Figure than putin and far weaker than a few years ago. how is it that he now has the power to negotiate this deal where the kremlin points out that lukashenko and prigozhin have a 20-year history. lukashenko was able to play only to have influence over prigozhin. did prigozhin realize that he miscalculated? he didn t get the support that he wanted? was this always his plan and this was his best option, his get out of jail free card, apparently, because otherwise he would have been put up against a wall or similar and shot. were those the options presented to him? it is so hard to tell. but looking shenko s role in this. does this upend the power balance between putin and loo lukashenko? i don t think so. it shows how much the previous status quo is changing.
Them either. are they off the scene? will they be removed? there s so much we don t know about this. i think until we get some of those facts, we can t give it a thorough analysis other than to say it is, the end of this day is as shocking as the beginning of it. it really is. what does this say about putin s hold on russia? especially since belarus that was the one to say broker this deal. putin was not the strong man today. not at all. rewind a few years, putin was the guy who could organize all the ololigarchs. he pulled all the strings. all the different military economic powers in the country. he held it all together. the air has gone out of that balloon. this is a guy who looks weak. not only did he fail to deliver a quick victory in ukraine over a year ago. he got stuck in the mud and barely made any gains of any
. lots of questions remain tonight surrounding president putin s grasp on power in russia. the kremlin avoided an apparent military coup after the president of belarus stepped in and negotiated. the threat of an armed rebellion and arguably the most aggressive challenge to his authority may have been enough to damage his image. joining us is an expert on russia and the former soviet union. jill, always great to talk to you. what does putin do, do you think, in the next 24, 72 hours after being embarrassed like this? i mean i would have to think he s going to want to go back and try and re-establish this image of being a strong man. i think so. and i think he s also going to try to show the military, the conventional military that would be defense minister shogui are
Increasing ukrainian offensive. they are confused and a little disoriented by some of the things that occurred today. you have movement by the wagner forces. we don t know where they ll play in the next phase of this operation. there s guerrilla activities throughout russia. continued russian volunteer corps. there is special ops from ukraine having more and more actions. increasing resistance. fewer uprisings in several key states like belarus and georgia. increasing calls for war crime tribunals. it we re beginning to see more and more exponentially strong pressures against putin, and i think he is cracking. so yes. one of the things i saw as of last night about 8:00, would this cause mr. putin to consolidate and pull back under the threat of a potential
Recently poland, and of course, ukraine. the main message coming from the state department that he has been saying in those conversations is first of all, the united states does not change at all its support for ukraine. it continues to support ukraine. secondarily, they will continue to coordinate with u.s. allies and partners as this situation evolves. so they are trading notes on the conversations, trying to figure out where this all goes. as jeremy was saying, u.s. officials don t know what the end game is here, even though there has been this deal that has been brokered by the president of belarus, luke schencko. we have many questions. it is important to note that u.s. officials have been incredibly wary of the ongoing quickly evolving situation. they do not want to be perceived as having influenced or impacted or escalated this situation which is challenging president