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Video Shows Wagner Troops Firing in the Air as They Leave Rostov-on-Don; Warner Troops Began March on Moscow Saturday; Prigozhin Cuts a Deal With Kremlin to End His Insurrection; Kremlin Says Some Wagner Mercenaries to Sign Contracts With Russian Military. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired June 25, 2023 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[05:00:30]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm Max Foster in London. I want to bring you up to date on our developing story out of Russia, beginning with a dramatic turn of events. This hour, Moscow is calm, but traffic restrictions are still in place on a major highway connecting the capital with southwestern Russia.

And a refinery fire that started after an apparent clash between Wagner mercenaries and Russian troops has been put out. All that happening after an insurrection led by Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin came to an end as suddenly as it was started.

That is video of Wagner troops shooting in the air as they pulled out of the city of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday. Earlier, the Kremlin said it cut a deal with Prigozhin to stop the march of his forces to Moscow. Under that deal, the Kremlin says Wagner troops will not face any legal action, but they'll sign new contracts with Russia's Defense Ministry. While Moscow will drop its charges against Prigozhin, he'll go to Belarus. Wagner's leader says he agreed to that in order to avoid bloodshed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN, LEADER, WAGNER MERCENARIES (through translator): Therefore, realizing all the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be shed from one of the sides, we turn our columns around and leave in the opposite direction to the field camps according to the plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: The Kremlin says it doesn't know where Prigozhin is right now. This is video of people cheering as he left Rostov-on-Don whereas troops seized military facilities on Saturday.

Officials now tell CNN the U.S. intelligence community believes that Prigozhin was planning to challenge Russia's military leadership for a while. While Washington didn't see -- Washington didn't see any change in Russia's nuclear posture during the turmoil.

Ivan Watson explains how Prigozhin's insurrection started and what it says about the Kremlin's grip on power.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A weekend of chaos and drama in Russia. Mercenaries declared a mutiny and then called it off in under 24 hours.

Yevgeny Prigozhin issued a call for rebellion, the Head of the Wagner Mercenary Group accusing top Russian military commanders of gross mismanagement of the war in Ukraine. Then Prigozhin released video of an alleged Russian airstrike on a Wagner camp in Ukraine, demanding revenge.

Russia's Defense Ministry denied the attack, and soon Russia's top prosecutor announced criminal charges against Prigozhin. Then, in the early hours of Saturday, Prigozhin followed through on his threats, sending his fighters across the border from Ukraine back into Russia.

Footage surfaced at dawn showing Wagner fighters surrounding the military headquarters in the southern Russian city of Rostov. Some locals stood nearby, watching. At around 07:30 a.m. Prigozhin was then shown dressing down Senior Russian military leaders and issuing demands.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRIGOZHIN: Again, we came here, we want to receive the chief of general staff and Shoigu. Until they show up, until they show up, we are located here, blockading the city of Rostov and we'll go to Moscow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Video showed columns of Wagner troops heading north towards the capital, along the way claiming control of military installations in the Voronezh region.

Footage later showed at least one Russian helicopter narrowly avoiding a missile. At 10:00 a.m. Moscow time, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a televised address to the nation, calling the rebellion a stab in the back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): All those who deliberately chose the path of treachery, who prepared an armed mutiny who chose the path of blackmail and terrorist methods, will face inevitable punishment and will answer both to the law and to our people.

The Kremlin announced counterterrorism measures, tightening security in Moscow. But by Saturday night, suddenly, a Kremlin reversal. Putin's spokesman announced a deal. [05:05:05]

Prigozhin released an audio message saying his troops would turn around and go back to field camps to avoid shedding Russian blood.

Supporters chanted Wagner as fighters drove out of Rostov, giving Prigozhin handshakes as he left in this SUV. The Kremlin says it's dropped charges and Prigozhin will go to Belarus, while promising his fighters contracts with the Russian military. For now, a crisis apparently averted. But this very public betrayal and the mercenaries short but unimpeded march on Moscow reveals deep weakness at the heart of the Putin regime. Ivan Watson, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: CNN covering every angle of this developing story. Kevin Liptak is in Washington. Salma Abdelaziz, is here in London. Salma, just bring us where we are now, because we don't know where Prigozhin is, do we? And we don't know quite what's happened with his fighters?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. We're still waiting to hear from Yevgeny Prigozhin. He's not exactly been a quiet man, so I expect that we will get another statement at some point soon. The last we saw of him was, again, those dramatic images that you saw of him leaving Rostov-on-Don, being greeted by crowds as he moved away after announcing his pullback from Moscow. The troops heading his troops heading to Moscow, rather.

But regardless of Prigozhin's fate, the damage he has done here is done. He has revealed to the world really a President Putin that we are unfamiliar with, not that strong man image that he has portrayed for over two decades. A President Putin who is willing to U-turn, who started the day saying this man Prigozhin has stabbed the Russian people in the back. He will be held accountable. He has committed treason. To only a few hours later say those criminal charges will be dropped.

He has also revealed a President Putin that doesn't respond to threats with brute force, instead has responded to them, in this case, with compromise, figuring out a deal with his close ally, Alexander Lukashenko, to get Prigozhin into Belarus and to sort of rid himself with the problem quietly for now.

And a President Putin who again appears weaker than ever, who allowed a threat like Prigozhin to his leadership to grow and grow, to allow Prigozhin to out his senior military leadership for months without stepping in.

So for President Putin, this is the moment to get his house in order. And there's a lot there to do, Max. First of all, he has to get the Russian elite. He has to get his top military brass back on board. They have been humiliated. They have been lambasted. They have been antagonized. How does he make that better for them? And then he needs to get the Russian people back on board. President Putin doesn't like to do things publicly, and this has all unfolded in front of the world. FOSTER: Could you not argue that he was successful if his mission was

to disband Wagner and he managed to do that in a matter of hours?

ABDELAZIZ: If that was indeed the mission? I think the Kremlin would argue that primarily this has been a success in the sense that bloodshed did not occur. This could have been a much, much worse outcome. You had Wagner troops heading towards Moscow. You had, of course, the Russian army prepared to defend President Putin. You could have seen Russian on Russian fighting on Russian soil.

President Putin himself brought up the possibility of civil conflict that has been avoided. And in President Putin's mind, you can imagine that is, of course, a success. But when it comes to dismantling, Wagner, there is still a question mark over that. The deal is that they sign Wagner fighters sign deals, contracts with the Russian army. But you have to remember that much of Wagner is made up of criminals, criminal elements, people who were given amnesty from prison to fight under Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Can they easily be co-opted into the Russian army? That's the first question. The second question is, will they now turn around and pledge loyalty to Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Defense Minister, when just two or three days ago, they are watching their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, essentially make fun of him, call him lazy, incompetent, and corrupt? Is that going to take place easily?

And finally, you still, of course, have the Ukraine war unfolding, a war that has gotten closer and closer to the Russian population. We know, of course, of the military draft and the backlash against that. More and more Russian soldiers are coming home in body bags. Now, the one man who seemed to be getting outcomes, getting results for President Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner fighters that is no longer an option. How does President Putin say, face here? I think I've left you with more questions than answers, but that's really what we have here, Max, is a whole lot of questions.

[05:10:06]

FOSTER: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Salma. Let's speak to Kevin. He's following reaction in Washington to this extraordinary situation. We didn't hear a huge amount of comments from world leaders or Western leaders because they were saying it was an internal Russian matter, but they were having a lot of meetings. Do you think they were completely caught out by this?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I think that according to at least American intelligence officials, they had at least been monitoring what they called this power struggle between the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Wagner Group, really dating back to January. That's when we first heard from American officials that this power struggle was underway, that they were detecting that in their intelligence and that they expected it to mount over the coming months. They expected it to escalate, and of course, it did.

Now, earlier this week, the intelligence community actually briefed members of Congress that they saw the Wagner Group making these preparations to do what they eventually did. They also briefed officials at the White House and with a Pentagon. What I think caught American officials off guard is the speed at which this occurred, how quickly it escalated. And you kind of saw that in Washington. There was this scramble to get a handle on things.

In fact, two very key officials, the Joint Chiefs Chairman, Mark Milley and the National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, had planned to be overseas this weekend. They had to cancel those trips to remain in Washington, or at least the Washington area, to diffuse this crisis. And I think at the White House, at the Pentagon, at the State Department, the big question right now is what this means for the war in Ukraine.

Because certainly on the face of it, a diminished Vladimir Putin would be good for the Ukrainians. But on the flip side, I think that there is a worry at what Putin might do if he felt cornered, if he felt like he needed to demonstrate some strength.

Remember, Russia is the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. Now, the U.S. says tonight that they don't see a change in Russia's nuclear posture. But that is sort of the threat that's looming over all of this. And I think that does inform some of the strategy that you're seeing both in Washington and in European capitals. This sort of response of no response, not saying anything that could potentially give Vladimir Putin a pretext to claim that this was all an American or a NATO plot.

And in fact, when President Biden got on the phone earlier Saturday with the French President, Emmanuel Macron, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz and the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, that was one of the things that they all could come to an agreement on, I'm told, is that they weren't going to really speak out publicly on this in order to let the events play out on the ground in Russia.

Now, going forward, there are certainly a lot of questions. American officials are trying to determine what this means for Vladimir Putin. I think the one thing that you hear from American officials is that they don't believe that Prigozhin is necessarily going to go back to selling hot dogs. You know, they do believe that he will remain a force, whether he's in exile in Belarus or not. They do believe the situation is not necessarily over, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Kevin, thank you for joining us from Washington. Joining me now is the Russian Investigative Journalist Irina Borogan. She's also Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis. Thank you so much for joining us. I mean, we had all of this dramatic news yesterday, which our reporters have just taken us through, but what does it mean today?

IRINA BOROGAN, RUSSIAN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Today, it means that Putin's authority we saw Putin weak and his authority was shaken. And in terms of consequences, it might be a little bit unpredictable because we have never seen him so weak.

FOSTER: Do you fail -- are you concerned about that element that Kevin was talking about, that he -- because he feels weaker, he may have to act stronger, and we may see the repercussions of that in the war in Ukraine?

BOROGAN: Yes, I think so. Are in terms of escalation, it might be very dangerous because Putin, he is a strong man, and he always been, he always looks strong. And this is the first time when he demonstrated that he can be -- could be -- could be weak. So, escalation, it's a very possible scenario. Escalation in the Ukrainian front and the battlefield and also inside Russia.

FOSTER: What do you think might have been the terms of the deal that Prigozhin agreed to? Do you think the senior members of the military will remain in office, for example?

BOROGAN: I think so. Of course, they must stay in their position. Otherwise it will be like Yevgeny Prigozhin was winning completely. So I think so, yeah. Shoigu will be in his place, at least for a while.

[05:15:11]

FOSTER: So why do you think Prigozhin agreed to stop the march to Moscow, as he described it?

BOROGAN: You know, Prigozhin, he's not -- he's not a terrorist and he's not a rebel. He's a Putin's creature. And the fact that he decided to act so brazenly and so crazy was very surprising to everybody. So I don't think he really planned a real Coup d'etat or a real -- or a real uprising.

I think that his idea was to put more pressure on Putin, to give him more authority in terms of in his conflict with -- with the ministry -- with the Russian Ministry of Defense. What was his idea? But as, you know, that Yevgeny Prigozhin, he's a gangster, he's former criminal. And as a gangster and a former criminal, he just crossed the line. And he did not understand that he put himself in a very dangerous position. So I don't think he was planning a real -- a real uprising.

FOSTER: Do you think Putin saw that, which is why the Wagner fighters weren't really stopped, were they, on their way to Moscow on that road?

BOROGAN: There are --

FOSTER: OK. OK, we're going to leave that interview there, but we'll ask the same question about other analysts, coming up. Vladimir Putin trusted Yevgeny Prigozhin enough to hire him as a chef. And now, the mercenary strongman has become a threat to the Kremlin power structure. What else we know about Prigozhin? Coming up after the break.

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[05:20:54]

FOSTER: Welcome back. Let's get more on our top story this hour. Russian President Vladimir Putin has survived the most serious challenge to his rule, he's ever seen. The Kremlin says Wagner Leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has cut a deal to end

an insurrection and stop his mercenaries from advancing to Moscow in an armed convoy. Under the deal, the Kremlin says Wagner troops will not face any legal action, but they'll be expected to sign new contracts with Russians -- Russia's Defense Ministry. Moscow will also drop criminal charges against Prigozhin, who's agreed to move to Belarus. Although the immediate crisis has been averted, one analyst told us earlier that the danger to the Russian president is far from over.

Robert English from the University of Southern California says Prigozhin doesn't have to be inside Russia to pose a formidable threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT ENGLISH, DIRECTOR, CENTRAL EUROPEAN STUDIES, USC: He lost. He stood down. Putin won. But Prigozhin is sort of like Caesar in exile, right? Someone who can still threaten from abroad. Someone who has enormous credibility as a military leader, who has loyal troops, although he's separated from them for now. And someone who's anticorruption, anti-elite. His anger at these sort of self-satisfied oligarchs in Moscow resonates very strongly, so he could be a future threat as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Who is the Wagner Mercenary Leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin. CNN Correspondent Brian Todd takes a closer look at the man who allegedly led an armed revolt and appears to be getting a pass from the Russian regime.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The man recently videotaped screaming at Vladimir Putin's top military officials for betraying his mercenaries on the battlefield is someone used to the tactic of strong arming, threatening, ruthlessly, taking what he wants.

Wagner Group Leader Yevgeny Prigozhin may have won over Vladimir Putin for displaying those traits, rather than the fact that they both hail from the same hometown, St. Petersburg.

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think that Prigozhin does have some personality traits that Putin not only likes, but also, I think, sees in himself.

TODD: Prigozhin's rise is a classic Russian tale of brute force ambition. He served time in prison in the final stages of the Soviet Union for petty crimes. 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 Putin's Chef.

HALL: Being the guy who runs, you know, the Kremlin food service might to you and me sound like not a particularly important thing, but to people who are afraid of, you know, being poisoned, that's a, you know, position of trust for Prigozhin.

TODD: Prigozhin used Putin's trust and resources to make another bold and extraordinary move around 2014. Founding Wagner as a paramilitary group, then operating mostly in the shadows.

LT. COL. ALEXANDER VINDMAN, (RET.) FORMER EUROPEAN AFFAIRS DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Was funding it to run coups and mercenary activities out of the Central African Republic. He was involved in Syria when Russia doesn't 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.

CNN has tracked Wagner mercenaries operating in the Central African Republic, Sudan, Libya, Mozambique, Mali and Syria, as well as Ukraine.

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Prigozhin has, by some accounts, 25,000 armed men, many of whom are very battle hardened.

TODD: Battle hardened and brutal. Human rights groups say Wagner, which has recruited murderers and drug dealers from Russian prisons to fight, has committed a series of human rights abuses, including allegedly torturing and murdering a Syrian prisoner with a sledgehammer and executing a Wagner fighter who had defected the same way.

HALL: The videos of Prigozhin and his people using sledgehammers, you know, to maim and kill people. So he understands the value, the propaganda value of coming across as a brutal, almost uncivilized kind of person, because that's another kind of power that I think the Russian population certainly at least fears and in some cases respects.

[05:25:02]

TODD (on camera): One analyst says that no matter how this high stakes drama turns out in the end, that at the very least, Yevgeny Prigozhin has damaged Vladimir Putin by openly telling the Russian people that the Ukraine war was started under fraudulent circumstances. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Earlier, my colleague Kim Brunhuber spoke with Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian Defense Minister. They spoke about Saturday's extraordinary event and what the insurrection might mean for the Wagner Group going forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDRIY ZAGORODNYUK, FORMER UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: I don't think we had too many expectations yesterday, and that's why today we're just watching the situation how it unfolds.

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Yeah --

ZAGORODNYUK: I don't think that --

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, go -- go ahead.

ZAGORODNYUK: I don't think that's the end of the story for Prigozhin, because, first of all, he needs to learn what will know that Putin doesn't honor any agreements. Secondly, obviously Putin will consider this as a threat, so there will be some continuation of that story.

Also, we were quite shocked with the low level of readiness of the troops inside Russia because the rebel forces could move all along the country almost without stopping. And the only reason it didn't escalate further is because Prigozhin decided to deescalate.

And finally, we clearly see the demise of the Wagner as an independent force on our frontline. I mean, they will either disintegrate or they will be joining Russian regular forces, which means that they will stop existing as the independent -- independent facility.

And we have to say that the only reasonable or the only like even minor success of Russians over the last year was attributed specifically to that group. So there would be some changes, obviously, in the -- in the Russian armed forces and in Ukrainian battlefront very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, still to come on CNN Newsroom, we heard cheers inside Russia for Wagner forces who threatened a coup on Russia's leaders. We'll tell you what's ahead for them.

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[05:30:33]

FOSTER: Welcome back to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Max Foster in London, and this is CNN Newsroom, bringing you up to date on the latest situation in Russia this hour. Traffic remains restricted on this major highway that connects Moscow to Rostov-on-Don after Wagner forces left that area.

A local Russian official says the highway sustained damage and is being repaired. As for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin says it doesn't know where he is right now. He was last seen leaving Rostov-on-Don in a vehicle, pausing briefly to shake hands and then driving away.

The U.S. intelligence community says it suspected for some time that Prigozhin was planning such a move, but they didn't expect it to happen so quickly or to be called off in only a few hours. Joining me now CNN's Nathan Hodge, formerly our Moscow Bureau Chief.

Where do you think Prigozhin is? Do you think he even will end up in Belarus?

NATHAN HODGE, CNN FORMER MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Yeah, Max, we have more questions than answers on all of these things. So, you know, under this deal that's supposedly been brokered by Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin is supposed to go into an apparent exile in Belarus, but he hasn't popped up there yet.

We did see him departing yesterday from a Russian military headquarters in the southern city of Rostov yesterday. But again, we've only had the account of what this deal appears to be either from the Belarussian presidential office or from the Kremlin. We haven't heard from Prigozhin about how he understands the deal, where he's going to go, will he go, and what exactly he would be doing, you know, in Belarus.

I think it's pretty clear he's not going to resume his catering business, given that he's raised his profile politically within Russia extraordinarily since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. And he's shown the scope of those ambitions with this unprecedented challenge to Putin, with his forces marching toward Moscow yesterday, Max.

FOSTER: And from what we do know, it appears that Putin has won in that challenge. But he does appear weaker now, doesn't he? Because he did look vulnerable yesterday, which a lot of people didn't expect. Should we be concerned that he's going to try to get that strong man image back by escalating the war in Ukraine, for example?

HODGE: Well, Max, I think that that strong man image, which the Kremlin incidentally has built up very, very carefully, the image of the man on horseback, the sort of, you know, the shirtless Putin that we're used to seeing, that -- that image has been, you know, irretrievably damaged.

And so the surprising thing about this, you know, is not just that it's the biggest challenge to Putin's rules in over two decades, but the idea that Putin cannot be challenged has been dispelled.

You know, it's important to remember that Russia has cracked down massively on internal dissent. It's essentially outlawed criticism of the military. And yet here you have someone who has not only challenged the leadership of Putin's military, the uniform of leadership, but he's basically, you know, openly gone into what Putin described as an armed rebellion.

And despite the fact that, you know, for the time being, Putin appears to have, you know, pulled Prigozhin or Lukashenko or -- in whatever version of events, whatever forces have pulled him back from the brink of confrontation. It's really clear that, you know, Putin is facing something unprecedented here in terms of his ability to project a kind of a mastery that he is, you know, the man who brought Russia back from his knees, Max.

FOSTER: What does that mean for the rest of the world, or is it just an internal matter?

HODGE: I max it's -- it's certainly not an internal matter when you talk about the fact that Russia is a nuclear armed state. It's a -- it's a country that's invaded neighboring Ukraine. All of these events that are unfolding are being watched incredibly closely by Ukrainians because it could potentially have an immediate impact on what's happening on the battlefield.

Prigozhin's fighters were instrumental in taking Bakhmut. That was presented as one of Russia's sort of few, you know, clear advances on the battlefield in recent months. And I think that there's a lot of concern that, you know, Prigozhin may have raised his profile. He may be leaving for Belarus, but I think Ukrainians would generally see him as not a terribly palatable alternative to Putin. And this is somebody who's, you know, openly supported the war even though he's questioned the rationale for going to war and has criticized the leadership.

[05:35:16]

You know, he's a hardliner and he speaks in sort of a hardline language that I think appeals to a lot of Russians. One of the reasons he was able to raise his profile, Max, even fast.

FOSTER: Yeah. His -- Prigozhin's fighters have been asked, you know, being integrated -- they're trying to integrate them into the Russian military. Many of them have criminal records, and they believed in Prigozhin's cause, presumably, which clashed with the Russian military's cause. Do you see those mercenaries really signing up to the Russian military or -- and if they don't, what's going to happen to them?

HODGE: Yeah, Max. I mean, I think, first of all, you know, Putin seems to have unleashed some forces beyond his control by surrendering the state's monopoly on the use of force, allowing not only this, you know, private military company to flourish, but also others have appeared, popped up on the scene as well. And it's created a shambles when it comes to unity of command for the Russian military effort in Ukraine.

And likewise, I think there's a lot of concern about what happens to these sort of battle hardened, you know, those who have survived the meat grinder of fighting in Ukraine. What happens when, you know, their leader is gone. We do see indications that Wagner fighters have loyalty to Prigozhin. Many of them were amnesty from prison, in fact, to be able to -- to fight. And again, there are bigger questions about who's actually supported the training and equipping of Wagner all along. They've got heavy weaponry. You know, does this start to spiral out of -- further out of control, Max?

FOSTER: OK, Nathan, thank you so much for insights there.

Well, earlier CNN's Christiane Amanpour interviewed Nina Khrushcheva, a Professor of International Affairs and the great granddaughter of former Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev. She spoke about the armed uprising in Russia and raised serious questions about Vladimir Putin's grip on power. Here's some of what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NINA KHRUSHCHEVA, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, THE NEW SCHOOL: For the Putin entourage, and we've seen it. That is not a mystery that things are going badly. That is not a mystery that he's not as strong as he -- as he appears to be or says that he is. It is more important that he's there because none of them, or so it appears, have enough power to take over and undermine the rest.

So if somebody goes up, somebody goes down. And those who go down cannot afford to go down. So that has been going on, and I think that's kind of Prigozhin and his -- and I'm sure the people behind him close to Putin who was able to take advantage of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: That was Nina Khrushcheva, speaking earlier with Christiane Amanpour. Russia surviving the uprising then, but its problems are far from over.

When we come back, I'll speak with the country's former Deputy Energy Minister about the government's challenges.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:41:27]

FOSTER: Hours after Mercenary Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin called off his armed uprising in Russia, the country is still dealing with the impact of that insurrection. Authorities say they've just extinguished a fire at an oil refinery where the mercenaries appeared to have clashed with Russian troops. The regional governor says the Wagner fighters are moving steadily out of the area and the country is still restricting traffic on parts of a major highway which the Wagner fighters use to advance towards Moscow.

Prigozhin and its forces have now pulled back from their positions. And in Ukraine, the mayor of Kyiv says at least five people are confirmed dead from a Russian missile attack that hit an apartment block. Joining me now is Vladimir Milov, a Vice President for International Advocacy at the Free Russia Foundation and a former Deputy Minister of Energy in Russia.

Thank you so much for joining us. You're one of the people who understands Moscow, understands the Kremlin and the people in there right now. How do you think they may have been responding to this news yesterday from Prigozhin and this advance towards Moscow?

VLADIMIR MILOV, VICE PRESIDENT FOR INTERNATIONAL ADVOCACY, FREE RUSSIA FOUNDATION: Well, I think what happened simply sent shockwaves across Putin's elite, because he was presenting himself -- Vladimir Putin was presenting himself as a problem solver. Like, we might have some issues here and there, but whenever the great emperor interferes, then things get into order.

And I think this was the biggest mess so far since beginning of Vladimir Putin's rule, near nearly a quarter of a century ago, because actually, Russia lost control of two major cities, Rostov and Voronezh, over 1 million residents each. And that was extremely embarrassing for Putin because he could not do anything about it. He had to ask for help from Belarus Dictator Lukashenko to get Prigozhin out of the country and make Wagner Group retreat. That's the number one humiliation for Putin across the history of his rule.

FOSTER: You mentioned the elites, and Prigozhin was a particular threat to them, wasn't he? Because his narrative throughout has been that the elites are living this luxury life back in Russia whilst soldiers are losing their lives, you know, working class soldiers and criminals actually losing their lives on the front lines. So the idea of Prigozhin coming in and taking over Moscow was particularly threatening to the elites who support Putin.

MILOV: Yes. And it was threatening not only because of their own personal and selfish interests, but because also everybody understands who Prigozhin really is. That's an absolutely ruthless and lawless murderer and a criminal. And everybody knows about the trail of crime he left wherever Wagner was participating in Syria and Africa, in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

So yes, people were pretty much terrified. And so much for the Putin's weak response to that, because obviously, Russian elite was not impressed with how badly Putin handled all this crisis.

FOSTER: He looked vulnerable, didn't he, yesterday, which is probably his biggest challenge. You also saw Prigozhin being cheered by supporters, you know, ordinary Russians that appeared on the streets of, you know, the city he was leaving. How might that unsettle the elites around Putin? And how do you think Putin might try to, you know, respond to that and get that strong man status back?

MILOV: Well, first we have to understand that the elites around Putin are extremely afraid and incapacitated. So please don't expect that if now that they found that Putin is weak, that they would somehow revolt against him. No, they are very much afraid of any action by security services against them.

[05:45:15]

Putin is, in this regard, in control of his government and of his capitals. But however, I think this will change the motivation for many people, because some of them had the idea that this regime has some prospect, it is strong enough to withstand the difficulties and bring Russia to some sort of a future.

I think this hope has diminished for most people after Wagner revolt. And many of them will be trying to find their ways to leaving, or at least toning down their enthusiasm in supporting the system. That will have a major structural impact over time.

FOSTER: But can Putin get back that status that he had amongst the elite and wider Russia? Or do you think this is the beginning of the end of his grip on power?

MILOV: It is the beginning. Probably the beginning was last year when he failed miserably with his attempt to swiftly capture Ukraine and establish control of its territory. So now we are into not even the beginning, but the second and third stages. What is, I think, even probably more dangerous in the long term that

Prigozhin mentioned him by name, openly and explicitly, as the guy who is responsible and guilty for all the difficulties that Russia is experiencing. Never happened before on that scale.

So I think the major consequence will be that people across the country, across even the royal, Putin's base, would begin speaking about him as the source of the problems, as the guy who needs to be removed for Russia to move on.

FOSTER: Better the devil you know, some people would say. There could be someone even more scary for the wider world that replaces him. Is that any sort of topic of discussion in Moscow, do you think?

MILOV: Yeah, I mean, consider like Prigozhin is just another part of his same persona, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sort of thing. So there cannot be anything worse, cannot be -- can be something similar in magnitude. But Putin is exactly the same type of ruthless criminal as Prigozhin. So I think all this hypothetical talk about something being worse than Putin is just theory, because Putin himself is worse than anything we can imagine. So, no.

I mean, we got to take a chance because with Putin, more worse things are about to come. Just one thought on Wagner. This idea that it could be so easily dissolved, which is what we're effectively being told by Moscow, I mean, it's not that easy, is it, to, you know, just disband, you know, a private army and integrate it back into the Russian military?

MILOV: I think Russian government and military will be doing some swift steps to disarm Wagner and really disband them because they saw very evident threat, which obviously was very dangerous to Putin himself.

So I think what they've been doing now, after decapitating Wagner and removing Prigozhin from the country, they will be trying to swiftly disarm the remaining units. Let's see how it goes. This is what we'll be watching in the coming days and weeks.

FOSTER: Absolutely. Vladimir Milov, thank you so much for your insight.

Wagner merceries fought with the Russian military in its war against Ukraine. Now, in the wake of Prigozhin uprising against that military, what some Ukrainians are saying about the turmoil in Russia, that's coming up after the breakdown.

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[05:52:]

FOSTER: Updating our top story, the death toll has now risen to five after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv on Saturday. Rescue teams are still going through the damaged department block.

Meanwhile, there's an uneasy calm in Russia right now after Mercenary Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin called off his insurrection against the military. The Kremlin says he cut a deal to stop his forces from advancing to Moscow in an armed convoy. As part of the agreement, the mercenaries will not face criminal charges, but many will sign new contracts with the Defense Ministry. The Kremlin says Prigozhin has also agreed to leave Russia and move to Belarus.

The crisis in Russia generated a flurry of reactions across the globe, and here's how some leaders have been responding. Qatar expressed great concern over the developments. It called for peaceful means and the utmost restraint from all parties.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged his full support to Putin. A statement from the Iranian Foreign Ministry says the nation supports the rule of law in the Russian Federation. Plus, NATO, the European Union and world leaders, including from Georgia, Kazakhstan and Germany said they are closely watching the situation.

France's Foreign Ministry is advising against all travel to Russia, neighboring Latvia says it's boosting security at its border with Russia and has banned Russians from entering. Many Ukrainians appear to be pleased as they watch from the -- watch the standoff unfold between the Kremlin and Wagner mercenaries. Some residents in the war- torn city of Kyiv even saying they're enjoying the chaos. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I enjoy what is happening out of Russia. The inevitable conflict between Prigozhin and Putin was expected. I don't know what may come out of it, but I wish for them to shoot each other and die.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They started the war. They got it back. The harder you press the spring, the harder it shoots. The situation pressed to such extent in Russia that it became hopeless. I consider what happened a natural event. It will influence the war, but I think it will not be over in a day. We will have to endure a bit. Russia will be in flames.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, John Herbst said the crisis in Moscow will definitely have an impact on the battlefield as it's demoralizing for the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN HERBST, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: It was very clear that he was spooked and we could under understand why he was spooked because he launched an unpopular war, unpopular even among Russian elites. And here you had a man who was considered something of a hero for being more successful on the battlefield in Ukraine, sharply criticizing the reasons for going to war and demonstrating that he has his own dependent power.

This is not a 24 hours blip. It's like Prigozhin is the person who looked behind the screen at The Wizard of Oz and saw the great and terrible Oz was just this little frightened man. Putin has been diminished for all time by this affair.

He declared what -- what Prigozhin has done as treachery. Yet now there seems to be some sort of understanding where Prigozhin goes back to doing what he was doing. So Prigozhin has emerged as a second source of power in Russia who cannot be controlled by the strong man of the Kremlin.

That's remarkable. And as for the impact on the battlefield, certainly this is demoralizing to Russian troops, but of course they've been demoralized by their terrible treatments and the bad generalship and Ukrainian success with its counter offensive last year.

And of course, Wagner pulled out its forces after they took Bakhmut, although not taking it very well. And Ukrainians understand this. So I suspect this will add a little bit of impetus to a counter offensive which has not gone badly, but has not gone as well as at least some people expected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: And that wraps this hour of CNN Newsroom. I'm Max Foster in London. CNN This Morning continues with the latest from Russia next.

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