a good sunday evening to you. i m jim sciutto, and this is cnn s special live coverage of the extraordinary events this weekend out of russia. moscow s red square blocked off again today after the brief but stunning insurrection that s gripped the world, could perhaps weaken vladimir putin s grip on his country. we should note it s far too soon to know. so much we don t know about what led wagner mercenary group leader yevgeny prigozhin to launch a march on moscow and what convinced him to abruptly call it off. and then, it s said, go into exile. u.s. secretary of state tony blinken today called the whole series of events extraordinary, believes it indicates that cracks are emerging in putin s rule. the very latest now from cnn s sam kiley live from london. sam, we re watching russia closely, ukraine, also events in belarus. any developments to indicate to us what s actually happening right now? reporter: well, jim, i think the most stunning development so far is an absence
earning the nickname putin s chef for his close work with the russian president, which went far beyond food, we should note. but this weekend he became the leader of an open insurrection. who is the head of the wagner mercenary group exactly? cnn s brian todd takes a look. reporter: the man recently videotaped screaming at vladimir putin s top military officials for betraying his mercenaries on the battlefield is someone used to the tactic of strong arming, threatening, ruthlessly taking what he wants. wagner group leader yevgeny prigozhin may have won over vladimir putin for displaying those traits rather than the fact that they both hail from the same hometown, st. petersburg. i think that prigozhin does have some personality traits that putin not only likes but also, i think, sees in himself. reporter: prigozhin s rise is a classic russian tale of brute force ambition. he served time in prison in the final stages of the soviet union for petty crimes.
fears and in some cases respects. reporter: one analyst says no matter how this high-stakes drama turns out in the end, that at the very least, yevgeny prigozhin has damaged vladimir putin by openly telling the russian people that the ukraine war was started under fraudulent circumstances. brian todd, cnn, washington. big question is, what exactly was prigozhin s goal here? was he aiming to topple putin himself, or did he have lower targets in mind? i actually don t believe that this was an attempt to take over power from putin. i think that this goes back to june 10th when shoigu issued this order to dismantle all private military companies in russia, including most promp continently wagner, and to make everyone sign contracts, subsuming them on july 1st. prigozhin said he wasn t going to follow through with this, and he expected putin to take his
listen, it s another reminder that you have multiple factions in russia with their own armies in effect. wagner is not the only running militia there. gazprom has its own militia. one of the most notable comments from prigozhin, dmitri, was not just his direct challenge to putin s power, but he blew up putin s justification for war in ukraine. he said what they ve been saying isn t twrue. this isn t a battle to denazify ukraine. how much has that damaged public support or just the justification for the war from putin s perspective? i m not sure it matters that much because for the past nine months, prigozhin has been the guy fighting this war. he s been calling for more aggressive actions. he said this is now an existential war for russia. he think this was a part of his plan to try to undermine defense minister shoigu by saying they
those allegations. of course that leaves him, in terms of public perception in russia, i think potentially very weakened, jim. sam kiley, we know you re going to keep trying to answer these questions. joining us now major general james spider marks. good to have you on, sir. thank you, jim. it was over quickly, but during that short time period, he was able prigozhin to take rostov-on-don, which is the key center for logistics, command and control to the war in ukraine, and travel all the way up to here, close to moscow. how does he do that, and what does that mean not just putin s control over the country but the russian military s control over the country? they barely seemed to challenge him. also bear in mind wagner had a very strong footprint in here and elsewhere in the region obviously. the borders right here, they were able to come across. the wagner group had free movement in and out from russia into ukraine. they used this area,