Seismic moment. i mean, the question now becomes who takes this over? this wagner operation has been taking place not just in the central african republic where it started when we were there, but also in mali, in libya, it has commercial importance. the question becomes what is the succession plan, is there a succession plan? there are rumblings that they re work on a succession plan and they are set up a rival pnc to carry out this type of work, particularly in africa. but the real problem is that up until the war in ukraine, wagner had something that the kremlin does not they had plausible deniability. they didn t even officially exist on paper. and that meant that they could go along and work with whatever kind of leader and participate in massacres and do all the kinds of things that states
Special military operation, the war this ukraine, was equally important. you know, it all sort of kind of points to this idea that vladimir putin is off celebrating loyalty. meanwhile, the man who led the coup or the attempted coup against vladimir putin s kremlin two months to the day before this crash seems to have been on board and to have met his end. yeah. two interesting anniversaries on that same day. as we know, putin does enjoy a chance to mark an anniversary. matthew, appreciate it. stay with us. i want to bring in chief international correspondent clarissa ward. you have covered for years the notorious wagner group. you uncovered a wagner training ground in the central african republic. give us a sense of what this would mean to these vast operations of wagner across the world if in fact yevgeny prigozhin is dead. reporter: well, this is a
Think could have potentially been a factor if and a big if obviously there was this was a planned attack because prigozhin was on that plane and because someone wanted him gone? reporter: i mean, if this was indeed an assassination, i think it s really important that it wasn t just prigozhin who was killed. there were others on that plane. dimitri utkin office that plane, one of wagner s top operatives. so if this was a targeted assassination, then it s clear that the kremlin is really trying to just draw a line under this whole thing altogether because it s important to note that prigozhin has quite a lot of support in russia. and particularly from these hard-liners who do not feel that the ministry of defense has been executing a good job in ukraine, who do not feel that they have been harsh enough in their tactics. who accuse them of being corrupt and incompetent and ineffective. and that chorus of voices has
A wagner linked social media account going further and confirming that prigozhin had, in fact, been killed. last hour president biden was asked to weigh in on the crash. here s what he had to say i don t know for a fact what happened. i m not surprised. do you think there s not much that happens in russia that i don t know enough to know the answer. cnn s alex marquardt joining us now. president biden, other u.s. officials have repeatedly warned prigozhin could be targeted, could be killed by the kremlin after that failed mutiny just two months ago in russia. reporter: yeah. they ve been talking about this essentially saying that it was just a question of when. this is not this was expected, this was would be expected, not a question of if but when. we ve heard president biden and others speaking in blunt, almost joking terms. president biden saying that prigozhin should not fire his food taster, the secretary of
And professional care you expect from a clinic at a fraction of the cost. for a limited time, get $300 off select hearing aid models. visit jabraenhance.com. (josh allen) is this your plan to watch the game today? (hero fan) i have to watch my neighbors nfl sunday ticket. (josh allen) it s not your best plan. but you know what is? myplan from verizon. (vo) for a limited time get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. a $449 value. plus, get a free samsung galaxy z flip5. only on verizon. back now with our world lead. russian authorities say wagner chief yevgeny prigozhin was, in fact, on board the plane that crashed in russia earlier today.