Founding Wagner News Today

a good sunday evening to you. im jim sciutto, and this is cnns special live coverage of the extraordinary events this weekend out of russia. moscows red square blocked off again today after the brief but stunning insurrection thats gripped the world, could perhaps weaken vladimir putins grip on his country. we should note its far too soon to know. so much we dont know about what led wagner mercenary group leader yevgeny prigozhin to launch a march on moscow and what convinced him to ab...

Vladimir putin. >> reporter: this is what yevgeny prigozhin was known for in recent months, yelling into the camera at his rivals in the russian military for what he claimed was their inadequate support of his wagner mercenaries in ukraine. for months, prigozhin had played a crucial role in the ukraine war. his fighters often leading the charge in vladimir putins invasion. in ukraine, analysts say, prigozhins fighters proved especially valuable to putin. >> not because of the fabulous military s...

Theres also some clarity around who was on that plane. prigozhin was the owner of this wagner private military corporation, but the founder of the private military corporation, the military commander dmitry utkin was on there. leaders inside the organization that have frankly decapitated wagner. it is the two-month anniversary of prigozhins march on moscow. hes had two months to figure that out. i think largely hes bottled up this particular insurrection. were not done with the fact that this is...

Prigozhin/wagner uprising. >> we have the clip of what the president, president biden, said about all of this earlier today, let me play it for you. >> i dont know for a fact what happened, but im not surprised. theres not much that happens in russia hes not behind. i dont know enough to know the answers. >> what does this mean for putins hold on power, alexander? >> so the first thing is, theres a great deal of continuity in the way putin disposes of opposition and challengers, besides thinking...

Clarisa, what does this mean for putins efforts to regain control after that failed wagner rebellion? >> well, i think if indeed the state was responsible for this, its clear that the kremlin is trying to draw a line under the sort of cacophony of criticism that prigozhin presided over, that became more and more ubiquitous, that would have been unthinkable a couple of years ago but which culminated in this mutiny. as matthew says, it was not just dmitry prigozhin on that plane, there were other ...

When he got out, he started a hot dog stand, parlayed that into a series of successful restaurants that putin sometimes brought other world leaders to. prigozhin scored lucrative government catering contracts, earning him the nickname putins chef. >> being the guy who runs the kremlin food service might to you and me sound like not a particularly important thing. but to people who are afraid of being poisoned, thats a position of trust for prigozhin. >> reporter: prigozhin used putins trust and ...

Trying, wagner leader yevgeny prigozhin may have won over vladimir putin for displaying those trace rather than if fact they hail from spooegs. >> i think he has personality traits that putin see in himself. >> his rise is a tale of ambition the he served time in prison in the final stages of the soto union for petty crimes. when he got out he started a hotdog stand and parlayed that into restaurants. yevgeny prigozhin scored lucrative government contracts earning the nickname putins chef into b...

Make another bold and extraordinary move around 201, founding wagner as a paramilitary group then operating mostly in the shadows. >> to run coupes and mercenaries acti activities, he was involved in syria. when russia didnt want to use its own troops, when russia wants to outsource to contractors it relies on wagner, the most prominent of these kind of institutions. >> reporter: cnn has tracked wagner mercenaries operating in the central african republic, sudan, mozambique, mali, as well as ukr...