quote, serious mistakes in life. tonight, new details on what may have caused prigozhin s plane to suddenly plunge from 28,000 feet. the associated press reporting that a preliminary u.s. intelligence assessment found the crash was intentionally
About what or who is behind this? we know his name was on the manifest of that plane, and russia has confirmed he was on it. what we have not seen as any physical evidence of his body. they have recovered all ten bodies, three crew and seven passengers, and according to russia both mr prigozhin and dmitry utkin, the co founder of the wagner group, were both on that plane. but we have not seen the evidence yet. some people i think of a conspiracy theory that at the last minute prigozhin did not get on the plane and he has disappeared somewhere, putting his feet up and sipping a cocktail. i think that is very unlikely. the presumption in western capitals and in the uk is that this was the work of the fsb, russia s domestic intelligence and security agency. and this was revenge for his mutinous march on moscow. no proof, but that is the presumption.
What does prigozhin s death mean for the wagner group? it leaves it decapitated. wagner had already had their heavy weapons taken off them after that mutinous march at the end ofjune. they were not trusted again. but they have been a useful tool for the kremlin in africa, for example, where they have extended russia s geopolitical interests in countries like mali, the central african republic, sudan and so on. the kremlin will not want to lose that, but they do want to probably replace them. there are plans afoot to do exactly that, which is probably why prigozhin rushed back from mali to russia in the last few days, just after making that video. and possibly his guard was down. a , that video. and possibly his guard was down. , ., was down. many thanks. there were security correspondent was down. many thanks. there were security correspondent frank - was down. many thanks. there were | security correspondent frank gardner there. the government has ordered an independent inquiry into