He's long been a well-known mercenary leader around the world. Now, Yevgeny Prigozhin is a wanted man in Russia as well. He's often merciless. Group of fighters is now pitted against the Russian military leadership, and Prigozhin is suddenly Moscow's public enemy number one. Vladimir Putin calling for productions group to lay down their arms to attack Grozny. 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. He may now be something of a nemesis to Vladimir Putin. But it was his decades long relationship with the Russian president that allowed Prigozhin to establish his own militia. The Wagner group Wagner. Wagner served as a private army, doing controversial jobs that often not even Russia's military could do. Prigozhin, a former prisoner himself and self-styled hard man from Saint Petersburg, used Wagner to operate around the world. CNN has tracked Wagner mercenaries to the Central African Republic, Sudan, Libya, Mozambique, Ukraine and to Syria. Along the way, Prigozhin enriched himself. Rights groups have accused Wagner of horrific violence like this of Bognor fighters allegedly smashing the feet and hands of a Syrian prisoner with a sledgehammer in 2017. The man reportedly died after his ordeal. The images are incredibly disturbing. Like so many others attributed to his group. For many years, Prigozhin denied the existence of Wagner. Its work best done in secret A master of mythmaking. It was Prigozhin and Wagner, who set up the notorious Russian troll farm used to spread disinformation around the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But when his fighters took to the battlefield in eastern Ukraine and began winning battles, Prigozhin seemed to want the spotlight vested once. It should be, yeah. The dark mode operation began on October eight 2022 in order to give the battered Russian army an opportunity to recover Our guys stormed this city for 224 days. There were only Volker private forces here. His tactics included flinging poorly armed and poorly trained troops into the so-called meat grinder of war in Ukraine's east, suffering a shocking number of casualties in an attempt to overwhelm defenses Prigozhin rubbed his victories in the face of Russia's flailing Defense Department, venting his fury at that haphazard ness and ill planning of Russia's illegal invasion and chastising the Russian top brass, mocking Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. We do major items the way you think you are the masters of this life. Yeah. Don't you think you can dispose of their lives if you think because you have warehouses full of ammunition, that you have that right now, the Kremlin's secret weapon may be its biggest threat. You're chance to play by your so. As you can see there, Wolf, Yevgeny Prigozhin, someone who has risen to power very quickly, it was quite interesting because over the past couple of months, as we've been seeing all this unfold, this feud between Yevgeny Prigozhin and the defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, it always seemed as though Vladimir Putin was sort of trying to be the puppet master of both of them playing them out against one another. Well, now it certainly seems as though Yevgeny Prigozhin has turned on Vladimir Putin. Wolf, as far as Ukraine is concerned, one can imagine Ukrainians would be celebrating in this chaos that's unfolding in what they regard as the enemy camp, namely in Russia. Rest of the city that the Wagner group apparently now controls. It's a military important major transportation hub for the Russian military. What does it mean for Russian forces in Ukraine if that city remains in the hands of the Wagner group? And for Ghosn's forces? Could Ukraine use that situation to its advantage? Well, certainly, Wolf, they would use that because Rostov on Don is the location of the headquarters of the southern military district in Russia. But it also is a huge pipeline, as you just said, for a lot of logistics. In fact, the Ukrainian forces have been trying to intersect the logistics line. They go on the M4 and the M 14 highway. They go into region. Her Harrison Province, So when you block those logistics, you certainly grind down the capability of Russia to conduct combat operations. But the other thing is that's interesting is, yes, Prigozhin and his Wagner group surrounded Rostov on Don last night, but now they're about halfway to Russia, and they're in their forward elements in a town called Brezhnev So that is going to cause Mr. Putin to say, I've got to continue to protect and bring my palace guards forward, surround the city of Russia and make sure that this coup attempt, whatever you want to call it, if that's the proper term, doesn't take place, and that I protect the Kremlin, Red Square and you've seen as early as last night and I know you know this there were many military vehicles in Red Square, security forces all around the city of Moscow. So they're very concerned about extensive operations by Wagner getting more toward the capital city of Moscow and causing more disruption for Mr. Putin. We know, General, that so many Russian troops have been deployed to Ukraine, and they're obviously fighting there. They're fighting the Ukrainian forces who are now launching a counteroffensive. Do the or does the Russian military have enough troops remaining in Russia right now to fight the Volga? The Wagner forces they didn't have enough troops to fight the Ukrainian forces, and that's part of the problem, Wolf. So, no, as Bognor pulled away from the front lines in Ukraine, they left massive holes with now this new action of actually leaving completely the country. And Bognor focusing their effort on the Russian government. There are huge holes in the front line. But I put a caveat to that a little bit, Wolf, because the defensive positions that that Russia has been putting in place for the last six months are still there. So there are mines and trenches and wire and Russian forces who probably don't yet know exactly what's going on and they're confused, are still in their defensive positions. So we're as there might be celebration by some Ukraine, I'm sure the Ukrainian commanders are taking this very slowly, trying to find where the new holes are in the front lines that have been caused by foreigners that redeployment. Back to Russia, if you will. So the Ukrainian forces, if they're smart, are looking for new places to attack, but they've still got to deal with all of those mines that are in the ground and all the trenches that have been dug over the last six months with Russian forces behind them. We're told that U.S. allies, NATO's allies across Europe right now, they are monitoring the situation in Russia very, very closely. The stakes are significant. What is the top priority for the U.S. and its NATO's allies? Right now, General? Well, what I'd say, you're right. General Chris Campbell, EW.com headquarters, the four star that's in charge of the U.S. forces and NATO's forces, is watching the intelligence very quickly. Where are the lines of Russian forces moving? What is happening in terms of their military capability? What logistics bases are now opening up and how can they contribute to the information that Ukraine probably already has to say what is truly happening and how can you use that in your favor? But they are also looking for the potential for more I'd say just more chaos from the Russian government. And, Wolf, what you you know what? I think some of the David Sanger sort of alluded to this during the last hour. The Russian government is not a true government right now. They are a criminal organization. So you're having a fight between mafia bosses, between Shoigu and and Pagos and Gareth's a mob and some of the generals and of course, Putin. And we can't think of this as really good decision making inside of a government that's trying to do the best they can to win a war. What we see instead is a bunch of capos attacking each other in a Mafia, trying to gain power and more money. It's been corrupt like this in Russia for at least the last two decades and an extreme scale. And it's going to continue. And now it's coming home to roost. The Kremlin, as you know, has spoken with the leaders in some some neighboring countries, including Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhs, Is there a concern, General, that the unrest in Russia might spill over into other Putin aligned countries? You know, Wolf, I'm going to predict that that exactly will happen. And when I was commander in Europe, we watched that very closely. The actions inside of Moscow would certainly affect them, the actions in places like Tbilisi, Georgia, or some of the other stans. You know, they have been under Russia's thumb. They have been under Mr. Putin's thumb. And, in fact, many of the soldiers that Russia has has deployed and mobilized have come from those outlying areas. And places like Belarus, which is tenuous at best with Mr. Lukashenko, are now feeling feeling like they don't have the support of a government that looks a little bit like it's starting to crumble and be and be more dysfunctional than it already has. So, yes, I would suggest having been a reader of the other countries associated with Russia, that this is probably call it, causing a whole lot of problems in a lot of foreign capitals right now.
