he s taken issue with how the war s been carried out and a brief tell fio to address president putin for the treasonous in the path. they embarked on path of betrayal and armed rebellion and the terrorist methods and answering both to the law and to the people. they claim the group controls russian armed forces and headquarters that s near the ukraine and the warmings operations and they said today that president putin is mistaken with traders in an audio message on telegram and this on treason of the motherland, the president is deeply wrong and we re patriots of our moreland and nobody turns themselves in at the request of the president and sfb, security service or anyone else. here s former cia station chief and fox news contributor. quite significant for ukraine and they re responsible for operations inside ukraine and this is a zero sum game and russia is focused on their own internal dissent and treasonous dissent. they can t take it as they otherwise would. repo
jon: it is perhaps the most serious challenge to the vladimir putin s authority, although at this moment it appears the challenge has edged. yevgeny prigozhin has turned his forces around and is said to be heading back to belarus. let s check in with our greg palkot who s covering the story from that part of the world. greg. reporter: jon, it looks like we re back on the brink in russia just across the border from where we are right now in kyiv, but it also looks like a lot of damage was done. it was the biggest risk to russian president vladimir putin s more than two decades of rule, attempted coup, an armed uprising. the man responsible, evgeni pregoes telephone, complaining friday about the war, then pulling his fighters out of ukraine and into the russian city of rostov-on-don with where, with little trouble, they took over the place. and, yes, prigozhin sent forces towards moscow, within 120 miles, the kremlin bracing for an attack, vladimir putin branding the actions
yesterday. but still so many questions about the wagner group s descent into russia. it ended almost as quickly as it began. yevgeny prigozhin s mercenaries got within 120 miles of moscow, the only to turn back to the races after a deal was brokered to prevent the armed rebellion. a spokesperson for the kremlin saying the wagner group leader will avoid prosecution and be exiled in belarus. his troops will be given the option to join russian military forces. prigozhin seen leaving russia last night as crowds cheered him on. meanwhile, new reporting revealing that u.s. spy agencies had indications, quote unquote, days earlier that prigozhin has been stockpiling weapons with plans to take on russian defense officials. i m obviously not going to comment on intelligence matters. what i can say is this, i think it s been no secret that many people over many months and that these tensions were rising, they were brewing. prigozhin was already saying extraordinary things about russi
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
bases. russian ally and neighbor in belarus helped broker a deal with prigozhin, to escalate the situation. prigozhin agreed to leave russia for asylum batters, but not before getting a heroes sendoff from russian residents. [crowd chanting] [sound of gunfire] nbc news correspondent ali arouzi joins me now, live from london. ali, thank you for being here. the situation in russia has changed dramatically in the last 24 hours, what s happening there now? jonathan, it has been an extraordinary 24 hours of mayhem, mutiny. and as quickly as all of this began, it ended. in a nutshell, where are we? the wagner group probably will be incorporated into the russian defense ministry, prigozhin is in exile in neighboring belarus, and vladimir putin is still in power, considerably weaker. and it is really extraordinary what unfolded in russia. very extraordinary how it all started. look at the beginning of the day, vladimir putin made that statement on television, visibly angry, calli