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CNN This Morning

Wagner Chief Cuts Deal, Calls Off Insurrection; Insurrection Led By Prigozhin Comes To Abrupt End; Death Toll In Kyiv Missile Attack Rises To 5; Wagner Chief Cuts Deal, Calls Off Resurrection; Key Putin Ally Lukashenko Brokered Deal That Ended Armed Insurrection; Computerized Cooking; 50+ Million Across Southern U.S. Under Heat Alerts. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired June 25, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:00:34]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, and welcome to a very special edition of CNN THIS MORNING. We are happy to have you along.

We have the latest developments out of Russia after Wagner mercenary forces ended their rebellion against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

I'm Victor Blackwell.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Amara Walker.

We are also joined by our colleague, Wolf Blitzer, in London. He will have more on the developments there in Russia in just a bit.

But let's get you caught up on where things stand this morning.

It appears that Russia has been pulled back from the brink of chaos, at least for now. The country struck a deal to end in armed insurrection by the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin. It was the most serious challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin's rule since he came to power.

BLACKWELL: The uprising, or at least as part of it, was over almost as quickly as it began. The Kremlin announced an agreement to end the standoff.

We learned just a short time ago that Chechen special forces deployed to the region, they're now withdrawing. And the Wagner chief confirmed his troops were turning around an ending their march towards Moscow.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN, WAGNER CHIEF (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 and leave in the opposite direction to the field camps, according to the plan.

(END AUDIO CLIP) BLACKWELL: Russia says it is dropping charges against Prigozhin, he agreed to leave Russia from neighboring Belarus, but there is no word on where he is right now.

WALKER: And as for Vladimir Putin, experts say he emerges from the crisis weaker among world leaders and domestically.

Democratic Congressman Jason Crow serves on the intelligence and foreign affairs committees. He says both Putin and Prigozhin are now worse off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): If anybody thinks that either Putin or Prigozhin is going to walk away from this unscathed, they are fooling themselves. To the idea that Prigozhin is going to go to Belarus and retire in peace and the Wagner mercenaries are just going to return to the battlefield, and Putin is going to go back to a situation normal, it's just not going to happen, right? Putin has been extremely weakened by this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Experts warn that while Moscow has stepped back from this uprising, the danger is not yet over.

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in Wolf Blitzer now, joining us from London.

Putin faced the very real threat, Wolf, of an armed insurrection. Now the world is waiting to see what this means, and what happens next.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": That is absolutely right, Victor, and Amara. We are once again covering the impact and the response to this rebellion in Russia, we've got reporters and analysts who are joining us from around the world. People are watching this very, very closely.

Our CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is joining us first right now.

What we know, Nic, about the situation inside Russia right now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The situation that was on the ground yesterday, confused, chaotic, Prigozhin had forces on the way to Moscow. Those have been confirmed to be turned around and heading back in the direction they came. Prigozhin, last seen disappearing off into the night allegedly to Belarus where he is now going to have sanctuary as part of that negotiated deal with Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarus president.

And it seems highly unlikely that would not have been in conjunction without being in conjunction, and with the support of President Putin, but that is not how it is being played out on the ground physically. In the Rostov-on-Don, the roads are being repaired, and the Chechen special forces remember that Ramzan Kadyrov, one of the biggest and most physically their backers of Putin, who pledged support to President Putin very early yesterday, his special forces have pulled back from them, and perhaps those clashing with the Wagner battle hardened fighters were the biggest potential for an overflow of fighting, had it come to that. They have pulled back.

So the situation on the ground appears to return to normal, but we can only say to appears because we don't know where Prigozhin is. We don't know what has happened to the demands that he made about the Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and others, we don't know precisely where, through all of this, President Putin was or is now, although the Kremlin, it appears, trying to give the impression that it is trying to get the situation back on track -- Kremlin, Putin, in control, in charge.

[08:05:08]

But reality is, as we have been hearing there, his authority and his ability to wield power the way he used to, it is diminished.

BLITZER: Certainly is. Nic Robertson, thank you very much.

I want to go to CNN's Matthew Chance right now. He is joining us live from Moscow.

Matthew, the deal brokered at Prigozhin apparently, apparently headed to Belarus, what does this mean for Putin?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, it has made him look, as Nic was saying there, it has made him look incredibly weak. For the first time in my years as reporting on Putin here, I've never seen a challenge like this directly to Vladimir Putin. There has not been one, and he is going to come out of this, even though normality has been referred to the face of this to the streets of Moscow, and is driving through them this morning. I've been speaking to people in this city and around the country, and they are very relieved that a deal has been done to avert this crisis.

But, the relief is only skin deep, because everybody knows that cracks have appeared. And the power, the strength, the invulnerability of Vladimir Putin, and that could result in all sorts of unknown consequences. I was fascinated to see those images you were just playing of the Wagner forces leaving the city of Rostov, but they were being applauded. They were being celebrated by many people in the streets, many people try to shake their hands, have photographs taken outside of their tanks, you are getting Prigozhin himself who was lorded like a celebrity.

Those images will be incredibly disturbing to the Kremlin, because it implies, and what it shows, actually that Prigozhin, no matter what we think of, him no matter what atrocities he has been implicated in Ukraine, no matter what the manner is in which he speaks, he has sort of touched a degree of public sympathy inside Russia, and people are, they might not say it publicly, but people are very disturbed about the way this war has gone. Some of them think, many of them think, that Russia needs to take the gloves off, which is what Prigozhin and his hard line pro war activists have been advocating for. And I think, you know, what we are seeing here is what we saw in these

images, at least, is that public sentiment really bubbling up. And, of course, the Kremlin will have to watch those images, and will be very unsettled by the support, the popular support, it seems, that Prigozhin seems to have.

BLITZER: Very interesting. What can you tell us, Matthew? You're there in Moscow, what do you tell us about the mood inside Russia today?

CHANCE: Well, like I say, on surface, it is a mood of relief. Because, remember, 24 hours ago or less than that, we had Wagner forces on the outskirts of the city, more or less, or at least in the Moscow region threatening to move in to the capital of Russia that the city was being fortified, roads are being dug up, they have been dug up around the city to try and slow the advance of those Wagner forces.

And people were bracing in the Russian capital for bloodshed and for a fight. So there is a great deal of relief that that has been averted with this very strange deal, which involves Prigozhin going to Belarus. That was quite clear on what his status in Belarus will be. I've reached out to Belarusian officials, and they are able to tell me that.

But again, beyond that relief that people are expressing, there is also concern about what comes next, because the idea that Vladimir Putin is just going to draw a line under this and go, well, you know, that was a chapter that is now closed, is very realistic if you look at what he is done in the past. There are concerns that there may be a crackdown on Prigozhin supporters, it is not clear what the fate of Prigozhin will eventually be.

And those Telegram bloggers, the military bloggers, the ultranationalists as well, there is a possibility that new media laws could be introduced, or tightened up to crack down on what they say as well. So it is a very unpredictable moment that we are in right here in Russia, Wolf.

BLITZER: Certainly is. Matthew Chance, in Moscow for us -- thank you, Matthew, very much.

Joining us now, Angela Stent. She's a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and the author of the important book entitled, "Putin's World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest". There you see the cover.

Angela, thanks so much for joining.

Putin had called this treason and a stab in the back.

[08:10:01]

The Wagner Group is apparently backing down, at least temporarily.

But how damaged is the Russian president right now, from your perspective? ANGELA STENT, SENIOR FELLOW, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: So, I think, first

of all, we have to accept the fact that what happened yesterday is only act one. It is not over yet, there were a lot of things that don't really compute and add up.

Certainly, Putin appears to have been damaged by this, he appears to have been weak. In the morning, he was threatening Prigozhin with treason, and the rest, in the afternoon or the evening, Prigozhin apparently was on his way to Belarus.

So it looks, on the one hand, as if Putin prevailed yesterday. On the very other hand, it was a very serious mutiny. And as Matthew Chance said, Prigozhin is, for some people, a popular figure. He has sounded a populist message.

You know, you poor men are dying. You're not properly been furnished with what you need to fight this war, and the children of the elite are sitting here in France, and enjoying themselves. And that populist measures that has resonance in Russia, and again, as Matthew Chance said, you can see that in the way that the Wagner fighters were greeted when they arrived in Rostov, and then when they left.

BLITZER: It is interesting that Wagner's rebellion represents the most serious challenge to Putin's authority since he came to power some 23 years ago.

So what might Putin's next steps speak to try to consolidate his grip right now on Russia?

STENT: I think we may see some even greater repression in Russia. It's pretty bad as it is now, it might even get worse.

And at what we have to see is, what was the deal that Prigozhin got? Is Putin, in fact, going to replace the defense minister and the chief of the general staff, which is there were rumors of that yesterday? We hadn't seen that. Will he put in power people who are more effective to prosecute this war in Ukraine?

And I think we may also see an uptick in the aggression Ukraine, unfortunately, as a result of this to show that he is in command that he is going to win this war, because, of course, Prigozhin has by now said that the war was needless, Ukraine did not threaten Russia, and that was part of his appeal as well.

BLITZER: What do you make of this apparent deal for Russia to drop any criminal charges against Prigozhin, and actually allow him to go into exile in Belarus? Does Prigozhin now have a target on his back? Do you believe that Putin, and his supporters will actually try to kill him?

STENT: So, I think, again, we have to be very cautious about predicting what this means, he has obviously challenged Putin, but I would remind all of the viewers that Wagner has been a very important wave in which Russia has projected power abroad -- in Africa, in the Middle East, in other countries. And so, to get rid of Wagner would mean to be a diminution of Russian influence and power in other parts of the world. So, I think we have to watch this very carefully, we have to see if

Prigozhin, in fact, does go to Belarus, do we know whether he is there, what happens to him when he is there. So this is, again, it is part one of I think a situation that will be playing out over the next few weeks and months.

BLITZER: How embarrassing is it for Putin, that he actually had to rely on the president of Belarus, Lukashenko, to broker this deal?

STENT: Well, on the face of, it does look embarrassing, on the other hand, one could also say, well, Belarus is such a faithful ally of Russia that Lukashenko was able to do p Putin's bidding, we don't know whether not he really did broker this deal or not. We only know what we were told.

So I think if Putin could spin this and say, I have this loyal ally and he helped me out.

BLITZER: Angela Stent, of the Brookings Institution in Washington, thank you very, very much.

And be sure, this is important note to our viewers, be sure to tune into "STATE OF THE UNION", in fact, that is coming up soon. Dana Bash will be joined by the Secretary of State Antony Blinken. That's at 9:00 a.m. Eastern, right, here on CNN.

And still ahead, the White House with officials that are clearly, closely monitoring the situation in Russia after this short lived rebellion. What the U.S. knew about Prigozhin's plans, and what it is watching for right now, we have details. That's coming up.

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[08:18:47]

BLITZER: The escalation from the Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is something that the U.S. intelligence community has been tracking now for sometime. But how quickly this all unfolded on Friday into Saturday, with something that surprised top U.S. intelligence officials.

President Biden is monitoring the situation very closely, he is over at Camp David right now. He's been briefed regularly, we are told, by his national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

We are joined now by CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. She is over at the White House. Natasha Bertrand is joining us from Washington.

Natasha, what is the U.S. intelligence community watching out for right now?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Well, I think there are a number of things that they want to see play out here, Wolf, including how this is going to impact the war in Ukraine, because, obviously, Wagner's troop played a major role in the fighting there, in places where the Russian military was perhaps not performing well. The Wagner troops kind of stepped in and filled that void.

Another question, of course, is whether Prigozhin is actually going to remain in Belarus. Is he simply going to conceive control of the Wagner forces and spent his days living in Belarus while the Russian military absorbs Wagner troops?

[08:20:02]

Will the Wagner forces actually be willing to stay under the command of Russia's defense military, a defense ministry that they've been told repeatedly by Prigozhin was not to be trusted and was not looking out for their best interests?

So all these things, the U.S. intelligence community is going to be looking out for, and in terms of domestically inside Russia itself, how is Putin going to be reacting to this major challenge to his leadership? Is he going to clamp down even further on peoples liberties inside Russia, is he going to consolidate power even further, is he going to escalate inside Ukraine.

This is what the U.S. intelligence community can be looking at, and of course, what we know that that he did see signs that he was planning some like this for some time. So is he going to try again here, how far is he going to go in terms of challenging Russia's military leadership if he ends up not wanting to stay in exile.

All these things the U.S. will be looking closely at as these very volatile and fast moving developments continue, wolf.

BLITZER: Priscilla, you are over at the White House for us today. What is the White House saying about all of this?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: The through line from the White House is that they have been actively monitoring the situation. Now, a White House official tells me that over the course of the day yesterday, President Biden was regularly briefed by his National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan who canceled their international trip so that he could travel to Camp David with President Biden and briefed him on what was a fast developing situation.

Now White House officials have been cautious about how much they weigh in on this, because of concerns that Putin could weaponize what they do share. Now, in public statements that they have put out, the overwhelming message has been that they are in support of Ukraine. President Biden spoke with the leaders of France, Germany, in the United Kingdom yesterday, and the readout of that call, specifically so that they talked about Russia in the situation there, but also that they were in support of the war, or of Ukraine, as it continues to fight its war.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also talking to allies, including the Ukrainian foreign minister. So behind the scenes, all-round of calls for President Biden and his top officials to allies and burners as part of the strategy here as they try to wrap their arms around this entire situation, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Priscilla, thank you very much. Natasha, thanks to you as well.

Joining us now CNN national security analyst, the former CIA chief of Russia operations, Steve Hall.

Steve, thanks so much for joining us.

U.S. intelligence, as we have been reporting, did see signs Prigozhin was massing weapons and ammunition for a likely big move. You say Putin should have seen all of this coming. So why didn't Putin do anything dramatic to try to stop this ahead of time?

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yeah, Wolf, out of all the questions that have come out the last 36 hours, that is certainly accumulating in my mind, because I think that even the casual observer, even those who were simply watching all of this from the outside could clearly see that Prigozhin was beginning to edge closer and closer to saying and doing things that, as little as six months ago, would have been completely anathema for the Kremlin and for Putin. And so you wonder how unplugged Putin really is.

You had seen signs of this during the height of COVID where he had retired to a locations that no one knew exactly where he was, acting very in insulated fashion, and one simply has to wonder whether or not what he must of been listening not willing to listen to the intelligence they were being given to him, or basically the fear providing this bad information to him. But a major miss on the Kremlin's part not to see this coming.

BLITZER: What message does it send that Wagner forces actually got within about 120 miles or so from Moscow, facing very little, if any resistance before Prigozhin backed down?

HALL: Got to be chilling for the Kremlin and for the Russian intelligence services, and for Putin himself. So not simply the fact that he got halfway to Moscow, but he got halfway to Moscow not only with not a fight against him, but apparently with considerable support.

Again, I think just a couple of weeks ago, you referred to me is saying things like, well, you know, the FSB, the internal security services inside of Russia to spend a lot of resources trying to make sure that nobody arises up against the Kremlin. That is certainly true, they are very concerned about that, but clearly, even FSB and other internal security forces, they appear to be so thinly stretched in Ukraine where they also have responsibilities that they proved an able to inform or do anything about what Prigozhin tried to pull off.

And now, the only thing that is apparently left is to get him out of the country, and that is, again, a pretty weak and divided Kremlin.

BLITZER: Yeah, good point.

[08:25:01]

What factors do you think, Steve, actually wound up playing into Prigozhin's quick turnaround? HALL: That's, in my mind, that is one of the biggest questions out

there. There is no doubt as to why he did what he did. You know, he is, of course, interested in trying to expand his own power base as much as he can. He was very upset, of course, about how he was being treated, or at least so he said, by the Kremlin.

It looks like he could have walked into Moscow with all his troops and then some damage. Clearly, he became aware of something, or something was message to him as to how it perhaps might not be as easy as he thought it would have been. And then he found himself in a no win situation.

He has already directly criticized Putin, he has already directly attacked, not physically. But attack to the Kremlin, and perhaps he just lost his nerve and said, jeez, how am I going to get out of this. Of course, Putin was not much a better position himself.

So it is really positioning over the coming weeks to get over the intelligence of why he made the decision to stop.

BLITZER: How might this all played out, Steve, if Wagner forces that already reached Moscow?

HALL: Yeah, that might have been part of the calculation on Prigozhin's part. Because, it is one thing to march through some sparsely populated countryside, it is another to make it to the capital city and to the center of all power in Russia, and then actually have to do something in it, in other words, conduct a successful coup, if that's what his intentions were, which I don't believe his intentions were ever just to march on administrative defense and complain directly to Shoigu, I think you have gone further.

But that would've been a significant thing to successfully pull off. So, you know, one of the explanations as to why he stopped might have been that he might have thought, when I make it to Moscow, what am I going to, who are my allies it how hard is the impact going to be? And probably, it would've been a pretty tight one.

BLITZLER: You're absolutely right. Steve Hall, thank you very much for your excellent analysis.

Still to come, Prigozhin's rebellion was a brief, but is the damage already done, we are going to be live on the ground in eastern Ukraine to see how they are reacting to an unfolding across the border are not too far away.

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[08:31:21]

WALKER: H I everyone. Welcome back to CNN THIS MORNING. I'm Amara Walker alongside Victor Blackwell, our colleague Wolf Blitzer in London. And we continue to follow the latest developments out of Russia following an armed rebellion by Wagner mercenaries.

BLACKWELL: We'll check back in with Wolf in just a moment. But first let's get you caught up on what's happening in Ukraine.

WALKER: While the world's attention turns to Russian infighting the country's devastating attacks on Ukraine grind on.

BLACKWELL: Five people were killed in a missile attack on Kyiv. And two were killed and at least eight others injured when Russian forces shelled settlements in eastern and southern Ukraine this weekend.

CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman joins us now live from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

Ben, Ukraine has also been watching the turmoil in Russia. Give us the latest there.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They were watching it Victor, Amara, very closely. Obviously, if Russia were, for instance, to collapse, if there were to be a civil war, it would have made a huge difference to the war here.

So basically, all day yesterday Ukrainian officials were relatively silent, really just watching like everybody else in Ukraine what was going on inside Russia.

It was only later in the day that we heard, for instance, from one senior adviser to President Zelenskyy who said that Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group, had almost nullified in his words Putin, that he humiliated Putin as a result.

But when all was said and done and Prigozhin stopped his so-called march for justice on Moscow and went back to base, turned his men around, things sort of went back to normal. So what we saw overnight were those air strikes in Kyiv that left five people dead from falling debris.

Now, what we do know from the Ukrainian military is that they have made some progress in the area around Bakhmut, which in May was taken over by Russian forces.

According to Ukrainian officials, they were able to take a stretch of trenches outside that city, about a kilometer long, that's about 0.6 of a mile. But they did say in the process that they were able to kill, wound or capture an entire Russian battalion.

Now, we don't know how many men that is. Normally a Russian battalion can range -- have up to a thousand people. But it certainly indicates that the Ukrainians are pushing ahead with their counter offensive, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Ben Wedeman for us there in Zaporizhzhia. Thank you.

Coming up, the insurrection that ended almost as quickly as it began. We'll head back out to Wolf Blitzer in London for the potential implications and consequences. [08:34:08]

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BLITZER: This morning Russian officials say Wagner fighters are continuing to withdraw from multiple regions after backing down from their stunning advance on Moscow.

We're tracking all the fall-out from this truly historic moment inside Russia. The most significant challenge to Vladimir Putin's control in his more than two decades in power, some 23 years in power. Despite this deal to end the insurrection, at least for now, the implications for Putin and his war in Ukraine are still very much unknown.

We're joined by CNN military analyst, retired Major General James "Spider" Marks. Spider, thanks so much for joining us.

Putin faces a very different reality in the aftermath of this truly stunning move by Prigozhin and his Wagner forces. What are you watching for in the coming hours and days?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, primarily, Wolf, what I'm looking at is what is taking place on the ground in Ukraine? How has this departure -- and I won't say disintegration or implosion of the Wagner group because they are still an entity and some type of being. I don't know what the command and control apparatus looks like. Certainly Prigozhin is gone for the time being.

So I'm focused on what's happening on the ground and the Ukrainian forces clearly must stay focused on the task at hand.

[08:39:52]

MARKS: It is figuring out what the Russians are up to, figuring out where the best place to conduct their offensive operations, that's intelligence collection, that's aggressive firing, aggressive maneuver. And then trying to exploit (ph) some advances.

It would be foolhardy, and the Ukrainian forces know this, to assume that the Russian forces are now distracted in some way. They should not do what the Russian forces did when they invaded, which is underestimate the enemy.

The Ukrainian forces have got to stay focused. That's job number one.

And then number two, I'm very interested to find out what happens internally. Look, the outreach of America has always been over the course of decades into Russia has been into the liberals and the reformers. That hasn't done as much good, has it?

And also over the course of the last 30 years, the Russian population is not very politically active. They have gotten to a better place in life.

So I'm kind of curious as to whether there is an increased weakened state in terms of Putin's control.

BLITZER: Russia says these Wagner mercenary fighters will actually be folded in to the Russian military. But how plausible is that, General?

MARKS: Yes. Wolf, that's a great question. On the ground, that's incredibly difficult to do. Look, you have this mercenary force that plays by its own rules. And it's leadership has been incredibly dismissive of the leadership of the conventional military, I mean to the point of extreme insubordination, if you will.

So it's going to be very difficult at the soldier level to bring these two forces together. They are not immediately aligned. And on the ground, you're going to have some real difficult times trying to bring them in together.

Now, if they stay a separate force off to the side but still in the command and control up to Shoigu, that may work. But I guarantee you, Prigozhin and Shoigu have been at each other's throats.

So it's going to be a very, very difficult task for Wagner to have influence on the ground in Ukraine. I look at what the Wagner group can do, if they're still part of the ministry of defense going forward, what of their influences in places like Africa and elsewhere? Not in Ukraine and Russian areas?

BLITZER: Yes, important point. Russian-state TV, by the way, just aired a four-day old interview with Putin in which he talks about paying, what he calls, paramount attention to his so-called special military operation in Ukraine. What do you make of that?

MARKS: I don't know that Putin has really taken his eye off the ball. I'm not sure what the message is that he is now suddenly interested. He's going to take -- you know, spend some critical time, paramount attention to what's happening in Ukraine.

I think what the message probably is, is hey, guys, I have never really walked away from this. My finger's on the pulse. I'm engaged.

And what's not being said is, hey, look, things are not going according to plan. This is not exactly what we wanted to do.

You will never hear that from the Russian leadership in multiple locations and at multiple levels. You will never hear that.

So I think this really is, hey, look, I'm still in charge. I got it. And if anything, if you think I'm weakened, you know, give it a shot. Look at what happened to Prigozhin, which is a creature of my own making. I let this creature exist. But look at what happened to him. He's now gone away.

I guarantee you, for us to assume that Prigozhin now is going to live in Belarus in some protected capacity, I think, would be foolish. I think Prigozhin's days are numbered.

BLITZER: We shall see. Major General, retired, James "Spider" Marks -- thanks very, very

much. Still ahead, the Belarusian president apparently played a key role in the negotiations that ended an armed insurrection before it got to Moscow.

We're going to dive into how Aleksandr Lukashenko has become a pivotal player in the situation.

[08:43:50]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The exact whereabouts of the Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, they are unknown, at least at this hour. But when he eventually reveals himself, it may be in Belarus, the neighboring country.

That country and its leader have been long-time allies of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. And this weekend, Aleksandr Lukashenko played a critical role in ending an armed insurrection inside Russia.

Our Salma Abdelaziz has more on the Belarusian president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aleksandr Grigoryevich Lukashenko.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He has ruled Belarus like a person fiefdom, tolerating little opposition and occupying the post of president from its creation in 1994.

But Aleksandr Lukashenko, dubbed Europe's last dictator, has come to be defined by his fealty to Russia's President Vladimir Putin, transforming Belarus into a near vassal state.

President Putin used Belarus to help launch his 2022 invasion of Ukraine, driving Russian tanks over the Belarus border towards Kyiv and using Belarus skies to bomb their neighbor.

ALEKSANDR LUKASHENKO, BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT: We will never be enemies of Russia, and we will never look disapprovingly at Russia. This is the country closest to us, the people closest to us. I think that while we are in power, we will stick to this tendency. If it were otherwise, it would be like in Ukraine.

ABDELAZIZ: The war drove Lukashenko into Putin's embrace. And Putin tightened his hold, pledging to station nuclear weapons in Belarus.

It hasn't always been the post-Soviet paradise Lukashenko bragged about. After claiming more than 80 percent of the vote in 2020's election, described by Western governments and fraudulent Lukashenko faced nationwide protests.

"Get out", they shouted. He responded with force.

[08:49:58] ABDELAZIZ: The woman who ran against him whose husband Lukashenko had already jailed was forced to flee.

SVIATLANA TSIKHANOUSKAYA, BELARUSIAN POLITICAL ACTIVIST: Thousands of people are in prisons for politically-motivated cases. Hundreds of thousands had to flee Belarus because of repressions and one day we could wake up and see that Belarus is left (ph) the consolation prize for Putin.

ABDELAZIZ: He is a product of his Soviet past. Lukashenko's Belarus sometimes can seem like a time capsule, replete with Soviet symbolism. Unlike in Russia, the KGB was never disbanded or even renamed.

And he has often resorted to strong arm tactics. When a Belarusian dissident was a passenger on a plane flying over the country in 2021, Belarus' air traffic control called in a bomb threat and the man was arrested.

Before entering politics, Lukashenko ran a collective farm. He has often had himself filmed as president digging up carrots or potatoes to show how he never forgot his roots.

But the Belarusian strongman has always had an eye on the future, balancing relations with his powerful neighbors while apparently d grooming his young son, sometimes dressed in military uniform and often present for meetings with world leaders to take over.

Now his intervention to broker a truce in Russia and decision to host Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin may spell a new chapter for the autocratic leader.

Salma Abdelaziz, CNN -- London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Salma, thank you very much.

We're going to continue to follow, of course, all these developments out of Russia throughout the morning and throughout the entire day here on CNN.

And an important note, Dana Bash will continue our special coverage right at the top of hour. She'll be speaking with the Secretary of State Antony Blinken. This is very, very significant.

I'll see you back here at 2:00 p.m. Eastern later today with more on what has been a truly historic weekend in Russia.

I'm going to be watching very closely if the president of the United States comes back from Camp David and meets with his top national security advisers over at the White House Situation Room and whether the Secretary of Defense or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they convened the top civilian and military leadership over in what they call The Tank, the top secret secure conference room at the Pentagon to discuss what's going on for the implications for the U.S. and the NATO allies right now and all of this are enormous. Our special coverage will continue right after a short break.

[08:52:29]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Diners sitting half way around the world might soon be able to enjoy a New York pizza baker's specialty or a Paris chef's signature dish served up fresh at their home.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has today's "Innovate".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nikhil Abraham is on a mission to recreate some of the world's finest dishes with some computerized help.

NIKHIL ABRAHAM, CLOUDCHEF: What we did was the technology where a chef could come into one of our kitchens, be if from your favorite restaurant in Paris or even from your grandmother, and we could then recreate this recipe without the chef.

YURKEVICH: Abraham and his co-founders developed this specialized software and are putting it to use in a new start-up kitchen called CloudChef.

ABRAHAM: We started with Indian food because we were missing some of our favorite restaurants from back home.

YURKEVICH: Chef Annika Goldbulli(ph) is testing the technology. As she cooks, sensors record the entire process, breaking it down into thousands of data points.

ABRAHAM: You have cameras looking at the contents of the pan, looking at colors, in some cases pictures. There are infrared cameras figuring out how hard each individual item is.

YURKEVICH: After her dish is recorded it can be reproduced at any of the sensor-powered stations. And the results --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't taste the difference in it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Literally everything is duplicated.

YURKEVICH: Chefs receive a royalty every time one of their dishes is ordered. Right now CloudChef have dishes from Michelin-starred chef available for pickup and delivery in Palo Alto, California. But they are looking to expand their kitchens and menus soon by bringing the world's greatest cuisine to your home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: More than 50 million people are under threat for extreme heat in parts of the south today. In some places it will feel like 120 degrees. WALKER: That is unbearable. Gosh.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar joining us now with more, Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right. It's summer. Look, we get it, it's supposed to be hot. But it's all about the acclimation for a lot of these folks. This is the first real big heat wave they've seen so their bodies haven't necessarily acclimated to the heat. That is why you have a lot of these excessive heat warnings and heat advisories out for about nine states.

Also some of these aren't just slightly above normal, we're talking potential record-breaking temperatures over the next several days.

Houston for example, going from a high of 100 today up to 102 by Tuesday. (INAUDIBLE) 102 up to 103 on Tuesday.

So those temperatures are even going to continue to go up as we go into the middle portion of the upcoming week.

The only spot for a cool down is where you're also going to have some rain in the mix. So areas of the Midwest, the northeast and the southeast all looking at a potential for some rain today.

But a hyper focused area over much of the Ohio and Tennessee Valley where we also have the potential for some severe thunderstorms.

[08:59:55]

CHINCHAR: The main threats will be large hail, damaging wind gusts and the potential for some tornados from Michigan down to Louisiana.

The main focus is going to be this afternoon and in the early evening hours but some folks will see this continue into Monday.

BLACKWELL: All right. Allison, we have to get that microphone some new batteries. Getting a little crackling there. All right. Allison, thanks so much.

And thank you for joining us this morning.

WALKER: Thank you for being with us.

"STATE OF THE UNION" with Dana Bash starts right now.