>>> Vladimir Putin's closest
ally, Belarus, is now saying it
has reached an agreement with
Russia's Wagner fighters to
train its troops.
CNN's Alex Marquardt reports
that they already appear to be
there.
>> Reporter: New video on state
TV claiming to show Wagner
mercenaries in southern Belarus
training local groups, where
leader yevgeny prigozhin was
supposed to be exiled to,
throwing his fate and that of
Wagner into doubt.
In a new interview released
today, Putin proclaimed we do
not have a law for private
military organizations, it
simply does not exist.
The group exists, but legally it
does not exist.
Putin is referencing Russia's
law against mercenary groups,
but also stating a new reality.
Wagner, as it has exist in
Ukraine as a fighting force,
could be done.
And prigozhin may be split from
his men.
>> We don't know what the future
is going to be here, whether
it's in Ukraine or anywhere else
around the world.
We know they are still
conducting malicious activity,
particularly in Africa.
>> Reporter: After the Wagner
mutiny came to a sudden halt on
June 24th, Putin accused the
mercenaries of being traitors,
then just five days later Putin
said in the interview he invited
35 Wagner commanders, including
prigozhin, to the Kremlin and
offered them a chance to repent.
I showed them possible options
for their further service, Putin
said, including the use of their
combat experience.
Putin offered the Wagner leaders
the chance to continue fighting
in the Russian army, under their
commander, Nick named gray hair,
a retired colonel and founding
member of Wagner, sanctioned by
the eu and the uk.
He's fought in Afghanistan,
chechnya and Syria, earning
Russia's highest military
honors.
The men, Putin said, nodded
affirmatively, but prigozhin,
sitting in the front, said after
listening, no, the guys do not
agree with this decision.
So what happened after prigozhin
apparently openly disagreed with
Putin?
That we don't know.
Prigozhin may now be out of
Ukraine but he wants to keep
business interests in Africa and
the Middle East.
As to what happened to his men T
Pentagon says the bulk of them
are back in Ukraine in
russian-occupied areas, but the
defense department says they are
no longer taking part in
operations in Ukraine.
Alex Marquardt, CNN.
>>> Let's get more analysis now
on what's happening.
Steve hall is the CNN national
security analyst and a former
CIA chief of Russian operations.
Great to see you.
So if Wagner fighters are in
Belarus, as we saw in some of
the pictures, for training, what
does this tell you about its
future?
>> Yeah, Fred, there's a lot of
weird stuff going on here.
Let's just start with some of
the stuff that Alex was covering
from the press.
From the press perspective, the
Kremlin is being silly about
this.
Are we really to believe, first
of all, we know where any of
these guys are?
For the past few weeks we've
been trying to figure out where
they are, including prigozhin
and then we have this story from
Putin saying it was like
standing in front of the
classroom, prigozhin was sitting
in the front and when I offered
the deal, he said no but all of
his guys nodded their heads.
It's unsophisticated, silly and
frankly strange because the
Kremlin is usually good about
their messaging.
But it does look like perhaps
they're in Belarus, but if Putin
thinks he's safe, if he's
concerned about these guys,
Belarus is not that far away.
It would be much better if they
were in Africa for Putin's
safety.
>> And it promotes confusion.
Then there are comments by
Putin, you know, during an
interview saying that the Wagner
group doesn't really exist, it
exists but not legally exists,
so it doesn't really exist.
Maybe that is the objective, is
just to continue to confuse and
keep people guessing, whether it
be the whereabouts of yevgeny
prigozhin, or whether the troops
are indeed being trained and if
they have a future of being
useful to Russia.
Isn't this the goal?
Confusion?
>> No, I had forgotten about all
the other -- there's so many
ridiculous statements, one loses
track.
But I think what's going on is
we're seeing a lot of smoke up
front here where people are not
knowing exactly what's going on,
silly statements are being made.
What's that's concealing is a
lot of back room positioning
inside the Kremlin.
You've got elites trying to
figure out where do I fit in,
who is weak now, who is going to
be weak next weak.
Putin is include in that
calculus, he's saying how strong
is this person, this
organization and what do I need
to do to stay in power.
It's always difficult to find
out precisely what's going on in
the Kremlin because it's so
tightly controlled.
>> What does your gut say about
yevgeny prigozhin?
Is he around still, is he alive?
Is he an instrument in any way
of Putin?
>> Yeah, well, I think they're
trying to figure out what to do
about prigozhin and I think, if
I had to bet and put money down
on it right now, I think what I
would say is because of what
we've seen in the past two
weeks, the raid on prigozhin's
apartment in St. Petersburg
where they were finding billions
of rubles, millions of dollars,
which then Putin turned around
and said we're the ones who pay
Wagner, plus wigs, disguise
material, fake passports, we
think they're setting him up to
look like a corrupt oligarch
gone bad that needs to go to
jail, exile or perhaps worse.
I think that's the goal right
now for prigozhin.
>> So the nato summit just
wrapped up this week, there was
a real strong show of unity, I
think uniformly that's kind of
the consensus.
So is that a message that Putin
is hearing or even likely to
respond to?
>> I don't see how he can
respond to it because it's just
bad news after bad news after
bad news.
I mean, if we look back before
the war, Finland was neutral,
Sweden was neutral and Putin was
saying nato is a huge threat to
Russia.
Now Finland is a member and
Sweden, it looks like after the
summit, is going to be a member
soon.
Some people are complaining
about the fact that Ukraine
wasn't offered something
specific, but I think it was a
decision amongst the allies to
say if we let them in right now
we are automatically at war with
Russia, unless we suspend or
alter the article five, an