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Help us understand the players involved on the wagner side. >> it seems michael he is this bombast, boldly has gone from being putin's secret weapon to for his side. yevgeny prigozhin has known vladimir putin the 1990s and he comes from the same mold getting the neighborhood in st. petersburg. once vladimir putin took over crimea it was his wagner mercenary group that became known as president putin's private army.
>> yeah, and i think your sense on that is right, bianna. he, being putin, is looking for some sort of historical marker, some sort of way he can celebrate russian victories as he's portraying them inside of russia. will it be the conquering, quote unquote, of mariupol? we know taking a city or taking even a swath of land is far different from actually controlling it over the long-term. but that's all irrelevant to the propaganda machine inside of russia. it could very well be mariupol, but if that doesn't go well, he'll make something else up because that's one thing the russians are really g...
Hoar. however, i am not surprised by the bravery he has shown. i know he has deep values and one of the values is that he never gives up, and the second biggest value that he shows, that politics needs to serve people. and he was always, the ukrainian soldiers in donbas region to show the solidarity with them when their lives were under risk. when the united states made this really kind gesture to advocate president zelenskyy from kyiv with russian entry in ukraine, i knew personally he would never leave. that's why he's standing here with his people and this is what matters for us. ukraine ma...
Diplomacy, a real hard ball version of diplomacy? >> right. and there is been an escalation of violence in eastern ukraine. the russian military is calling it ukrainian sabotage. ukraine is calling it disinformation. if you would, tell us what is really happening on the ground? >> well, this violence that we've seen spike over the last few days, pam, is now raising fears that putin could use that as a pretext for a larger scale invasion. of course, putin formalized the relationship tonight between moscow and those two breakaway enclaves. the kremlin has in the past denied their support for the...
In our world lead, today russian president vladimir putin signed documents recognizing two areas in russia's eastern donbas region as independent states. this area has had substantial backing from moscow and has been led by pro russian separatists for years and now president biden is reacting. the white house announcing a looming executive order and sanctions in response to putin. let's discuss all this with a former cia chief of russian operations, steve hall, cnn global affairs analyst glasser who served as the washington bureau chief and retired brigadier general, a senior defense official ...