Let's bring in our military and Russia
Thank you all for joining us on this incredible story.
Jill Dougherty, I want to go to
The world was watching this firs by Putin just a couple of hours
He had been M.I.A.
Did Putin accomplish anything from here in here
in this speech, aside from showi that he is essentially still ali
You know, I think that's very hard to judg
the two groups that he was talki essentially are the members of V
who now have a choice, according you know, join the military.
Go back to your families or go t
And we still don't know.
I mean, Prigozhin is saying his men are sticking with him
and that very few have decided to go into the mili
And then the other side is Putin to convince Russians everything
Everything's under control.
The people were united.
You know, it reminded me of the old Soviet da
and they said, you know, the sta and the people are united.
That's what Putin is trying to p
So did that did he accomplish th
And I think it's kind of dubious
because Russians are very confus
And I don't think Putin really d much of anything
other than say, hey, be patriots and it'll be ok
It was a very, very short speech
I want to play a little bit more of it. Let's take a listen
The organizers of
the rebellion betraying their co
Their people also betrayed those who are drawn into the cri
They lied to them.
Pushed them to death under fire to shoot at their own
We know
now that the vast majority of th and commanders of the Wagner gro
are also Russian patriots.
Devoted to their people and stat
They proved it with their courag on the battlefield.
Jill, back to you.
That was somewhat forgiving.
Do you think that this means that the Wagner group is going t
Because Prigozhin certainly thin he thinks he's going to be able
to operate in some way out of Be
I don't think so.
I mean, if you have 25,000, that's what Prigozhin claims.
25,000.
Really vicious and well-trained
men, militia running around in R
I can't imagine that Putin would want that to happen.
And if they're in Belarus,
you know, it's kind of it's under control
That also would be a threat.
So I think he's saying this is t
You've got three choices.
Take it.
And, you know, he didn't say what would happen,
his previous speech a couple of he did say, you know, we will cr
So that's you know, that's the d that they have to make.
And Bianna Golodryga, we did hear from Evgeny Prigozhi
We didn't we didn't see him, but he did double down on that l
held criticism of his of the Russian defense ministry.
So how significant is it that we
Putin meeting with the defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, tonight
Well, I don't think it was an ac
You're right to pick up on that, that all of a sudden
we saw video of the meeting and what's happened in the past
with these meetings and these videos of Putin is
you never know what's life or when something's taped.
There have been instances in the where something appeared to be l
but then an eagle eyed observer
caught the time on people's watc and it was 8 hours prior to that
Vladimir Putin even today said a
And then he corrected himself an good evening.
So it was clear that they were meeting today
and it was to show the Russian p and it was to show the world
really that that he couldn't be by Yevgeny Prigozhin
to change leadership of the mili to do to change the defense mini
and as well as very good Asimov, who was overseeing the war.
No one can argue that they've done a good job in doing
But as you know, this is a president who values
dedication and loyalty above all else else.
And this is a president who we s doubling down thus far,
so far, and his support for his military
And General Mark Hertling.
Putin reference tonight fallen p
We have images of a crash site. You can see it there.
Reportedly a Russian military pl
that was taken down by Wagner forces over the weekend.
So if any pro-Russian does appea to have killed Russian troops.
General, do you see a world in which Putin simply lets Prigo
go live in exile in Belarus?
I don't, Alex.
And what we're talking about, we have the film of the one airc
Open source intelligence says there were som
between six and eight with multi being killed.
That's an air attack by Mr.
Bergwijn's Wagner group against the Russian
because they had air defense equ in that march with them.
But in addition to that, there had been multiple occasion
where the Wagner group has engag forces of the Russian Air Force.
So we have a combination of this private military company
engaging the Russians in both Ukraine and in Russia.
And it is really just as I've sa
these these folks are the crimin
and in some cases interspersed with some military capabilities.
But you know this we're going to see more of
I'm not sure everything is done.
But it's fascinating to me how in that six minute speech th
Putin gave, that he went back an between the heroes of the Wagner
while at the same time not condemning the leader of the
who he condemned the other day during the whole campaign.
So there's just so much that is Russian in the way this is appro
And if I may add one more thing.
You mentioned Shoigu before shortening the martinet.
He is not a military leader.
He is not well-liked.
By most of the generals in the Russian military.
So the combination of most of th disliking him
and precaution, absolutely.
Jettisoning him is going to have to force Putin into some tough d