This new video
that we're
seeing of Putin
greeting crowds of supporters in
Now, with me now is Andre
was there
and he is the former foreign min
our minister of foreign affairs
of the Russian Federation.
He's also the author of The Fire
The Elusive Fate of Russian Demo
And I really appreciate your tim
I want to just start with this n
Right.
This is Putin
making a surprise appearance to
Russian people, understandably.
He wanted this video.
This is the video they're puttin
All of this is true.
But still,
when is the last time you saw Pu
do something like this?
When I
when I saw him is when he's in t
Either he wants to show that
he sends popular support before.
Of course, false
a rigged elections.
But he needs kind of vaulting
and he needs kind of legitimacy
from that voting.
So that's
when he
recalls that there are people th
And when he is scared,
he has been scared by the events
But those events
now are going, you know, into hi
And it was not an uprising.
It was not a putsch.
It was just a brawl
between the Mafia members.
For the high position
in the organization.
But that was scary because one o
was quite an army
So The Wall Street Journal is re
that Prigozhin actually planned
to capture top Russian military
and that was his goal.
And the way they write it is thi
They say,
quote, Western officials
said they believe the original p
had a good chance of success.
But failed
after the conspiracy was leaked,
forcing Prigozhin to improvise
an alternative plan.
Andre, do you think promotion's
would have succeeded
if he was going to go in and kid
or take senior Russian military
You think that that would have w
if he had
you know,
if it didn't leak and he had gon
with it
why not?
And then, yes, as I said,
look at the Mafia or,
you know, other criminal organiz
which they are in Russia
that the whole government
they are fighting for,
they are a piece of pie
and they always want to be on to
And that there was quite
the brawl between Prigozhin and
the leadership of the Ministry o
and I believe that many, many mi
people in
Russia are very upset of the war
and very upset of the
Ukrainian resistance.
And
they don't respect
the elite of the ministry
But that does not mean that he
or they are ready to overthrow
Putin because of his force yet
existent legitimacy
in the eyes of many
Do you think that Prigozhin is n
I mean, we see others,
right, as a father.
His daughter,
you know,
drew a picture of Ukrainian flag
He gets sentenced immediately
to two years in a penal colony.
A Kremlin critic, Ilya Yashin.
Eight and a half years
because he he had a live stream
where he left
on the Internet live, called Put
the worst butcher in this war.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, the
prominent journalist.
25 years
after Russia, said he spread fak
about the military.
But Prigozhin for now is free.
He didn't just criticize
Putin's military.
Day in and day out
for the past eight months,
in unbelievable terms,
he led an armed rebellion.
So is he just going to go free
Yes.
Precaution is one of the
of the organization.
He criticized
some by the inside the mafia
for being for not being effectiv
But he never kind of called it s
He kind of hinted on various thi
But everybody knew
that he was not challenging
a political name or challenging
in serious terms of the war itse
He was a war criminal.
He is of the word himself.
So
that's different
that those people could be kille
could be a poisoned.
And still it's not the end of th
But in jail, there are people
which you named
and not only, of course, to the
so to say, those are political o
of the
whole organization,
of the criminal element.
They want real change.
You know, they are for democracy
And it's the opposition
and that's why they are in jail.
All right, Andre, thank you very
We appreciate your time.