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Wagner's Yevgeny Prigozhin Accuses Russian Military Leaders of Bombing the Group's Forces, Vows Response; Moscow Mayor Reports of "Anti-Terrorist Measures"; Russian President Vladimir Putin to Address His Nation Soon; Russian Defense Minister Denies Striking Wagner Camp; Prigozhin Declares Russians Tricked into War. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired June 24, 2023 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world, I am Michael Holmes. We appreciate your company.
And we continue with breaking news. Russian president Vladimir Putin is expected to speak to the nation soon, as his country faces an unfolding crisis. The Wagner leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claiming his troops now control military facilities in the capital of Russia's Rostov region.
That includes a military airfield, according to his video statement posted on Saturday morning. Earlier, Prigozhin said that his Wagner mercenaries were headed to Rostov from Ukraine, ready to, in his words, "destroy everything in their way."
Prigozhin also claimed that Russian troops are welcoming Wagner with open arms and joining his group.
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HOLMES (voice-over): Have a look now at Moscow; it is quiet there now on a Saturday morning after military vehicles have been spotted in the streets overnight. Security has been stepped up in the capital. The mayor saying anti-terrorism measures have been carried out in the city.
All of that is happening as Russia opened a legal case against Prigozhin, accusing him of calling for an armed rebellion. On Friday, he claimed that the Russian military struck a Wagner camp and pledged retribution for that.
Russia's defense ministry denied that accusation. Prigozhin later claimed that military helicopters also struck at his troops and civilians before two aircraft were shot down, he said. It is unclear where those alleged instances happen.
The state security service is urging Wagner troops to detain Prigozhin. So far, no sign of that happening.
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HOLMES: CNN's Matthew Chance with more from Kyiv; a warning: his report contains disturbing images.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the chaotic scenes posted by the Wagner mercenary group, what they say is their forest camp, struck by the Russian military. In a clearing, trees appear to have been smashed, some with fabric (ph) strewn from their branches.
Through a gash in the soil, a fire burns in what appears to be a destroyed bunker. There are gruesome images, too, of a corpse in the undergrowth as well as severed body parts. The Russian defense ministry denies any role in this. But a furious Wagner leader is vowing revenge.
YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN, FOUNDER, WAGNER GROUP (through translator): Those who destroyed our guys today, along with tens of thousands of lives of Russian soldiers, will be punished. I ask no one to put up any resistance. Justice for the troops will be restored and then justice for all of Russia.
CHANCE (voice-over): It's a threat of violence now posing a major challenge to the authority of President Putin. The Kremlin says all necessary measures are being taken. And now the Russian security service has opened a criminal case into what they say is a call for armed rebellion. Patience with Prigozhin appears to have finally run out.
The Wagner chief, whose mercenaries have played a key role in the Ukraine war, has long been at odds with Russia's military command, accusing them repeatedly of mishandling the conflict.
The recent weeks have seen tensions escalate after the Kremlin ordered all Russian mercenaries to sign contracts with the defense ministry in a move seen as a crackdown on Wagner.
In the hours before the alleged strike on the Wagner camp, Prigozhin stepped up his war of words, accusing the defense ministry of tricking the country into an unprovoked invasion back in February last year.
PRIGOZHIN (through translator): On February 24th, nothing extraordinary happened. But the ministry of defense was trying to deceive the public, to deceive the president and say that there was insane aggression on the part of Ukraine and that they were going to attack us, together with NATO.
The war was not needed in order to return Russian citizens to our bosom and not needed in order to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine.
[02:05:00] CHANCE (voice-over): It is a bold, even dangerous criticism of Russia's war that may be plunging the country into turmoil -- Matthew Chance, CNN, Kyiv.
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HOLMES: Now Ivan Watson has been monitoring the dramatic developments in Russia; he joins me now from Hong Kong with more.
The stuff seems to be happening every hour. Give us a sense of the latest from Rostov-on-Don.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: First of all, we are standing by because Vladimir Putin's spokesperson has reportedly said that the Russian president himself will be addressing the public soon. So we are standing by for that.
In the meantime, yes, the events have unfolded very quickly. Video has emerged purportedly from Rostov, filmed within the last 1.5 hours, according to Yevgeny Prigozhin. The chief of the most powerful Russian mercenary group that had been fighting in Ukraine, claiming to have taken control of all Russian military installations in that southern Russian province.
Take a listen to an excerpt of what he said.
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PRIGOZHIN (through translator): We are at headquarters at 7:30 am. Military facilities in Rostov, including the airfield, are under our control. Planes that leave for combat will not leave as usual. No problems.
Medical flights will leave as usual. All we did was to take control so that the attack aviation would not strike us but strike in the Ukrainian direction.
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WATSON: This is all the more startling when you take into account that the Russian government has filed a criminal case against Prigozhin, accusing him of armed rebellion, of mutiny. In fact, we have a senior Russian military intelligence officer, who went on camera, accusing him of a coup d'etat. Take a listen to this.
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LT. GEN. VLADIMIR ALEKSEEV, RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE OFFICER (through translator): Only the president has the right to appoint the top leadership of the armed forces. And if you are trying to encroach on his authority, this is a coup d'etat.
There is no need to do this now because there is no greater damage to the image of Russia and to its armed forces.
(END VIDEO CLIP) WATSON: But the fact of the matter is that this mercenary boss, Prigozhin, appears to have taken over part of a major southern city, appears to be in these videos, sitting alongside senior military commanders, including -- the man sitting on the right there does look remarkably similar to that same Russian military intelligence chief who was just on camera, accusing Prigozhin of an attempted to coup d'etat.
And in this video the two officers sitting next to him look very uncomfortable. They are surrounded by bodyguards for Prigozhin. He accuses them of attacking civilian targets. They say this is the first time that they have heard of this.
He says he will blockade the city of Rostov until the chief of general staff of the military, Valery Gerasimov, and Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defense minister, come to meet him. Those are two very senior officials that he has repeatedly accused of corruption and genocide against the Russian people, accusing them of mismanaging the war in Ukraine.
And in this video, he goes on to say that he will march on Moscow.
Now the governor of the neighboring northern province of Rostov, Voronezh, has issued a statement telling people that public events will be canceled there and to stay away from that main highway that runs from Rostov in the direction of Moscow to the north, saying that there are reports of armed convoys moving along that.
So if Prigozhin is, as we see here, in Rostov, having apparently taken over the military command center for Russia in the south of the country, it also appears that he has other forces moving north toward Moscow at the same time -- Michael.
HOLMES: Extraordinary stuff. I want to ask you, the Russians, Putin has gone out of his way to keep reasons for the war on track. And Prigozhin has blown that out of the water.
He says that the reasons given for the invasion of Ukraine were basically bogus, that there was no threat from NATO, there was no genocide on ethnic Russians in the east and so on and so on.
What are we expecting to hear from Vladimir Putin now?
Because it is illegal to even call it a war, let alone question the motives for the war.
What are we likely to hear from Vladimir Putin?
What does he need to do?
WATSON: I just do not know how the Russian president will thread this needle --
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WATSON: -- where a powerful, mercenary boss, whose forces were leading the Russian effort to capture the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine for months and months, now is openly accusing the top Russian leadership of corruption and crimes against Russia.
How is he going to handle this?
It is clear that the Russian state has declared Prigozhin a criminal now. They say they want to bring him to justice. I do not know how they can do that, given that he has substantial military forces and has deployed them in Russia proper, in the Russian motherland.
The question is, will they, theoretically, could they go and use force against Russian security services or vice versa?
That would open up a Pandora's box and the specter of civil war. That is a chapter of history Russians know very well from 1918 to 1922. That is a very difficult and dangerous scenario to imagine.
Now it is very early in this but it is just hard to see where an offramp could be for this because of the rhetoric coming from Prigozhin himself, Michael, who has, again, repeatedly accused Putin's top commanders of crimes.
He has for months been calling for them to be executed in front of a firing squad. And Putin never did anything about that then. And now he has quite literally pulled his forces away from the Ukrainian front lines and seems to be aiming them, in words at the very least, at the Russian capital itself.
So we are very much in uncharted territory right now.
HOLMES: Extraordinary times. I know you are going to be keeping an eye out for Vladimir Putin to pop up and will bring us what he has to say. Ivan, thank you so much. Ivan Watson in Hong Kong.
U.S. officials say that President Joe Biden has been briefed on the situation in Russia, as you might imagine, and that the White House is following developments closely. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports from Washington.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I am told that the White House is actively monitoring this unfolding situation inside of Russia, a very delicate situation.
I am told that President Biden has indeed been briefed on that situation inside of Russia.
And I also have this statement from the National Security Council spokesperson, Adam Hodge, who says, quote, "We are monitoring the situation and will be consulting with allies and partners on these developments."
Two other administration officials tell me that White House officials will continue to closely monitor what is happening inside of Russia. They are being cautious, as of Friday, not to weigh in too much on the
situation until it becomes clear exactly what is happening between the Russian mercenary leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and the Russian ministry of defense.
But whatever the situation, there are obviously enormous implications for these tensions inside of Russia. The U.S. has long been monitoring those tensions between the Wagner mercenary group and the Russian ministry of defense.
Of course, both of those sides have been sanctioned by the United States for their role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And we do know that the Wagner mercenary group has played an increasingly key role in the Russian military war effort inside of Ukraine.
So certainly on Friday, this was a very tense and unfolding situation, that the White House is going to be continuing to be monitoring -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.
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HOLMES: We're joined by Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. From 2010, he served as the U.K.'s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, where his roles included as serving at the head of the economics department in Moscow as well as ambassador to Belarus.
We are delighted to have you with us.
To start with, how serious of a challenge is this to Putin's rule?
At least one Russian general called it a coup; Prigozhin says it is not a coup but a search for justice.
How worried do you think Vladimir Putin is right now?
NIGEL GOULD-DAVIES, SENIOR FELLOW FOR RUSSIA AND EURASIA, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES: There is a sense of something like panic in Moscow right now.
We have seen that throughout the generals, that have made successive appeals to Wagner Group, to essentially disarm and support their conserves (ph) the armed forces. No sign that that is being obeyed.
We see too in security measures that are being now mounted within Moscow, which is 1,000 kilometers north of Rostov, the southern military district, that the Wagner forces appear to have taken.
This is unprecedented crisis for Putin's presidency. I think there are two aspects to it. The first is a question of what happens immediately, in the next few days and weeks.
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GOULD-DAVIES: Will there be violent clashes, will there be bloodshed?
Can Wagner somehow be persuaded to step down from this?
And I think if there is a full scale clash and loyalties remain broadly firm on both sides, there is no question that the might of the Russian armed forces, which would vastly exceed Wagner's, would prevail although that would have various serious consequences for the war in Ukraine, enormous distraction (ph).
The second, longer term question, even if Putin stays in power in the short term, his handling of this, the fact that he has created a situation that has made this possible, raises very serious questions across a wide part of the Russian elite and beyond about his capacity, his fundamental capacity as president.
It's a demoralizing and delegitimizing moment for him.
HOLMES: And a judgment thing in a way, too.
He gave Prigozhin a very long leash, didn't he?
He, like many autocrats, has played one member of his team off against another. We've seen the result of a failure to control those under him.
I mean, is the puppet master going to get bitten by the puppet?
GOULD-DAVIES: You are absolutely right. This is someone who cannot, in any sense, Prigozhin cannot be portrayed as an outsider, an external enemy like the Chechens were in the 1990s or the way that Russia has portrayed the Ukrainians or the West more broadly.
Prigozhin is entirely Putin's creation. He owes everything he has achieved to Putin's patronage. And Putin failed to bring him to heel early on several months ago, when Prigozhin started sounding off in the ways that he has, in increasingly escalating terms.
This is on Putin and Putin alone. And it points to one of the weaknesses of the way that he has conducted this war -- and there has been many of them. But this is pretty unprecedented in recent Russian, I'll say their (ph) history.
He has allowed a multiplicity of centers of force to develop within Russia. So Russia armed forces, of course; also Wagner group and we have some other forces, paramilitary forces like Wagner as well; the Chechens control some.
This fragmentation of force is an extremely uncertain factor in Russia's future development and a deeper irony here, a fundamental contradiction of the Putin presidency, he came to power emphasizing, above all, the importance of a single, what he called power vertical, a hypercentralized, unified Russia.
And yet, on his watch, we see a proliferation of a form of power which is most dangerous and most threatening to stability and that is the proliferation of military force of various kinds. HOLMES: Yes. I'm curious what you think Putin's next move might be.
You know, the thing about Putin is that he has long targeted those who tried to grab more power than he allotted them, than he allowed them to have.
Russian oligarchs are a very good example of those.
Do you think that, despite his links with Prigozhin, that long leash he has given him, do you think he is going to have to make an example out of Prigozhin to send a message to others?
GOULD-DAVIES: I think he probably does. Prigozhin cannot be won back at this point. He has burned so many bridges. He has become an enemy of Putin. And it is Putin's decision, finally, to side unequivocally with his own defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the long running feud between Shoigu and Prigozhin.
It was Putin's public citing Shoigu that precipitated Prigozhin's now most extreme moves. In addition to that, Prigozhin has publicly undermined Putin's entire justification for his war of aggression in Ukraine. So that bridge is burned.
Prigozhin, I think now, must fear his own future, ultimately. I think Putin's preferred approach, if he can possibly achieve it now, is to try to undermine support for Prigozhin within Wagner Group.
Prigozhin, without a critical mass of loyal fighters, is a much weaker force. We have already seen a sign of that kind of tactic being used, when some of Putin's generals -- Surovikin, for example, were wheeled out to issue these, frankly, rather amateurish videos, appealing publicly to the Wagner forces.
So trying to get them to defect if you can; if you cannot, we're in for something much worse.
HOLMES: Yes, neither of those generals look particularly comfortable, it must be said.
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HOLMES: What then would you think Prigozhin's end game is?
We've all watched these tensions between him and the military establishment, they've been ratcheting up as you pointed out for months.
Do you think he is just gunning for Sergei Shoigu's job as minister of defense?
Do you think he has set his sights higher?
GOULD-DAVIES: Who knows?
We have seen steady escalation in Prigozhin's complaints, demands, his behavior, his ambitions over the past months. There is no sign of where they might stop. In addition to that, he has been assiduously, through social media and
through contacts with various governors that he has tried to establish, to burnish a broader public reputation for himself, to gather some mass sympathy and support.
He has a wide following on social media. So I do not think that anyone in Moscow, Putin included, can be confident that Prigozhin's ambitions do not reach to the highest levels possible. He is a threat.
HOLMES: Wow, great analysis. Nigel Gould-Davies, thank you so much, we really appreciate you making the time.
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HOLMES: Now Ukraine says its air defense systems have destroyed more than 20 missiles fired overnight around Kyiv.
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HOLMES (voice-over): At least two people killed, eight wounded, when debris hit a tall building, that you see there, during one attack.
In the south, another three people died following Russian shelling on Friday. The Ukrainian armed forces say Russia's main focus is still on the Donetsk region in the east but they are claiming to have firmly repulsed several Russian fighters in the area.
Another Ukrainian official says that the main strike on Kyiv's counteroffensive has not even started yet and that they have several operations in store.
Meanwhile. Russia says that the bridge that connects the Kherson region with the Crimean Peninsula is still not fit to use after it was damaged by several missiles on Thursday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: We will have much more on the tense situation in Russia coming up as well as other stories we are following, like the search for what went wrong when that Titanic-bound submersible imploded. Authorities in Canada and the U.S. have launched investigations into that. We will have a report when we come back.
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HOLMES: The U.S. and Canada have each announced investigations into the tragic loss of the Titanic-bound submersible and all five people on board. Search teams have been scouring the ocean floor to map the debris and try to establish a timeline of what went wrong. Jason Carroll now with the latest on the efforts at the wreckage site. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are some of the first images of the remotely operated vehicles which found portions of the Titan's hull and continue tonight on a new mission to search and map the debris site.
The ROVs will continue searching for more evidence of the accident. The submersible lost contact with the ship on the surface one hour and 45 minutes into its descent on Sunday.
DAVID GALLO, SENIOR ADVISER STRATEGIC INITIATIVE, RMS TITANIC INC.: The other thing that I heard was that PH had contacted the surface ship and said there was a problem. We're dropping weights and surfacing immediately. Now I can't verify that but that to meant something really happened very quickly.
CARROLL (voice-over): OceanGate did not comment when asked about what Gallo had heard. Deep sea experts questioned the lack of testing of the vessel and the integrity of materials used to make the hull.
A CNN review shows that while OceanGate publicly touted a commitment to safety measures, it rejected industry standards that would have imposed greater scrutiny on its operations and vessels.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Specially trained crew members safely diving to the Titanic wreckage site.
CARROLL (voice-over): In this promotional video published last year, the company touted an unforgettable but safe voyage. That video also features Paul-Henri Nargeolet, one of the passengers on board Titan.
PAUL-HENRI NARGEOLET, FRENCH SUBMARINER AND EX-NAVY OFFICER: The sub for me, it is very well done because it is simple. Generally, there is a lot of equipment and a lot of switch. And on this one you do not have it. You work with a screen and with a keyboard and it is very easy to do that.
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CARROLL (voice-over): CNN also learned two former OceanGate employees separately voiced safety concerns about the design of the Titan. OceanGate has not responded to CNN about those claims.
And in 2019, Lloyd's Register, a marine certification company, declined a request from OceanGate to certify the Titan. The company has not said why. OceanGate's cofounder who left the company in 2013, cautioned against rushing to judgment.
GUILLERMO SOHNLEIN. CO-FOUNDER, OCEANGATE: There are teams onsite that are still going to be collecting data for the next few days, weeks, maybe months. And it's going to be a long time before we know exactly what happened down there. CARROLL: Both the NTSB and the Canadian Transportation Safety Board say they have launched investigations into what happened. Also, the U.S. Coast Guard has declared the loss of the Titan to be a major marine casualty -- Jason Carroll, CNN, Boston.
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HOLMES: From infighting to a power struggle, tensions between mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Russian military reached a crisis point. We will explain how it unfolded and how it could play out. We will be right back.
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HOLMES: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and all around the world, I am Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
And we are waiting for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to address the nation, as Russia faces an enormous crisis. And now we are hearing that the defense ministry is denying an allegation that its military struck a camp of the mercenary group Wagner, causing many casualties.
The leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on the screen there, claims that his forces have taken control of Russian military facilities in the city of Rostov-on-Don.
Prigozhin says that he is on what he calls a march for justice against the Russian defense ministry, which he claims killed many of his mercenaries in a strike. The defense ministry just issuing a firm denial, calling the report false.
So just who is Yevgeny Prigozhin and what do we know about the leader of the private military group Wagner?
Let's bring in CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, standing by in London.
Salma, help us understand the players involved on the Wagner side.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It seems, Michael, he is this bombastic, bold leader that has gone from being Putin's secret weapon to being the thorn in his side. Yevgeny Prigozhin has known president Putin since the 1990s.
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ABDELAZIZ: He comes from the same humble beginnings, neighborhoods, in St. Petersburg. But it was really when President Putin set his eyes on Crimea that he rose to prominence. He was already known then as Putin's chef for building a catering
business. But once president Putin took over Crimea, it was his Wagner mercenary group, Prigozhin's mercenary group, that became known as Putin's private army.
Doing his bidding then, not just in Crimea but across Africa, in the Middle East, intervening in conflicts from Syria to Libya, setting up troll (ph) factories to intervene with U.S. elections in St. Petersburg but all of this was done behind a curtain.
He was a very shadowy figure until the recent conflict in Ukraine, when he took center stage, at times beating out, showing up the Russian military, particularly and most recently in Bakhmut, where he claimed the one and only victory that Russia has had for months.
And he did it loudly and proudly, not only addressing his own mercenaries but addressing the Russian country as a whole, calling out its military leaders, calling out its defense minister, doing it in perhaps the most inflammatory way possible.
Saying the defense minister should be tried for failing the country, calling out the Russian troops for not having ammunition, not having their needs met on the ground and pulling out of Bakhmut just a few weeks ago to show up, yet again, that it is him on the ground that is winning in Yevgeny Prigozhin's mind.
But perhaps his most brutal criticism came just hours before this alleged attack on his camp. He called out the entire conflict in Ukraine, saying it was unnecessary, that the justification for it was unfounded, that there was essentially no reason for Russia to invade Ukraine.
So this leaves president Putin, as you can imagine Michael, with a very, very complex problem.
How do you get rid of a man, who you have let rise to this level, but also a man he seems very much to need? Michael.
HOLMES: Yes. Interesting hours ahead. Salma Abdelaziz in London, we appreciate it.
We'll have more on the developing situation in Russia in a bit. But coming up, some the other stories that we are following.
Officials say that the doomed Titan submersible suffered a catastrophic implosion.
But what does that mean in plain English?
We will explain when we come back.
Also, people in Sierra Leone to go to the polls today to pick the next president.
Who will face the huge task of bringing the West African nation out of a deepening economic crisis? We will be right back.
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HOLMES: The U.S. Coast Guard and the Canadian Transportation Safety Board are investigating the Titan sub disaster. Authorities scouring the ocean floor for any insight into the catastrophic implosion that killed all five people on board.
But little else is known at this stage. So let's talk about exactly what a catastrophic implosion is, in plain English. CNN's Nick Watt with that.
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PAUL HANKEN, UNDERSEA EXPERT: The initial thing we found was the nose cone, which was outside of the pressure hull. We then found a large debris field.
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Contact had been lost about an hour and 45 minutes into what is usually a descent of 2.5 hours. The submersible was probably around two miles underwater. On the surface, pressure is 15 pounds per square inch; down there, nearly 5,000 psi.
That's like having one pickup truck parked on every single square inch of the skin of the sub.
REAR ADMIRAL JOHN MAUGER, U.S. COAST GUARD: The debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.
WATT (voice-over): An explosion is basically pressure from inside, pushing out. An implosion is, watch this Discovery Channel demonstration, pressure from outside pushing in.
On a sub, what would that look like?
CAPT. DAVID MARQUET, U.S. NAVY (RET.): If there was some sort of a flaw, like a little dimple in the surface, it would just be this almost immediate accordion collapse of the pressure vessel.
The other, I think, potentiality is that some crack developed. Water starts to shoot through and you basically create the Grand Canyon in a millisecond. Then that water comes in, boom; it's like an explosion on the inside and it blows the vessel apart.
WATT (voice-over): According to OceanGate, the Titan could dive to nearly 2.5 miles. It was definitely not that deep when it imploded. They say its construction involved the innovative use of modern materials. STOCKTON RUSH, CEO, OCEANGATE: This is another 3.25 inch thick titanium dome, vaulted to another titanium piece, glued to the carbon fiber.
WATT (voice-over): That connection, the glue and those modern materials, the carbon fiber, will be a focus for investigators.
JAMES CAMERON, "TITANIC" DIRECTOR: It's completely inappropriate for a vessel that sees external pressure.
WATT: James Cameron directed "Titanic;" dived down to the wreckage himself 33 times.
CAMERON: We always understood that this was the wrong material for submersible hulls because, with each pressure cycle, you can have progressive damage. So it's quite insidious, because you may have a number of successful dives, which is what happened here, and then have it fail later.
WATT: Sub implosions are rare. When they happen, they are almost always catastrophic.
Nereus, an unmanned submersible, imploded more than six miles down near New Zealand in 2014.
An American nuclear sub, the USS Thresher, imploded off Cape Cod in 1963 --
[02:45:00]
WATT (voice-over): -- with the loss of all 129 souls on board. The Titan would have imploded in a fraction of a millisecond. Those inside would not have known what happened.
WATT: Now that Plexiglas viewing window you just saw, that will also be a focus for the investigation; seven inches thick. Stockton Rush said that, down by Titanic, the pressure would actually squeeze that window in by about 0.75 inch, which takes me back to the carbon fiber.
That was, we're told, also supposed to be seven inches thick but ended up being five inches thick. And, you know, carbon fiber is very strong but it's not going to squeeze under pressure like Plexiglas. It is actually going to shatter.
Final note, Lloyd's Register, the marine certification company, they tell CNN they, quote, "declined a request to certify the Titan." They did not say why -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
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HOLMES: Much more on the breaking news ahead. We will get a live report about the crisis. What Wagner group chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, means for Vladimir Putin.
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HOLMES: It has, as we have seen, been a chaotic day in Russia, with incendiary claims by Yevgeny Prigozhin against Russian officials and their call for his arrest. CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins me now from London for some analysis.
It's good to see you, Nic. I guess Putin allowed Prigozhin to do what he did, which was endlessly criticize the military hierarchy. But then Friday he knocked down Putin's own reasons for going to war in Ukraine.
Where does that leave Vladimir Putin and his messaging?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, and remembering that Yevgeny Prigozhin was always a very close confidant of Putin.
[02:50:00]
ROBERTSON: And Putin, given to -- not having a big circle of information around him and people that he can trust. And the analysis has been that he has become increasingly isolated over the past few years.
And this now very public and impossible for Putin to ignore, it appears, spat with Prigozhin, where Prigozhin is, literally, without naming him, challenging the need to go to war or challenging the way that the war in Ukraine has been fought.
It certainly leaves Putin with one less person within his inner circle. It would certainly seem that way. And that becomes a very, very small inner circle. Given as well that Putin, for so long, has used Prigozhin as a sort of -- and his Wagner mercenary group as a foreign policy deniable tool overseas.
It is perhaps going to leave him wondering how he plugs that hole in some of the international relations that have been developing in Africa and other countries. I think that is really all to one side.
I think the core issue that Prigozhin has put front and center for everyone in Russia right now is about the war itself, whether or not it should be fought. This is going to be the, perhaps, biggest challenge for Putin.
Whatever he does to roll up Prigozhin and how he handles that, which now seems to be a necessity, a military and security necessity and that seems to be the way the Russian authorities are handling it, for Putin, in terms of a close, trustworthy confidant around him, he has lost one.
But the biggest question will be, does Prigozhin have some basis here to be calling into question the war?
Should the war be fought? Of course, if Putin pulls out of the war and for some reason declares that it is not going well enough or he was wrong or whatever, that would seem to be the end of his leadership in Russia. So that is not a path that is open to him.
So it's a very, very difficult position that he is in. At this moment it appears to weaken him and it is not clear how he will shore that up. And quite the language that he is going to use to try to do it because at the moment the authorities are trying to play down the significance and severity of what is happening.
HOLMES: Yes, indeed. Even if this is somehow resolved in the next day or two, you can imagine that there are substantial cracks in the foundation of Putin's rule. Nic, we've got to leave it there for the moment but we will get you back. Nic Robertson in London.
Millions of people in Sierra Leone are expected to cast ballots in the coming hours to choose the next president. This election comes as the country is battling an economic crisis, with soaring inflation and unemployment.
The incumbent president, Julius Maada Bio, is promising to create half a million jobs for young people in five years. His main challenger, 72 year-old former cabinet minister Samura Kamara, is facing corruption charges and would be barred from holding public office if convicted.
Kamara says one of the biggest concerns is the lack of access to the ruling party's strongholds, leading to suspicions of election rigging.
Decades of U.S. diplomacy aimed at coaxing India closer to the West hit a high-water mark on Friday, with India's prime minister Narendra Modi wrapping up his first official state visit to the U.S.
One of his final events was a high-level meeting with some of America's top tech leaders, especially in the field of artificial intelligence. But even as the industry races to develop new technologies, President Biden offered some words of caution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need help to seize the moment, to help manage the risk to our societies, to our economies and to our nations' national security. We need your help to build guardrails around emerging technologies so that they are trustworthy, they're secure and uphold our shared values of human rights.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: President Biden also gave Mr. Modi a custom T-shirt, reading, "The Future is AI, America and India." It was based on a memorable phrase the prime minister uttered the day before in his speech to Congress.
Now parts of Asia have been hit by extreme weather this week from Beijing, where temperature levels were smashed for the hottest day in June, to India. Nearly half a million people in the northeast affected by severe flooding and heavy rains.
(WEATHER REPORT)
[02:55:00]
HOLMES: Before we go, a quick reminder of the breaking news we are following out of Russia.
President Vladimir Putin about to speak amid the crisis unfolding in his country. The leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claiming his forces have taken control of Russian military facilities in the cities Rostov-on-Don and Voronezh.
Prigozhin says he is retaliating against the Russian defense ministry for allegedly killing many of his mercenaries in a strike, a claim the ministry denies.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Michael Holmes. Kim Brunhuber picks it up from here.
