Speaker 1: Welcome back, everybody. Good to be back. And so much to discuss. We'll start with
the situation in Russia, a failed coup attempt which Vladimir Putin has survived. But to what
end and with what long term impact, we just don't know. But let's go through what took place over
the weekend. Incredible. The Wagner Group. Wagner group, everybody has their own way of pronouncing
it, launched a coup attempt by sending tanks and troops towards the Russian capital of Moscow,
hoping to overthrow Vladimir Putin and put in some kind of puppet leader. Quite frankly,
the mercenary group, the Wagner group, is led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, formerly a close associate of
Vladimir Putin, sanctioned by the U.S., for his role in interfering in the 2016 and 2020
elections. And Prigozhin alliance with Putin soured when he accused Putin. Rather, he accused
the Russian defense minister of incompetence and betrayal, claiming that he had ordered attacks
on Wagner's troops in Ukraine and elsewhere. The timeline, as far as we understand it, is that on
Friday, June 23rd, Prigozhin threatened rebellion Saturday, June 24th, very early, just hours later,
one in the morning on Saturday, Vladimir Putin was briefed about the armed rebellion that was
being threatened. By 7:30 a.m., the Wagner group claimed control over Rostov military facilities
and the airport. 2 hours later, the march towards Moscow began. 10 a.m., Vladimir Putin addressed
Russia on television, calling the acts treasonous. And by that night, 8 p.m. prigozhin as far as we
currently understood understand halted the march on Moscow. The reports are that the coup attempt
was foiled by the bell of Russian President Lukashenko brokering a deal between Putin
and Prigozhin, allowing Prigozhin to escape to Belarus in exchange for some kind of safe haven.
Presumably Prigozhin has failed. Coup attempt also has shown shifting public opinion about him and
the Wagner group and quite frankly, the ethical dilemmas of supporting or opposing coups based on
who it is that is doing them. This is a critical aspect to the story. Prigozhin coup attempt
had mixed reactions among both Russians and the international community when news broke of this.
And in fact, I have some Ukrainian friends who, with tears in their eyes, wrote out, wrote to me,
and I could tell even though they were texting, that they had tears in their eyes. They were happy
about this. They welcomed it as a challenge to Vladimir Putin's, of course, authoritarian rule
and the idea that maybe there could be democratic change in Russia. Others condemned
the coup attempt, saying it's reckless, it's a violent act, it threatens Russia's stability, it
threatens Tibetans, Russian security. Even if the coup were to succeed, it's it does not set Russia
and the Russian people up for really dramatically improved circumstances. There are those who say a
coup is never justified, regardless of the regime that they are targeting, because coups undermine
the rule of law, they undermine the will of the people. Others say, well, sometimes the rule of
law and the will of the people has been undermined by the strongman who is in power already. And the
coup might be the only way to actually get back on track. These are the various opinions that have
come forward. One position is that it's okay to support coups if they are against undemocratically
elected leaders. Can it be said that Putin was elected democratically? Well, he says he was.
There is this ostensible democracy, but was it? Putin won his fourth presidential term with 77% of
the vote in an election that was widely criticized by domestic and international observers for,
to put it lightly, irregularities and violations. So is Putin actually democratically elected?
Putin's main opponents were either barred from running or jailed, or even worse,
Putin's critics were excluded from the vote on constitutional reforms, which allowed Putin to
reset term limits and run for two more six year terms. That's not democracy. But does that mean we
support a coup attempt? And then, of course, the the other part of this is that Prigozhin himself
initially seen by some favorably as someone doing a good. Being worthy of the international
left's support. And that very quickly came apart once more was learned about Prigozhin and Wagner
groups activities in different theaters around the world. So that is where things stand right now,
as far as we know. There is not total transparency about news regarding exactly what is going on,
but the broader and more forward looking question to which I just don't think we have an answer. If
you Google what comes next in Russia, what happens next to Putin? You will find several dozen op
eds from the last 24 to 48 hours know to agree about what is coming next. And in particular,
for Vladimir Putin, the most optimistic sort of blended scenario that I've seen proposals put
forth. Is that now with the threat of the coup, but the coup having failed. Vladimir
Putin may realize his days are numbered and will engineer some kind of face saving exit
from power to avoid being deposed or whatever. I just don't know that that's really the most
likely scenario here. So that's the latest we have out of Russia as of this moment. We're
going to continue following it. We'll probably have more for you tomorrow or the next day