a threat to russia, which has, as you know, been part of putin s narrative. these create more cracks in the russian facade. and bbc s exclusive interview with christine dawood, the wife and mother of the father and son who died in the titan sub disaster. i m helena humphrey. good to have you with us. we start tonight in russia where many questions remain unanswered a day after the wagner chief yevgeny prigozhin abandoned his short lived rebellion against the kremlin. currently, the whereabouts of both prigozhin and russian president vladimir putin are unknown. the wagner chief was thought to be heading into exile in belarus after agreeing to end his advance on moscow. well, the rebellion and subsequent retreat surprised many, and is being seen as the most
it s interesting. there have been some concern that this counteroffensive wasn t going as quickly and as according to plan as the ukrainians had wanted, obviously, as the west wanted as well. and this completely threw everything off course and surprised most russia watchers and war watchers at that. that having been said, i m not sure what that will do in terms of the state of russian military and its fighting. i think the bigger question is who s going to be in control of the wagner group. it was interesting that vladimir putin seemed to give them all amnesty. these are trained fighters. i don t know if they re in the number range that yevgeny prigozhin says he has about 25,000. i think that s a skeptical figure. they ve proven to be vital actors and players in this war thus far. final question, if i can. it seems that u.s. officials have acknowledged some the extent of their knowledge inside russia. they did see, according to our
leadership going forward and whether his iron grip on russia is weakening. the crash site of a russian military plane reportedly brought down by the wagner group yesterday. the cause of the crash not clear. but footage indicates the aircraft had been struck by a missile or rocket. there s still no sign of vladimir s leader, yevgeny prigozhin, who led this march on russia, af he cut a deal to go into belarus. also not seen, putin. we re going to have the latest on the white house reaction and president biden s conversation today with ukraine s leader. first, though, an update from cnn s matthew chance, who is in moscow. reporter: jim, on the face of it tonight, it seems like a russian crisis has been averted. rebel wagner fighters have been dispersed, and the kremlin is backing control of areas that was simply taken over by the mercenary group. amid the relief that more
person who was integrally involved in the whole invasion of ukraine. i think that he is probably too important a person to disappear, and what he did was unforgivable, but at the same time, if they got rid of him, they don t have anyone else like him. in fact, his alagna mercenary group was the only fighting ruby ukrainians had respect for. anyone else in the russian military ukrainians laugh out as they killed the wagner. so, ithink laugh out as they killed the wagner. so, i think we are a long way from seeing prigozhin quietly disappear into the sunset. i don t think that will happen in any way, shape or form. how does he behave towards putin? that is an important question but i am sure he will remain a player in russia. ~ ., sure he will remain a player in russia. ~ . ., russia. what about further opposition? russia. what about further opposition? i russia. what about further opposition? ijust - russia. what about further opposition? i just wonder, | opposition? i just wond
affairs analyst, bianna u.s. officials are conscious that they don t want to be seen to be meddling inside russian affairs, perhaps out of fears they don t want folks to get the false impression the u.s. was behind all this. what is the approach going forward? well, to that point, jim, it is stunning that typically, you know, vladimir putin, his m.o. was to blame the west. they blamed the west in the expansion of nato for this war. he has blamed the west in culture wars for what he views as interference inside russia. and we didn t see this this time. we saw him briefly over the weekend come out and condemn yevgeny prigozhin and his control of the wagner group, calling his actions treasonous. and all of a sudden you have a complete 180 and his version of a pardon and everything going back to quote, unquote status quo. and now what s really unsettling is the fact that there doesn t seem to be much going on. as alex noted, we haven t yet seen yevgeny prigozhin, we