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Russia: Wagner Boss Prigozhin On Board Plane That Crashed, State Media Report All On Board Were Killed; Biden: Putin May Be Behind Prigozhin Crash; North Korea: Second Attempt To Launch Spy Satellite Failed; Japan Begins Releasing Treated Fukushima Wastewater; Eight Republican Rivals Face Off In First Primary Debate; Trump Expected To Surrender In Fulton County In Thursday; Giuliani Surrenders On 13 Charges In Fulton County. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired August 24, 2023 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
[00:00:43]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: Coming up on CNN. Two months to the day of his military rebellion in Russia, mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin presumed dead in a plane crash. When eight isn't enough. The first republican debate, minus the front runner, in the race for the party's nomination for president.
And Donald Trump will soon join his former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani and eight other co-defenders, and surrender to Georgia authorities accused of participating in a criminal enterprise. Thanks for joining us here for CNN NEWSROOM, and we begin with Yevgeny Prigozhin who, for the last two months, many considered a dead man walking.
Ever since he led a brief uprising against senior Russian defense officials, a rebellion which was seen as the biggest threat to Vladimir Putin's 23-year-long iron grip on power. Intelligence officials, even world leaders, talked in terms of when, not if, he would die. That day may have come Wednesday, with reports from Russia that Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, was among ten people killed in a plane crash.
Still no official word on what caused the accident of the flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg, the only confirmation Prigozhin was on board the private jet comes from Russian aviation officials. According to state media, all onboard, seven passengers, three crew members were killed. Eight of the ten bodies have reportedly been found in the wreckage.
Russian investigators announced they have opened a criminal case, and video on the social media site Telegram shows what appears to be the plane falling from the sky with one wing missing. The plane went down about halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg. It suddenly stopped transmitting flight data just after six pm, local time, Wednesday.
Prigozhin's forces were heavily involved in some of the fiercest fighting in Eastern Ukraine, capturing the cities of Bakhmut and Solidaire, one of the few battlefield victories for the Russians. But he later spent months criticizing Russian military leadership for the handling of the war. Ultimately leading to the mutiny back in June.
Let's go live to London, CNN's Clare Sebastian joins us at this early hour with more, and I guess, for the most part here, at least in the short term we're depending on Russian authorities for most of the information about what may or may not have happened. Not exactly the most trustworthy of sources, but still with that, what is the latest that we know?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So John, as you say, what we have is the Russian aviation authorities say that someone by the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin was on that flight and that there were no survivors. I think, seeing those images, that does stack up, but there's also some Wagner linked Telegram channels that did announce his death.
But we're also seeing on other link channels and widely shared by Russian military bloggers a message saying don't spread unverified information about the fate of Yevgeny Prigozhin. So potentially a warning there, perhaps a caveat. But I think that now if he has died, the question shifts to what this episode means for Putin's grip on power and of course consequently the war in Ukraine.
And I think, look, clearly this is, in some ways, a message to would- be challengers of Putin. As an adviser to President Zelenskyy put it, disloyalty equals death. If, in fact, The Kremlin was behind this as there is widespread speculation of. But I also think it's worth looking at what appeared to be a degree of sort of counter programming from Putin on Wednesday.
He was taking part in a ceremony, marking the anniversary of a World War II battle, the battle of Kursk. And later seen, I think we can show you the video of this, greeting citizens in that region. Getting very close to real life people as we don't often see him do, out in the streets, getting adoring messages from people.
Seen strikingly reminiscent of where we saw Putin in Dagestan in the days following that aborted Wagner mutiny, where he was also out talking to people, shaking hands, and things like that. That in itself seemed to be a response to the greeting that Wagner got in Rostov when they arrived on route to that aborted march on Moscow.
So, very interesting timing there. It seems to be an effort to reassert power, to regain control of the situation, which, of course, as we know, this whole episode shows that the situation has gone beyond Putin's control with this war that he started, John.
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VAUSE: Clare, thank you. Clare Sebastian, live for us there in London with the latest. Appreciate it. The word of Prigozhin's apparent public execution was shocking but not exactly surprising for the White House. Details now from CNN's Alex Marquardt.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Joe Biden has now commented on Russian state media reports that if Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in that plane crash, he said that he would not be surprised if the Russian president Vladimir Putin were behind it because nothing, he says, happens in Russia without Putin knowing about it. Take a listen.
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't know for a fact what happened, but I am not surprised. There's not much that happens in Russia that Putin's not behind, but I don't know enough to know the answer.
MARQUARDT: In the two months since that failed insurrection by Yevgeny Prigozhin on June 23rd and 24th, top U.S. officials, including President Biden have talked about the prospect of Prigozhin being killed by The Kremlin, essentially as a matter of when, not if. They've been speaking in fairly blunt, often joking, terms.
President Biden saying that Yevgeny Prigozhin shouldn't fire his food taster. The secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, commenting on what he called Russia's open window policy, a reference to a number of Kremlin critics falling mysteriously from windows and being killed. And then there's the CIA director, Bill Burns, a man who knows Russia and Putin very well.
A former U.S. ambassador to Russia, who said that essentially Putin has been biding his time, waiting to see what he should do with Prigozhin and with Wagner. But he said that he would be surprised if there were no further retribution against Yevgeny Prigozhin. Take a listen to a bit more of what Bill Burns had to say last month.
BILL BURNS, CIA DIRECTOR: Putin is someone who generally thinks that revenge is a dish best served cold. So I would be surprised if Prigozhin escapes further retribution for this. So, in that sense, the president is right. If I were Prigozhin, I wouldn't fire my food taster.
MARQUARDT: So, if indeed, Prigozhin was killed, it would be exactly two months since he launched that mutiny. Enough time, perhaps in Burns's view, for some of that dust to settle. I did put the question to the White House, and to the national security council spokesperson telling me that they have no confirmation, of course, that Prigozhin had been killed. But if confirmed, they said, it should surprise no one. Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joining me now from Connecticut is Matthew Schmidt. An associate professor of national security at the University of New Haven. Good to see you Matthew.
MATTHEW SCHMIDT, ASSOC. PROFESSOR OF NATIONAL SECURITY, UNIV. OF NEW HAVEN: Good to see you John.
VAUSE: Okay, so like many within the Biden administration, the former U.S. defense secretary, former CIA director, Leon Panetta, reacted to Prigozhin's death almost sort of with a shrug. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LEON PANETTA, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: I think for those of us who dealt with intelligence, this is not very surprising. I think that this goes back to when the coup happened. And when somebody made a military coup that threatened to bring Putin down, I think the die was cast.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Okay but this crash happened over Russian territory, Russian authorities are doing the investigation. The only confirmation that Prigozhin was on board this plane comes from Russian aviation officials. All of this adds up to a total lack of transparency and there are questions like why would the head of the Wagner group be on the same flight as his second-in-command. So what are the chances that he's not actually dead and there's something else going on here?
SCHMIDT: They are not zero. But I think that he's probably what we see. He's probably dead, Dmitry Utkin, who he referenced as the second in command is probably dead and it has all of the hallmarks of Putin's coldness, all of the hallmarks of his revenge, in doing it over his own country. I mean think about this for a second.
Just step back. This is the president of a country who might well have, and none of us are raising an eyebrow at the possibility, that he might have shot down a plane of his own citizens over his own territory. And it just rings true to those of us who have watched Putin for years and years.
VAUSE: Yes, an adviser to the Ukrainian president warned that Putin was just waiting for the right moment here to order Prigozhin's death. He tweeted, it's also obvious that Prigozhin signed a special death warrant for himself the moment he believed in Lukashenko's bizarre guarantees, that is the guarantee from the head of Belarus, that he could live there in exile.
And putin's equally absurd word of honor. He also added this, it is a signal from Putin to Russia's elites ahead of the 2024 elections. Beware, disloyalty equals death. Okay, so assuming that Putin did order prigozhin's death, does it consolidate his control over the elites, maybe not in the short to medium term, but what about long term? Does it just create more paranoia? More fear? More upheaval? It increased the chance that somewhere down the line, there will, in fact, be another palace coup.
[00:10:10]
SCHMIDT: This is a byzantine world that we're talking about. It doesn't operate on our rules. And it needs a constant input of fear, a constant input of confusion in order to allow the ruler, Putin, to continue to have authority over people. And that is what this is. I think in some sense this is being blown out of proportion.
He was killed, there are reasons for consolidating his authority that Putin might have done it. But I think ultimately, he just wanted revenge. And as an after fact, almost, you see that he's consolidating control, and he is sending a signal. Look John, imagine if you are, let's say general Surovikin, right? The guy who got fired also as the head of the aerospace forces today.
Imagine you have expertise in aircraft, you have expertise in explosives and missiles. And you're watching that video of a plane crashing, with a wing coming off.
And you know that most plane crashes happen at takeoff and landing. And they don't look like what you just saw on the video. And by the way, that video was beautiful, right? Well placed. Well shot. You don't have to say a word if you're the Kremlin. Surovikin and everybody else who's an expert in this stuff gets the message.
VAUSE: Yes, it was a very public execution in many, many ways. And a prominent Putin critic, Bill Browder, made a prediction back in June, shortly after the Wagner attempted coup. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL BROWDER, AUTHOR AND ANTI-PUTIN ACTIVIST: I think that there is going to be a huge purge, crackdown, whatever you want to call it, of the elites. Of the government, of the military and the oligarchs, for Putin to re-establish his authority. Unless he can be seen again as the scariest, most brutal guy, his days are numbered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A few generals who spoke out about the reality of Russia's war in Ukraine and the abysmal state of it have been fired. But has there been any sign of a major purge or is this now the start of it?
SCHMIDT: It might be the start of it. I am not sure that a major purge is needed. He's purged Prigozhin. He's purged these guys that everybody -- you have to think about the community, right? Everybody in the military community knows everyone on that plane. And so he sent his signal. And I think that he can wait, right?
It's what Bill Burns said before, Putin is not some kind of strategic genius. He is just more brutal than everybody else, and he's patient. and then he gets you with his extreme brutality and he re-establishes his control. He is a mafia boss.
VAUSE: Well, it does appear that another one of Putin's critics and other opponents is actually gone the same way as so many others before him. Matthew Schmidt, as always, good to have you with us there from Connecticut. Thank you.
SCHMIDT: Take care.
VAUSE: Up next here on CNN. Eight Republican rivals take the stage for the first presidential primary debate for the 2024 race. Donald Trump was not one of them. A no-show. But we'll have the highlights anyway. Just ahead.
Plus, four time indicted, twice impeached, former President Donald Trump, that's the one, expected to surrender to Fulton County authorities in the coming hours. The latest in the Georgia election subversion case, and the mugshots, they're coming next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:15:41]
VAUSE: North Korea's second attempt to launch a spy satellite into orbit appears to have failed. The state media reports the rocket carrying the satellite suffered a malfunction after liftoff, Thursday.
Japanese officials say it broke apart with pieces crashing into the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and the Pacific Ocean. The launch briefly prompted an evacuation order for residents of Japan's Okinawa region. North Korea says it will try to launch a spy satellite again in October.
They say the launch comes as the U.S. and South Korea have been holding joint military drills. And now, Japan has begun releasing treated radioactive waste water from the Fukushima Nuclear site into the ocean as part of a controversial plan which has sparked some anxiety and also some pushback within the region.
CNN's Marc Stewart is in Tokyo and despite all of these reassurances, despite almost years of planning, years of reassurances that there is nothing to worry about, there is no reason for concern, a lot of people are worried and a lot of people are concerned. So what's happening now?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi John. First of all let me just start with the big headline of the moment. Within the last ten minutes or so, we have received official confirmation that this water dump, this water release is now taking place. And it's important to stress that this is not going to be just a big single dump, if you will.
It's going to be a gradual process that will take years to complete. Initially, though, we will see a large release over a 17-day period. Now, you mentioned the safety concerns. As part of this process, regular testing of this water will take place, there will actually be a boat in the waters in the Pacific region to make sure that this water release is going according to plan.
But the big concern is this radioactive element of things. According to the Tokyo power company as well as the Japanese government, this water that is being released has been treated and diluted. And the radioactive component known as tritium, which is raising so much attention around the world, is at a level that is in compliance with International Atomic Energy Agency standards. Still, it has been full of criticism.
We just heard overnight that Hong Kong, for example, is going to ban imports of Japanese fish for many prefectures including that from where the release is taking place. But as we have seen over the past few months, a big campaign has been taking place to basically reassure the public that despite some of this criticism, this is safe.
In fact, just a few months ago, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency was here in Tokyo doing interviews with reporters to say that these levels of tritium are very much in accord to what we see with other nuclear power plants. And the amount of water that is being released is massive. It's enough to fill as many as 500 olympic polls.
But this is going to be a gradual process. Still, despite all the reassurances, there are going to be critics. In fact, John, we have heard in recent months from fishermen in the region who, despite what the science may say, worry just about the word of month, the perception that could have a negative impact on their industry.
But at the end of the day the Japanese government felt that this was the right thing to do. There were other options, perhaps, on the table to bury these tanks of water or just let it sit there. But they feel after proper scientific analysis, after consultation with the experts, releasing it now, John, was and is the right thing to do.
VAUSE: And just for the big picture here, Mark, what if they didn't release the water? What is the urgency in having to pump all this water into the ocean for so long after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima?
STEWART: Right, well there's a couple of issues here, first of all there's just space. We recently traveled to Fukushima, and this is a massive complex. And so you would just have tanks of water that are just sitting there. And if this water was to just stand there it could perhaps lead to other contamination. Ground contamination.
[00:20:11]
There is really no ideal scenario. But this is, perhaps, the best scenario. Keeping the water stagnant in these tanks was agreed upon by scientists as perhaps being more detrimental than releasing it into the ocean.
VAUSE: Marc, thank you. Marc Stewart, live in Tokyo with the very latest. Appreciate it. Thank you. Well, for eight U.S. presidential hopefuls, the first primary debate of the 2024 race was a chance for a breakout moment, to show why they should be the Republican party's nominee, not Donald Trump, who opted out of the debate.
Tensions flared on stage in Milwaukee as candidates sparred over issues like financial support for Ukraine. There was kind of a pylon on businessman and climate change denier and Donald Trump wannabe, Vivek Ramaswamy, swiped not only at President Joe Biden but also at former President Donald Trump as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, US REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He asked me to put him over the constitution. And I chose the constitution, and I always will.
NIKKI HALEY, US REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You have Ron DeSantis, you've got Tim Scott, you've got Mike Pence. They all voted to raise the debt. And Donald Trump added eight trillion to our debt. And our kids are never going to forgive us for this.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: For more we are joined now by political analyst, Michael Genovese. President of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University, and author of the Modern Presidency: Six Debates That Defined the Institution. It's good to see you Michael.
MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Hello John.
VAUSE: It seems unlikely that this debate, Wednesday night, will join that list of six outstanding debates. But overall what is your take away from tonight?
GENOVESE: Well I think that the headline is: Catfight, Trump Wins. Cat fight because you saw a lot of sniping at each other. The surprise was that DeSantis was not the target. Everyone thought that since he's the front runner, they'd be going after him and pointing all their guns at him.
Ramaswamy was the one who got most of the attention, partly because he was saying some pretty outrageous things. But I think the other part of the headline is that Trump wins, that Donald Trump proved that he still controls the party. You could see it by the answers to questions. And you could also hear it in the audience, because the Republican audience which was very, very pro Trump.
VAUSE: That is a very good point. And the first Trump question, during this debate, came just under an hour or so into the debate. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: If former President Trump is convicted in a court of law, would you still support him as your party's choice? Please raise your hand if you would.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You can hear the cheer. Asa Hutchinson, the former Arkansas governor, was the only one to say no. Chris Christie seemed to object to the question. That left the other six there, despite all the sniping at Trump, all the criticism and everything else, they would still support Trump even if he is convicted. What does that say about those candidates? Also what does it say about the Republican party where it's at today?
GENOVESE: Well what it says about the Republican party is that Donald Trump is still the alpha dog. He was clearly the star, even in his own absence. We all, if you're a Republican, we all live in Trump world. And we have to be very concerned about whether or not we step on his toes.
And when you do, as you may have heard from the audience, they went right after those candidates that criticize Trump. Neil Young, a great rock star, used to say, rust never sleeps. Donald Trump never sleeps. He's always out there agitating. Even when he's not in the room. VAUSE: Yes, and with that in mind, the latest CNN poll of polls has Trump way out in front among the likely Republican primary voters. DeSantis, as you mentioned, was the frontrunner on stage there. And he makes it into the teens, and the rest actually single digits.
And what was interesting was that Trump tried the counter program with this interview on Twitter, or X, whatever it's called, with former Fox presenter, Tucker Carlson. And there was no news in it, it was kind of like an hour-long gripe fest. But I'm just curious, is there much point to these debates? Is Trump on to a winning strategy here by just not showing up?
GENOVESE: Well, we'll get an answer to that tomorrow when Donald Trump goes into Georgia to be indicted, to be fingerprinted, and take a mugshot. And he will once again capture the public imagination and the media attention.
And so all of the things that happened at the debate just an hour or two ago will be largely forgotten. And we'll be back in Trump world. He dominates the Republican Party in a way that, even if all the candidates coalesce around one single alternative, I don't even think that could beat him.
VAUSE: Yes and you mentioned some of the outrageous positions that Ramaswamy, the businessman, the climate change denier, the almost Trumpier than Trump candidate.
[00:25:11]
Some of his outrageous statements, he also took this position on Ukraine. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIVEK RAMASWAMY, US REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ukraine is not a priority for the United States of America. And I think that the same people who took us into the Iraq war, the same people who took us into the Vietnam war, you cannot start another no win war. And I do not want to get to the point where we're sending our military resources abroad when we could be better using them here at home to protect our own borders, protect the homeland.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Notably the Ukrainian president said, Wednesday, quote, "There are risks that there are certain voices in the Republican Party against supporting Ukraine. But there are also many voices that are with us and support us." But we have to know that those voices opposed to continued support for Ukraine are growing in both volume and in number. Not just within the GOP, but across the United States.
And that does seem to be a direct result of what Donald Trump has done and what his state of position is which is being embraced by many with the fringes of the Republican Party and now it's gone into the mainstream. That is the impact on policy from Donald Trump which makes this election so crucial just beyond the United States, doesn't it? GENOVESE: Yes there's a lot of war wariness on the part of Republicans. They want to get out, they want to spend the money, you heard tonight, spend it on the border. Several candidates said they want to militarize the border.
They want to get the troops out of the Middle East, of Ukraine, out of Europe, and focus on border securities. In fact, Ron DeSantis even said that on day one he is going to send American troops across the border, the Mexican border. What they're going to do, I'm not sure.
And so the militarization of our society is going towards the border, and Republicans are trying to get away from Ukraine because that's a distraction. Especially in terms of money. And so I think that Nikki Haley did a great job of answering Ramaswamy, attacking him for his frivolous answer about Ukraine. But she is in the minority of the Republican party.
VAUSE: Yes, she essentially said his lack of foreign policy experience was on display for everyone to see, and in many ways it does seem she was right. But, as you say, it is big in the Republican Party right now, that position that's growing. Michael, good to see you. Michael Genovese, in Los Angeles. Thank you sir.
GENOVESE: Thank you John.
VAUSE: And Donald Trump, expected to surrender to Fulton County authorities in the coming hours. The four-time indicted, twice impeached, one term president is set to leave his bedminster New Jersey golf club in the afternoon.
He will fly to Atlanta and there he will turn himself in over the election subversion case. Meanwhile, his former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, one of the 19 defendants in the case, surrendered on Wednesday. We've got the very latest now from CNN's Paula Reid.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Rudy Giuliani traveled down to Georgia on Wednesday to negotiate his bond and surrender at the Fulton County sheriff's office. His bond was set at $150 thousand. He will have to put a portion of that up in cash. He's also subject to a list of restrictions, including being barred from discussing the case with any of his co-defendants.
Former President Trumps is of course a co-defendant and he's also hosting a fund-raiser for Giuliani in a few weeks to try and help him raise money for these many defenses that he needs to put on. So it's unclear how exactly he is going to not discuss this case with Trump, but going forward, it will be interesting to see if his lawyer that he worked with today, Ryan Tevis, stays on the case.
Giuliani currently faces seven figures of unpaid legal debt. It was unclear if he would be able to find an attorney here in Georgia. He just needed someone to sign that bond agreement, Ryan Tevis was able to do that but when I asked if he was going to stay on the case, he said that that remains to be seen. When I asked if he was getting paid, he declined to answer. Now it's
notable that even though Giuliani's lawyers were in court a week ago, saying that he cannot afford to pay his legal bills, he flew into Georgia on a private jet. Even though he's just miles from the biggest airport in the world.
It is unclear how he was able to afford that specific mode of transportation, but it did allow him to knock out the bond negotiations and his surrender all in one day which I'm told was his goal, that he wanted to get back to New York before former President Trump arrived in Atlanta, Thursday. Paula Reid, CNN. Fulton County, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still ahead, more details on the plane crash involving the Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and now some Russians are reacting to that news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Welcome back. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
[00:32:23]
In Russia, some are now paying tribute to Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, presumed dead in a plane crash Wednesday. Candles and flowers were left upside the Wagner Center in St. Petersburg Wednesday night.
Russian officials say the mercenary leader was on board the private jet, which went down Northwest of Moscow.
More details now from CNN's Fred Pleitgen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Probably the last moments of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin. This jet, an Embraer Legacy 600, seen falling from the sky, a wing appearing to be missing.
Russian authorities confirming Prigozhin was on board the aircraft.
CNN is unable to confirm the authenticity of this video, but RIA Novosti claimed it was the moment that an Embraer Air jet fell from the sky in the Tver region North of Moscow.
Flight data shows the plane traveling from Moscow on a heading to St. Petersburg before it suddenly stops transmitting.
Russian media say ten people were on board, all of them believed dead and that Prigozhin's name was also on the passenger manifest.
The Wagner mercenary group fought bitterly in Ukraine, notably in Bakhmut, gaining some territory but also incurring heavy losses. Prigozhin ripping into Russia's defense minister and his top general,
accusing them of withholding ammo, leading to further deaths of his fighters.
YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN, LEADER OF WAGNER GROUP (through translator): You think you are the masters of this life. You think you can dispose of other lives. You think, because you have warehouses full of ammunition, that you have that right.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): In late June, Prigozhin went a step further, launching a rebellion he said aimed to unseat the leadership of the defense ministry. Prigozhin finally relented, and Wagner's troops were ordered to Belarus, but days later, Putin took aim at Prigozhin himself.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We will protect our people and our statehood from any threats, including treason from the inside. What we're facing now is treason. Unreasonable ambitions, and personal interests led to treachery, state treason and betrayal of our people.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): World reaction to the latest news has been swift and blunt.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's not much that happens with the Russian and Putin doesn't know. I don't know enough to know.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): No comment from the Russian president tonight, he held a moment of silence but four Soviet soldiers killed in World War II in Kiorsk, as the debris from the plane carrying what was one of his most important fighters burns in a field North of Russia's capital.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[00::35:05]
VAUSE: For more, we're joined now by CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.
It's good to see you you, sir.
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to see you, too, John.
VAUSE: OK, so, here's the reaction to Prigozhin's presumed death from U.S. President Joe Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I don't know for a fact what happened. But I'm not surprised. There's not much that happens with Prigozhin and Putin (UNINTELLIGIBLE). I don't know enough to know the answer. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Overall, White House officials seemed to really greet this with no great surprise. Some were shocked. But everyone sort of expected it to happen.
And the official line is that Prigozhin's death will not change U.S. policy on Ukraine.
So why is that? Is it because the Wagner mercenaries, as a factor, have been essentially removed from the battlefield after that short- lived uprising, and they're no longer in the mix? Or why -- why is this being greeted with sort of nonchalance, if you like, by the administration?
LEIGHTON: I think part of it, John, is that they think that the Wagner Group is basically being neutralized by Putin. And one of the problems that they are having, you know, with this -- with the news is that they really can't confirm that Prigozhin is actually dead, although there are many indications that is, in fact, the case.
However, when they look at all of this in totality, they don't want to give that much credence to the Wagner Group. But they don't -- and if they say anything, one way or the other, it could either embolden, perhaps, the remnants of the Wagner Group to react in one way or the other, or it could steady Putin's hands in his effort to regain control of the situation, politically, in Russia.
VAUSE: Well, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was speaking on Wednesday, speaking about some kind of alternative reality that none of us really know about. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PUTIN (voice-over): Russia has decided to support the people who struggle for their culture, their traditions, their language, their futures. Our actions in Ukraine are motivated by only one reason: to put an end to the war unleashed in Ukraine by the West.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You know, if Putin really believes Ukraine started the war; it was unleashed by the West, it could be a sign he's not getting the best advice from those around him.
And it seems, you know, if he's determined -- it seems right now he's determined to keep these incompetent loyalists in charge of the war while removing any kind of effective generals, among them Prigozhin. At least he spoke out and told the truth.
What impact do you think, though, that you know, kind of rule will have, ultimately, within the ranks of the Russian military and on the battlefield in Ukraine?
LEIGHTON: Well, I think that it will have a stultifying impact. In other words, it's going to really hurt the Russian war effort, because one of the things that military forces need is some degree of speaking truth to power and the ability to discern real events from fake events.
And that ability is being lost by these pronouncements. So it's very clear that Putin started this war. Nobody, you know, with a sane mind views it any other way.
The problem that Putin is running to is he's got this worldview, this historical view that is based on protecting perceived slights to Russian ethnic populations in Ukraine. And he has really snowballed that into a major casus belli, cause for war. And that becomes a huge issue for him. And he can't really back away from it, either politically or intellectually.
And that, of course, is something that is not based in reality. And that's creating a lot of problems for him.
VAUSE: Yes. One of Prigozhin's last public appearances, it seems, was on social media -- It was Monday -- with this video message. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRIGOZHIN (through translator): Justice and happiness for African people. We intimidate ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other bandits; hiring the real heroes; and continuing to accomplish the tasks that have been set and that we promised we can handle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: We assume it was Africa. We don't -- not entirely know when it was recorded. We're assuming it was fairly recently.
But what will be the overall impact of Russia's global influence? Especially in places like Africa, where Wagner fighters have been deployed, where they have been very effective, you know, in causing trouble and supporting, you know, dictatorial regimes and that kind of stuff. Especially now, the mercenary group has been decapitated. And there's, what, 3,000 of them out there with nothing to do.
LEIGHTON: Yes, that's going to be a real problem on so many different levels, because the Russians have actually, through the Wagner Group, made a lot in-roads in places like Mali, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, and probably doing the same thing in Niger right now.
And so these are things that are going to really hamper the Russian ability to move forward with their political and diplomatic and, of course, military aims.
One of the key facets (ph) to this is the fact that they are trying to really finance the war in Ukraine from African minds. And if they can control those African minds, which the Wagner Group was facilitating that effort, that is something that would help them.
[00:40:11] But what they're doing now with the Wagner Group, really decapitating it and making it, in essence, impotent. That is going to put a real damper on their efforts. And could, potentially, serve to, perhaps, shorten the conflict in Ukraine. But we'll see. That might be a bit optimistic on my part.
VAUSE: Cedric Leighton, as always, sir, thank you. Good to see you. Great to have you with us. Thank you.
LEIGHTON: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: Take a short break. When we come back, thick smoke darkens the skies around Athens as firefighters attempt to douse hundreds of fires threatening outer suburbs of the capital. We'll take you to Athens with the latest.
Also, big celebrations across India after the successful landing of a spacecraft on the moon. Details coming up after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Firefighters in Greece battling more than 200 wildfires which have broken out since Monday. High winds are fueling the flames, increasing the threat to residents and their homes, as well as national parks.
Smoke from the combined fires has made air quality extremely low in Athens. And it's even spreading to Malta, as well as Italy.
The details now from CNN's Eleni Giokos in Athens.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Devastation, destruction and desperation as Greece continues to struggle with catastrophic wildfires.
Here in Agia Paraskevi, in Northern Athens, Herculean efforts to put out wildfires fueled by high winds in an area of forest which is known as the lungs of Athens. The Parnitha mountain, ablaze.
Firefighters say the Greece fires are like a war zone, with many locals refusing to leave their homes. Some staying until the bitter end, only to watch their homes go up in flames.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am not leaving my home.
GIOKOS (voice-over): Street by street, the flames rage on, with no regard for the people or pets in its path.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We're trying to put out fire. Sadly, the firefighters have been stationed here from last night but didn't have a drop of water. So we had to do it ourselves.
GIOKOS (voice-over): The capital, Athens, was surrounded by flames and thick black smoke. GIOKOS: The wind has just suddenly picked up rapidly. You can see this
fire spreading. I mean, within seconds it has erupted into massive flames. This is what the Greek firefighting force has to contend with, a Herculean task.
We're going to have to leave. It's now getting far too close.
[00:45:00]
GIOKOS (voice-over): In the last 48 hours, there have been 209 wildfires around Greece. According to fire brigade spokesperson Ioanis Artopios, according to state news agency ANA.
(SIRENS)
GIOKOS (voice-over): As Europe's sweltering summer continues with intense heat for the third month in a row.
Eleni Giokos, CNN, Athens, Greece.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Rolling heat waves continue to fuel the fires, not only in Greece but also across Europe. CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray is tracking the severe weather.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Same story, different day, really across the globe. The intense heat across Europe, as well as the U.S., with those areas of high pressure just continuing to build under that heat dome.
The heat will finally start to ease by the time we get into the weekend. So relief is on the way. But we've been setting records across the board.
Look at this. France, over 200 records set or tied for Wednesday. We had an all-time record broken. This is the hottest August day ever in France. They hit more than 44 degrees in Southern France. So really, really dangerous.
A dangerous heat taking over Madrid, even 41 degrees on Thursday. Rome at 37, Athens at 36. Temperatures have just stayed incredibly hot. Marseille is going to start 36 degrees on Thursday and then drop to 27 degrees by Sunday with the help of some showers and storms.
So while we go well above normal, we will dive to well below normal in the coming days. Rome, right around 37 degrees. Then by the time we get to next week, we drop ten degrees down to 28 degrees.
We've also seen lots of fires breaking out across Greece. You can see them from space. You could see the smoke drifting all the way to the South across the ocean. So we're looking at very dry soil moisture across Greece. And so we really need some rain. Of course, we are going to stay dry,
but the winds are going to pick up. And that's going to make fire weather even worse.
You can see the forecast wind gusts will be gusting anywhere from, say 20 to 30 kilometers per hour, give or take over the next couple of days. Temperature-wise will stay above normal and then drop.
Temperatures roughly staying closer to average, at least compared to the Western side of Europe for the rest of the seven-day period.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, India still celebrating Wednesday's historic Moon landing of the Chandrayaan-3. In the past 90 minutes, the lunar rover has successfully been deployed from the spacecraft and is now exploring the surface of the moon.
India is the fourth country to land on the moon, behind the United States, China and the former Soviet Union. It is, however, the first country to land near the Southern poll.
CNN's Vedika Sud has more now, reporting in from New Delhi.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VEDIKA SUD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Applause and cheers inside India's mission control center and across the country as Chandrayaan-e, India's moon craft, made a soft landing on the lunar surface.
S. SOMANATH, CHAIRMAN, INDIAN SPACE RESEARCH ORGANIZATION: So we achieved soft landing on the moon. India's on the moon.
SUD (voice-over): India is only the fourth country to do so and the first to do it on the moon's unexplored South Pole.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi watched the landing virtually, while on an official trip to South Africa.
NARENDRA MODI, INDIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): This moment is unprecedented. This moment is of developed India's victory. This moment is of new India's victory cry.
SUD (voice-over): Back home, millions of Indians watched in awe as Chandrayaan-3's rover touched down on the moon's surface. Many are feeling intense national pride.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very excited. And it was a very great moment, to witness it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have done it, so it's very inspiring, as well.
SUD (voice-over): India's successful lunar landing comes just days after Russia's failed attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon.
Many countries are planning human missions to the lunar surface, triggering a space race.
For India, the journey to the moon has been long and challenging.
In 2019, 11 years after its first lunar mission, its second space craft, Chandrayaan-2, crashed into the lunar surface while making its final descent.
Now, four years later, its third moon rocket, Chandrayaan-3, will conduct scientific experiments and help detect resources hidden in the most dark craters.
MALCOLM DAVIS, SENIOR ANALYST, AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE: It will be playing a key role in hunting for water ice around the lunar South pole.
[00:50:02]
That water ice is important for establishing and sustaining a human presence on the lunar surface. It -- that water ice is also important for enabling the moon to become a launching pad for spacecraft.
SUD (voice-over): The success of this mission has blazed the trail for India's space emissions. They include a manned mission to space and setting up its own space station by 2030.
DAVIS: Cosmically (ph), it sets the ground for India establishing its own astronaut corps that would then see Indian astronauts standing on the lunar surface, alongside its partners, including the United States, Japan, Australia.
SUD (voice-over): But for now, India is celebrating this historic feat. One that has clearly established it as a global space power.
Vedika Sud, CNN, New Delhi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC: ROLLING STONES, "START ME UP")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The Rolling Stones appear to be starting up rumors that a new album could be on the way.
This cryptic ad appeared in a local London newspaper, seemingly from a glass repair company called Hackney Diamonds. But it has hints of Rolling Stones lyrics all over it.
It appears to tease a September album released date. The rock legends aren't saying a word.
But it will be the group's first studio album since the death of their longtime drummer, Charlie Watts, back in 2021 from throat cancer. When we come back, from Putin's chef to attempted coup leader; and now
Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed dead. In a moment, more on his legacy at home, in Russia, and abroad.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Dozens of people have been arrested after stores and supermarkets in locations across Argentina were ransacked, and their shelves were emptied.
People have been stealing food and other items. The minister of security alleges the looting was coordinated and is meant to generate conflict.
Argentina's been struggling with the cost-of-living crisis as annual inflation climbs to well over 100 percent. The crisis is adding to the tension of the presidential race, with general elections set for October.
Now more on our top story. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner private military group, is presumed dead in a plane crash.
The warlord and recent adversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin was traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg on his private jet. Russian aviation officials say the aircraft plunged from the sky, killing all ten people on board.
Those officials say Prigozhin was definitely among those on the aircraft, but CNN cannot independently confirm that claim.
The crash comes two months to the day after Prigozhin launched a brief mutiny against Russia's military leadership. That revolt ended with a deal which would see Wagner leaders and his fighters sent into exile into Belarus. But that never seemed to come to pass.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh walks us through Yevgeny Prigozhin's rise from Putin's personal chef to rebel, and his rapid fall from grace.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He had always lived in the shadows, until the war in Ukraine made him perhaps the most public Russian critic of how the Kremlin's war was fought.
The possibility Yevgeny Prigozhin is dead is a shock wave to an already shaken system.
[00:55:05]
Putin's critics rarely survive as long as he did. And the talk in Russia and Ukraine, that Putin might still have wanted to kill him, a sign the chaos in Moscow he caused was not over.
He led the most brazen affront to Putin's rule in his 23 years at the helm, taking an armed rebellion into the Southern stronghold of Rostov-on-Don, marching on Moscow, and then abruptly turning around. The apparent reason? A deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander
Lukashenko. Putin saved here by a neighboring ruler he usually treated with contempt.
The deal was opaque, perhaps involving the fighters of the group Prigozhin led, Wagner, moving to Belarus. It's unclear how much that happened.
And then Prigozhin appeared, already surviving a long time for a Putin challenger, popping up in Africa this week, saying he would expand Russia's influence there. It would have been another turn in his remarkable and sordid career.
Initially Putin's chef, he became a military contractor, supplying food, then expanded into influence operations in the United States, trying to meddle in key elections. All deniable, all damaging to Putin's enemies.
His Wagner Group expanded, too, from 2014. CNN has tracked their mercenaries operating in the Central African Republic, Sudan, Libya, Mozambique, Mali and Syria, as well as Ukraine.
With an army of tens of thousands, battle-hardened, and in Ukraine, always savage, fighting hardest around Bakhmut and always expanding, recruiting convicts from Russian prisons to be used as apparent cannon fodder on the front lines. Executing alleged traitors, apparently with a sledgehammer.
It may never be definitively known who died in this wreckage. Even transparent investigators would struggle to find the right DNA.
Instead, we will have Russian state investigators and media's word, the very people whose boss Prigozhin enraged.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Back with a lot more news after a very short break. See you in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Ahead here on CNN, final moments. According to Russian officials, this is the plane crash which claimed the life of Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Debate night in Milwaukee.
[01:00:00]
