hello and welcome to our viewers watching us here in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes. appreciate your company. we begin, of course, with the dramatic turn of events in russia. at this hour, moscow is calm as you can see there. traffic restrictions still in place on a major highway in moscow and the tula region

because of an insurrection led by the leader of the wagner mercenaries that ended nearly as soon as it started. an apparent clash between wagner and russian troops which was followed by a fire at that oil refinery you see on your screen there. under the deal done, the kremlin says wagner troops will not face any legal action, but they'll sign new contracts with russia's defense ministry while moscow will drop its charges against prig prigozhin, who will go to belarus. wagner's leader says he agreed to that in order to avoid bloodshed. >> translator: therefore, realizing all the responsibility for the fact that russian blood will be shed from one of the sides, we turn our columns around and leave in the opposite direction to the field camps, according to the plan. >> the kremlin says it doesn't know where prigozhin is right

now. what you see there is video of people cheering as he left ross stor-on-don where his troops seized military facilities on saturday. officials now tell cnn the u.s. intelligence believes prigozhin was planning to challenge russia's military leadership for a while, while washington did not see any change in russia's nuclear posture despite all the turmoil. ivan watson monitoring the developments in russia. he joins me now from hong kong. an extraordinary day by any measure. where do things stand now in terms of prigozhin and his future? >> reporter: well, prigozhin himself has been conspicuously silent. he's a bit of a loudmouth who's all over social media normally. since his final audio message where he announced he was turning his troops around, that they had accomplished their plan, we haven't really heard from him. and even the kremlin says that it does not know where he is right now.

i think that russians, including the elite, are just beginning to digest the whiplash of saturday's mercenary mutiny which apparently has come to an end. i'm going to play you a clip from one of the chief kremlin p propagandaists. he was clearly troubled because he has done a lot of work alongside the wagner fighters in ukraine, promoting them as heroes. and all of a sudden, in his own words, russia was on the brink of a civil war. take a listen. >> translator: the country was on the brink of tragedy. it was a very difficult day. it was a day where, if not many, then very many have revealed themselves. a day that cannot be forgotten. lessons that have to be considered. it should be closely examined,

who said what and when and how they behaved. >> he goes on to say that helicopter crews and pilots were killed on saturday. yevgeny prigozhin himself said his forces downed at least one helicopter that he said threatened his forces. ramazan had sent troops to help support the russian security forces to potentially face off against prigozhin's wagner mercenaries. thousands of them, according to churkin state media. and he has gone on the record saying -- condemning prigozhin even after this deal has apparently been struck, saying that, quote, mixing business ambitions with matters of national importance were a bad thing to do. on the other side of this are critics of the putin regime. i'm going to highlight a tweet

from one group, that pusie riot, that kind of art punk band whose members were jailed for two years for criticizing vladimir putin in one of their performances. they wrote, "criminal cases have already been dropped from prigozhin? six downed helicopters, a couple of dead pilots and the criminal case was removed. and i served two years for dancing." and then, of course, there's a clown picture of vladimir putin. so again, we're getting different interpretations of what happened, but clearly people are uncomfortable with what happened in russia on saturday. >> yeah, extraordinary stuff. putin now, of course, he's been challenged, some would say found wanting. where do you think he stands in terms of control and respect? >> reporter: well, he has illustrated that when an armed force comes charging into russia, it can make it almost to the gates of moscow without

being stopped by his own security forces. that it can take over the headquarters of the russian military in the south of the country without firing a shot. that's what prigozhin forces, what his forces succeeded in doing on saturday. and i think as a number of observers have said, prigozhin has demonstrated that vladimir putin no longer has the monopoly on the use of force in his country after 23 years in power. >> i want to ask you too about belarus. why would prigozhin go there? why was alexander lukashenko the dealmaker? >> reporter: right. well, belarus is a much smaller country than russia. it's in a union with russia. and it's very much the junior partner and ally of vladimir putin. that is, alexander lukashenko very much beholden to his godfather, so to speak, putin, who has helped save him from an uprising after a fiasco with

elections in belarus two years ago. out of the blue, in the midst of this very serious crisis and challenge to vladimir putin's authority which putin himself compared to the 1917 bolshevik revolution, out of the blue, suddenly the kremlin and the belarus government announced they've brokered a deal with prigozhin. the kremlin arguing that, well, luke sheng cohas known prigozhin for more than 20 years and that's where some of the trust is and that prigozhin will go there. with no kind of further details of under what conditions and will he still have command and control over the wagner mercenaries? not only in ukraine and in russia, but also in africa where they're involved in mining and all sorts of business there. these are big questions. and recall, michael, on saturday, the russian security forces were raiding the wagner offices in their headquarters in

st. petersburg and going through there. that's how volatile this situation was. and then just hours later, the kremlin announces it's dropping all charges against this man who was conducting, leading a march, a military march on the russian capital. >> yeah, you just get the sense there are more shoes to drop in all of this, ivan. appreciate it. ivan watson there in hong kong for us. all right, joining me now is robert english, director of central european studies at the university of southern california. it's good to see you. so you wrote -- i read that yevgeny prigozhin wants to be russia's new czar. i mean, this may well not be over yet. but how's that looking for him? >> it's not looking as bad as some might think. you know, he lost. he stood down. putin won. but prigozhin is sort of like a

cesar in exile, right? someone who can still threaten from abroad, someone who has enormous credibility as a military leader, who has loyal troops. although he separated from them for now. and someone who's anti-corruption, anti-elite. his anger at the sort of self-satisified oligarchs in moscow resonates very strongly. so he could be a future threat as well. again, i draw the analogy with a julius cesar, who came to power that way with his private army challenging the corrupt elite. as roman history showed, generals sent into exile often came back to pose a second and maybe successful challenge. >> yes. yes, so you believe -- i mean, obviously he didn't do this on a whim. so you think he has a grand strategy that's yet to play out, and the last day or so is perhaps just a chapter in that?

>> i think vladimir putin is aware of the continuing threat as well, and there will be follow-on efforts to neutralize him, right? the fact that criminal charges were dropped, he's in a neighboring country -- doesn't mean putin is so foolish as to let the threat linger. it reminds us there could be another prigozhin. this is what's most concerning. we're all maybe excited to see putin's hold on power is shakier and the state is more fragile than we thought. but we should also think as much about what would happen next. it probably will be somebody like a prigozhin or another sort of military leader who pretends for power. not a liberal like anna vaulny or these other liberal critics of putin but a populist from the right who appeals to the same anti-elite, anti-corrupt instings, but has brutal dictatorial tendencies of their own. >> yeah, you wrote also that

putin's authority has suffered. i think you called it a shattering blow. you know, to continue the czar analogy, julius caesar, has the rubicon been crossed in terms of what's happened over so far, in terms of the stability of putin and the kremlin elite? is there now a no going back home in terms of change? >> i think so. this was a real watershed for an armed insurrection, as you correctly put it, to get so close to moscow. to develop, expabds, then make this open challenge and force concessions from putin before backing down. yes, putin's authority has suffered a shattering blow. and his legitimacy in the eyes of the public is much less now. these are things he can't recover. and he'll be forced to rule in an even more dictatorial fashion, which can become a vicious circle, because that will provoke more

dissatisfaction. the image, the all-powerful putin who's been around forever and will continue indefinitely, has now been punctured. >> he's always been notoriously careful, distrustful, paranoid, even, when it comes to those in his orbit. given that, are you surprised that he gave prigozhin such a long leash? he let him do the things he did and say the things he said. did he allow the useful tool too much room? >> he certainly did. and, you know, it's surprising. because putin has been a superb student of power and self-preservation. how could he transfer allow such a threat to emerge right beside him? this is somebody, of course that he nurtured. not just as an oligarch, as a businessman in st. petersburg, but then forget prigozhin funds the internet research agency, that troll farm that interfered in our 2016 elections.

he forms this private army that does putin's dirty work in syria, in african countries. all the while growing stronger. all the while on social media, promoting his own image. and only in the last two weeks did they try to bring him under control. and they waited too long. >> yeah. you touched on prigozhin's personality. if he magically at some point were to -- this is obviously massively premature -- become that czar, all of a sudden find himself the russian leader, what kind of leader would he be? he's no altruistic champion of democracy, that much we're sure of. >> no. as i say, he's no alexi navalny. he appeals to some of the same populist instincts. the anti-corruption, anger at the elite. but if someone like prigozhin came to power, i would expect martial law, i would expect summary executions of all of his enemies, and an iron-fisted grip

on power combined with a fascist-like appeal to nationalism. it would not be a happy chapter in russian history. and it strangely enough reminds us there are actually worse things than putin. don't forget, prigozhin's main line of work for the last decade has been killing people. and he's been killing more people on the ukrainian side probably than anyone else in the russian armed forces. not a nice guy. not a good prospective leader of a country that needs a liberal reformist after decades of putin. >> and killing plenty of his own guys by forcing them into the meat grinder. fascinating conversation. robert english, thank you so much, appreciate the time. in washington, there has been little said publicly about prigozhin's gambit, but senior u.s. officials have been on the phones with allies since it began. the white house says the president and vice president are getting regular updates on the

situation, that mr. biden had been in touch with the leaders of the uk, france, and germany. the common theme of all these high-level contacts has been to stress washington's unwavering support for ukraine, no matter how things played out in moscow. cnn's kevin liptak joins me now from washington with the very latest from there. tell us more about the d.c. reaction, what's going on at the white house? >>. >> reporter: certainly the big question i think at the white house, at the pentagon, is how this is going to affect the war in ukraine. because certainly on its face, it does seem like a distracted vladimir putin would be good for the ukrainians. but on the flip side, i think there is major concern among president biden's aides and certainly among the u.s. allies at what happens if putin decides to lash out because he sneeds to demonstrate some strength. and remember, this is a country with the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world. so that has been sort of a fact that has been looming over the response today. i think it's part what was has

informed the strategy of not really responding directly to the events on the ground in russia. you have not seen president biden come out and deliver any kind of statement of any kind. they have remained behind closed doors, and i think the point really is to not lend sort of the ability for putin to use that as a pretext to accuse the u.s. and nato of fostering this, to accuse this of being some sort of american plot. and in fact, when the president did get on the phone earlier today with u.s. allies, including the french president, emmanuel macron, the german chancellor, olaf scholz, and the british prime minister, rishi sunak, that is something i'm told that they did come to agreement on is that no ally, none of these leaders would come out and say definitively how they're feeling about this, about this -- about events on the ground there. so i think that that is what president biden was really trying to do. now, he did sort of maintain his schedule throughout the day. of course, after that briefing, he went up to camp david, that's

the presidential retreat in maryland, and he is being briefed. but certainly we shouldn't expect the president to come out and really say sort of a definitive statement going forward for that reason. >> i want to ask you too about the reporting that u.s. intel kind of saw this coming. they knew prigozhin was going to make a move? >> yeah, this is something that american intelligence agencies really have been monitoring over the last several months or so. it really is as early as january when officials looking at the intelligence described what they called a power struggle between the wagner group and the russian ministry of defense. and they said at the time that they believed that that would mount, that that would escalate over the coming months. and of course it did. and i was recently -- as recently as this past week, the intelligence agencies did brief members of congress as well as briefing the white house and the pentagon that the wagner group was making these preparations to

do what he eventually did over the last day or so. so that does give you an insight into how closely this is being monitored. now, do think that how quickly this escalated yesterday really did catch the white house off guard somewhat. you could see that. a number of officials, including the joint chiefs chairman, mark milley, and the national security adviser, jake sullivan, had planned overseas travel. they did have to scrap that travel. so it does give you a sense of how quickly this was escalated, how even though they had this intelligence, they didn't necessarily think that it would happen when it happened. so this is something that they will continue monitoring over the next week, what the intelligence is saying about what this means going forward. >> indeed. kevin, good to have your input, kevin liptak in washington for us. so where is yevgeny prigozhin? the kremlin says it has no idea where the wagner leader is after he abruptly called off that

threatened insurrection. the latest on what we know when we come back. trying to control my asthma felt anythining but normal. ♪ ♪ enough was enough. i talked to an asthma specialt anfound out my severe asthma is driven by eosinophils, a type of asthma nucala cahelp control. now, fewer asthma attacks and less oral steroids that's my nunormal with nucala. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. nucala is not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor.

tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. talk to your asthma specialist to see if once-monthly nucala may be right for you. and learn about savings at nucala.com there's more to your life than asthma. find your nunormal with nucala. i have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. so i'm taking zeposia, a once-daily pill. because i won't let uc stop me...from being me. zeposia can help people with uc achieve and maintain remission. and has been shown to reduce symptoms in as early as 2 weeks. zeposia is the first and only s1p receptor modulator approved for uc. don't take zeposia if you had a heart attack, chest pain, stroke or mini-stroke, heart failure in the last 6 months, irregular or abnormal heartbeat, if you have untreated sleep apnea, or take maois. zeposia may cause serious side effects including infections that can be life threatening and cause death, slow heart rate, liver or breathing problems, increased blood pressure, macular edema,

swelling and narrowing of the brain's blood vessels, and increased risk of pml-- a rare brain infection that usually leads to death or severe disability. tell your doctor if you are pregnant or plan to be. don't let uc stop you from doing you. if you're living with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, ask your doctor about once-daily zeposia.

- [announcer] do you have an invention idea but don't know what to do next? call invent help today. they can help you get started with your idea. call now 800-710-0020. insurrection in russia ended mere hours in one of the most audacious challenges to vladimir putin's authority ever witnessed. the kremlin says it doesn't know where prigozhin is right now.

he was last seen leaving ross stor-on-don in a vehicle, pausing briefly to shake hands with people, then driving away. and while this showdown may have been defused for now, the threat to putin's regime may be far from over. the wagner leader showed just how easily he could take over a major russian military installation and city and then send columns of troops racing towards moscow. some wagner mercenaries were halfway to the capital when prigozhin abruptly ordered them back. a personal appeal by the president of belarus, a close putin ally, is credited with persuading prigozhin to call off his rebellion. meanwhile, the ukrainian president, volodymyr zelenskyy, says that the russian president is, quote, very afraid following wagner's chief's insurrection. he also claimed that putin had left moscow, adding the russian president's own actions were to blame for the situation facing him. meanwhile, an adviser to

ukrainian president administration says the insurrection almost nullified putin. in a tweet he criticized the wagner chief for turning his forces around from a march toward moscow and reaching that apparent deal. kyiv also took advantage of the chaos in russia. the country's deputy defense minister says they launched simultaneous counter offenses in multiple directions on saturday. for civilians across ukraine, the chaos that infolded in russia seemed to change little about the war, as russian troops launched more missile attacks across the country. ukrainian air defenses intercepted 41 out of 51 russian cruise missiles and two iranian-made drones on saturday. that's according to ukrainian state media. at least three residents were killed in kyiv. more than a dozen injured after falling missile brelanded on an apartment building. an overnight russian missile

strike hit a residential area in southeastern ukraine. according to a ukrainian official, four houses were destroyed, more than two dozen damaged during the attack. ukraine, of course, was watching closely as that day of turmoil unfolded in russia. cnn's ben wedeman with this report from inside ukraine. >> reporter: what a long, strange day it's been. starting early with wagner chief yevgeny prigozhin claiming to have seized critical military facilities in the city of ras to have-on-don, including the headquarters of russia's southern military district, the strategic command center for much of russia's forces in eastern and southern ukraine. for ukraine, it seemed the enemy was turning upon himself. that the ripples of chaos and disorder in russia would reach the front lines here. ukrainian officials issued statements to the effect that this was the beginning of the collapse of russia, of a civil

war, with president volodymyr zelenskyy even suggesting that putin was on the run. >> translator: the man from the kremlin is obviously very afraid and probably hiding somewhere, not showing himself. i'm sure that he is no longer in moscow. >> reporter: wherever he was, everything changed when it was announced that prigozhin had agreed to stop his march on moscow and return to base. saturday evening, kyiv announced gains in a series of offensives around the now russian occupied town of bakhmut. but when all is said and done, the sound and fury of prigozhin's brief insurrection prigozhin's brief insurrection came to naught. prignow ports can know w where cameevery piece of cargo is. and where it's going. (dock worker) right on time. (vo) robots can predict breakdowns and order their own replacement parts. (foreman) nice work. (vo) and retailers can get ahead of the fashion trend of the day with a new line tomorrow. with a verizon private 5g network,

you can get more agility and security. giving you more control of your business. we call this enterprise intelligence. from the network america relies on. what are folks 60 and older up to these days? getting inspired! volunteering! playing pickleba...! ♪ tourists tourists that turn into scientists. tourists photographing thousands of miles of remote coral reefs. that can be analyzed by ai in real time. ♪ so researchers can identify which areas are at risk.

and help life underwater flourish. ♪ (♪) this electric feels different... because it's powered by the most potent source of energy there is ... you. this is the lexus variety of electrification ... inspired by, created for and powered by you. ♪

we moved out of the city so our little sophie could appreciate nature. but then he got us t-mobile home internet. i was just trying to improve our signal, so some of the trees had to go. i might've taken it a step too far. (chainsaw revs) (tree crashes) (chainsaw continues) (daughter screams) let's pretend for a second that you didn't let down your entire family. what would that reality look like? well i guess i would've gotten us xfinity... and we'd have a better view. do you need mulch? what, we have a ton of mulch. so, you've got the power of xfinity at home. now take it outside with xfinity mobile. a literal ton. like speed? it's the fastest mobile service around. with the best price for two lines of unlimited. only $30 bucks a line per month. that's hundreds in savings a year when you wave bye to the other guys. save hundreds a year on your wireless bill

over t-mobile, at&t and verizon. and right now, get up to $1000 off select samsung phones. switch today. welcome back to "cnn newsroom." wagner mercenaries have been withdrawing from their positions in russia after their leader, yevgeny prigozhin, called off an armed uprising against the military. some fighters receiving cheers and hugs from supporters as they left the southern region of rostov. prigozhin also showered with applause as he withdrew from a captured military facility in the area. the kremlin says he will soon leave for belarus after striking a deal to end the rebellion and stop an advance on moscow. his troops were heading towards

the capital, along the highway in a convoy of armed vehicles. part of the road has now been cleared, but restrictions are still in place around moscow. and after a chaotic day and a half, moscow relatively calm. we have live pictures for you. it is an uneasy calm in some ways, tempered by the most serious challenge to president vladimir putin's authority in decades. experts tell cnn that the problems he faces as a result of the insurrection are not over, and some in moscow say they can't ever fully put their guard down. >> translator: it's never been peaceful in russia. there's always some kind of unrest. something else. someone didn't share something, someone didn't like something. >> my colleague paula newton joins me from ottawa in canada to talk more about it. so when it comes to putin, he's always been a bit lacking in

trust even among those in his orbit. how has all of this played out in terms of what the public is seeing and hearing about what happened? >> reporter: you know, it's interesting. certainly the kremlin sought to try and control the narrative, as it normally would. but this time it seemed more for the purposes of avoiding panic than anything else. net blocks, which is a nonprofit that tries to monitor internet censorship, did indicate some news sites were blocked starting on friday night. and obviously we have to say that given the new laws in place in russia since they started the war in ukraine, you definitely cannot speak out against the war in ukraine. and there have been examples where people have been punished for doing so. having said that, michael, it's extraordinary just having reviewed some of the russian newspapers and what's on them right now that they really did cover this straight up in a way. and that's been interesting to me in the sense that russians, if they wanted the information, were able to get it. in fact, one of the newspapers

quoted the reporting we just had with kevin liptak. and in that sense, they continue to try and toe the line between giving russians information that they know cannot be denied, and at the same time, make sure that they do not have any dissent from it. it's an interesting line that they have been trying to tread, and i suggest that perhaps they might work a little harder, unfortunately, on that internet censorship in the coming days or weeks depending on how precarious the situation becomes in russia. >> yeah. you spent a lot of time in russia. you know the country well. and how the politics works. do you get the sense that putin is wounded in a political sense? maybe not in the next few days but months, even a year or two down the line? >> reporter: i think as difficult as it is to try and figure out, vladimir putin, the kremlin, and this country, no matter having covered it over a

generation now, it's unquestionable that people are looking at vladimir putin and wondering if he really has the hold on power that they demand he should have. and that comes not just from ordinary russians, but of course from the russian elites. and you know, when putin took over in 2000, he certainly promised that there would be order. order was not what we saw on the roads leading to moscow today. and there has been this slow creep of ukrainian conflict coming to the russian doorstep. it has in economic terms for months now. in the last several weeks, it has been much more acute in terms of actually threatening russians. at issue now is whether the russian elite will actually determine that there is a political alternative to vladimir putin, and if they can do anything to replace him. >> all right, paula, appreciate that. thanks so much. joining me is matt aguessen, staff writer for "the new yorker" and the author of "

"surviving autocracy." putin called what prigozhin did insurrection, spoke of being stabbed in the damage. how damaged do you think putin is? no matter what the apparent deal done is with the man who brought that about, is his foundation fractured? >> well, we can't tell if it's fractured until it actually -- the whole edifice actually collapses. but i think this is huge. this is the first real challenge to putin's monopoly on political action and putin's monopoly on force at the same time. it leaves 23 years, the 23 years that putin has been in power, right? and especially in the last few years, there's been nobody else speaking in public and being able to take political action. not to mention force. so even just people of russia having seen that this is possible and that it is possible

to get putin to react to it, more or less in realtime, is huge. does that mean that the putin regime will end before putin dies? we have no idea. but it does mean that it is in crisis. >> you know russia and russians very well. i mean, this isn't 1991 when "swan lake" played on tv when the coup went on. people know more these days about what's going on. what will people be thinking right now? do you have any sense of that, how much they would know? >> actually, i think people know a lot less than they did in 1991. >> really? >> 1991, there was a vibrant media scene and quite a lot of information flow. these days, the information regime is extremely restrictive. but it could become more res restrictive, and that's probably what putin is going to have to do. he's going to have to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

and the only way for him to do that is to really crack down on information in russia. and that probably means cutting russia off from the internet. >> wow. that would be quite something. because i guess regardless of how this ends, i'm curious how much would pregigozhin's claims there were many, but the main one, the reasons for the war were manufactured, a lie. how much would that hurt his credibility with the people? there would be a lot of angry mothers, i imagine? >> no, i think that's completely inconsequential. that's, you know -- the way propaganda works is creating chaos, creating instability of ideas and projecting the idea that nothing is knowable. in that sense, prigozhin's statements just go into that same melting pot of contradictory claims. that doesn't make a huge difference. but what makes a difference is

that prigozhin demonstrated to people who are reading telegram channels, who are watching putin on tv, who were in the streets of rostov, a very large and very important city where the headquarters, the southern headquarters of the russian military are -- they were seeing that someone else wields armed power in russia. that's what makes a difference. >> right, yeah, that makes sense. i guess putin lost, i don't know if confidence is the right word, but lost someone that he perhaps trusted a bit with prigozhin's actions. do you think more than ever, putin is wondering just who he can trust right now? >> we can't get inside putin's head, but we can say that one of the things that has made putin so effective at holding on to power is his paranoia. this is the first time that

someone beat him to the punch. usually he will jail people, exile people, or intimidate people before they get to say something in the public sphere or before they've seemed to present a threat to his rule. his reaction to opposition protests, to activism against him, has always been disproportionate precisely because he is paranoid, precisely because he tends to overestimate the ricks to his power. this is his first mistake in that arena, and that's huge. >> you know how it works better than me in russia. does the decline of a leader take time? >> in totalitarian societies, usually the decline of a leader does not take time. t usually it happens suddenly. it seems that this time, it didn't happen. so i don't think what we're going to be observing is some

slow, gradual loss of power. i think what we're going to be observe is next is intense crackdown that may or may not succeed in getting things under control. but whatever happens next is going to be drastic, and then there's another drastic protest if the crackdown basically fails to bring things under control. it will also be a major sort of event that will feel like the house of cards folding all at once. >> do the people then rise up? or can you not see that happening? popular protests? >> the regime is not going to be brought down by popular protests. >> right. >> the regime can only be brought down by people who are well-armed. >> yeah. fascinating analysis, as always. thanks so much, a pleasure.

>> thank you. now the insurrection led by wagner leader yevgeny prigozhin has reportedly been a long time in the making. still to come, a word from u.s. intelligence about his plot to challenge russia's military leaders. in just two weeks. uh... here i'll take that. -everyone:e: woo hoo! ensure max protein withth 30 grams of protein, one gram of sugar. enter the e nourishing moments giveaway for a a chance to win $10,000.

my husband and i have never been more active. shingles doesn't care. i go to spin classes with my coworkers. good for you, shingles doesn't care. because no matter how healthy you feel, your risk of shingles sharply increases after age 50. but shingrix protects. proven over 90% effective, shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. shingles doesn't care but, shingrix protects. shingrix is now zero dollars for almost everyone. ask your doctor about shingrix today.

hey all, so i just downloaded the experian app because i wanted to check my fico® score, but it does so much more. this thing shows you your fico® score, you can get your credit card recommendations, and it shows you ways to save money. do so much more than get your fico® score. download the experian app now.

a quick update on our developing story out of russia. officials are telling cnn that u.s. intelligence believes yevgeny prigozhin was planning to challenge russia's military leaders for quite some time. what you see there is video of him surrounded by supporters after he cut a deal with the kremlin to end his insurrection. moscow says it doesn't know where the wagner leader currently is. he was meant to go to belarus. u.s. officials also say washington didn't see any change in russia's military posture during his insurrection. but ukraine saw opportunity in all of that, launching multiple attacks across the eastern front on saturday. kyiv says it made progress in all directions but didn't give any details. since the war began in ukraine 16 months ago now, the belarusian president, alexander lukashenko, has been one of vladimir putin's few close

allies. he played a role in bringing saturday's crisis to an end through a negotiated establishment between yevgeny prigozhin and the kremlin before the situation escalated even further and russian lives were lost. cnn's chief u.s. security correspondent jim sciutto explains. >> reporter: it's interesting for lukashenko to have this kind of influence at this stage, because remember, back in the days before the invasion, lukashenko portrayed himself as the person who could negotiate a peace between putin and zelenskyy to avoid that war. of course, that effort failed, and perhaps was never serious, because putin was intent on invading that country. in this circumstance, it seems that lukashenko played a role. i mean, we should not exaggerate that role, because any final decision would be with the russian president, vladimir putin, himself. but perhaps lukashenko here, whose own leadership has been in question, his own actual control of his country has been in

question, to the extent that he had some influence here that in a way got putin out of a jam, right? you had an open rebellion against putin's leadership with forces marching on moscow. and lukashenko able to play a role, at least, in defusing that situation for now. and now, if russian officials are to be believed, this is where prigozhin is going to end up. the thing is, belarus is effectively an extension of russia. there are borders between them, but russia largely controls belarus, so his safety there, far from guaranteed. >> it should be noted that some russian forces began the war invading ukraine from belarusian territory and lukashenko has said his country will host russian tactical nuclear weapons. the chaos that unfolded in russia on saturday caught much of the international community off guard. but many of ukraine's european allies were on edge.

many of them expressing concern over political instability in a nuclear power. meanwhile, the italian prime minister, georgie miloneny, said russia's war in ukraine was driving instability within its own borders. >> translator: at the moment, it's hard to know exactly what is happening. but it's a situation of chaos inside the russian federation which clashes a bit with some of the propaganda we have seen in recent months. >> a challenge to vladimir putin's grip on power raises fears about what the russian president might do if he feels threatened, cornered. the biggest concern, of course, is russia's massive nuclear arsenal. cnn's kylie atwood with the latest from the state department. >> reporter: u.s. officials say they have seen no change in russia's nuclear posture since prigozhin has carried out this attempted insurrection. and we have seen president putin

engage in nuclear sabre-rattling throughout the course of the ukraine war. u.s. officials have been concerned that any escalation, any threat to president putin as a result of what happens on the battlefield could potentially lead him to feeling like he needs to assert his power and use those nuclear capabilities. but of course, at this moment in time, the threats to his power are not coming from ukrainian aggressions on the battlefield, they're coming from internal divisions within russia's fighting force. but still, he is presented with a situation that is threatening to his standing, to his power, presenting questions about what he could potentially do with russia's nuclear capabilities. we should note that just earlier this month, president putin said that russia had moved some of its tactical nuclear weapons into belarus. a state department spokesperson confirmed what u.s. officials are saying, saying that there has been no change to the

disposition of russian nuclear forces. and also saying there's no reason to address the conventional or nuclear force posture of the united states at this time. kylie atwood, cnn, the state department. coming up here on "cnn newsroom," we'll take a closer look at the architect of the armed insurrection in russia. inside yevgeny prigozhin's past and his history with the russian president, vladimir putin. ♪ it takes two to make a thing go right ♪ ♪ it takes two to make it outta sight ♪ ♪ one, two, get loooose now ♪ ♪ it takes two to make a... ♪ stay two nights and geget a $ 50 best western gift c car. book now at bestwestern.com. trying to control my asthma felt anything but normalal. ♪ ♪ engh was enough. i talked to an asthma specialist and found out severe asthma

is driven by eosinophils, a type of asthma nucala can help contr. now, fewer asthma attacks and less oral steroids that's my nunormal with nucala. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. nucala is not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. talk to your asthma specialist to see if once-monthly nucala may be right for you. and learn about savings at nucala.com there's more to your life than asthma. find your nunormal with nucala. (psst psst) ahhhh... with flonase, allergies don't have to be scary spraying flonase daily gives you long-lasting, non-drowsy relief. (psst psst) flonase. all good.

mamá, growing up... you were so good to me. you worked hard to save for my future. so now... i want to thank you. i started investing with vanguard to help take care of you, like you took care of me. te quiero, mamá. only at vanguard you're more than just an investor you're an owner. helping you take care of the ones you love. that's the value of ownership.

after advil dual action back pain... yo! uh! ha! ha! [dog bark] what? my back feels better. before advil... new advil dual action back pain fights back pain two ways. for 8 hours of relief.

right now in russia, things are pretty calm and quiet after an armed insurrection by the wagner paramilitary chief, yevgeny prigozhin ended abruptly. prigozhin has agreed to leave the country and head to belarus thanks to a deal brokered by the belorussian president alexander lukashenko. the video you see there is prigozhin leaving the headquarters in rostov-on-don in

southern russia. we don't know where he is right now. and he says that is wagner fighters who marched towards moscow will face no legal action and can sign contracts with the russian defense ministry. now, as the insurrection unfolded the wagner chief was announcing his every move on the messaging app, telegram, as cnn's political and national security analyst david sanger explains, yevgeny prigozhin is very adept at social media. >> it's been pretty brilliant, but that shouldn't surprise us given the fact that prigozhin himself is no amateur when it comes to social media. you'll remember if we just wind the clock back seven years ago he was running the internet research agency, the group that went out, sent people to the united states to go figure out divisive issues, came back and started posting from the internet research agency on facebook and elsewhere efforts

to basically send out disinformation and try to get -- to open up divisions within the american body politic. and they did it very effectively. they declare a protest in one place and then a counterprotest for the same day in the same place and try to create a small riot. they did this in texas. they did this in other places. so speed forward seven years and he's using telegram, a widely used messaging app and social media app as well. and he's announcing each of his moves, but he's also using it to declare that the defense ministry -- the defense minister, the famed head of the chief of staff of the russian armed forces are corrupt, incompetent, and the amazing thing is until, you know, today he didn't get shutdown. >> and our thanks to david

sanger there. and thank you for spending part of your day with me. i'm michael holmes. do stick around. i'll have more "cnn newsroom" in just a moment. imagine you're doing something you love. rsv could cut it short. ♪ rsv is a contagious virus ththt usually causes mild symptoms but can caususe more severe infections that may lead to hohospitalizations... ...in adults 60 and older... ...and adults with certain underlying conditions, like copd, asthma, or congestive heart failure. talk to your doctor and visit cutshortrsv.com. (vo) with verizon, you can now get a private 5g network. so you can do more than connect your business, you can make it even smarter. now ports can know where evy piece of cargo is. and where it's going. (dock work) right on time. (vo) robots can predict breakdowns and order theiown replacement parts. (foreman) nice work. (vo) and retailers can get ahead d of the day wh a new line tomorrow.

wi a verizon private 5g network, you can get more agility and security. giving you more control of your business. we call this enterprise intelligence. from the network america relies on. ♪ shelves. shelves that know what taste buds want. shelves smart enough to see, sense, react, restock. ♪ so caramel swirl is always there for the taking. ( ♪ ) unique style, ( ♪ ) cutting edge innovation... ( ♪ ) ...and thoughtful details... ...inspired by you. ( ♪ ) from the brand that delivers amazing ownership experiences,

this is the first ever, all electric, rz. this is lexus, electrified. so, you've got the power of xfinity at home. now take it outside with xfinity mobile. like speed? it's the fastest mobile service around. with the best price for two lines of unlimited. only $30 bucks a line per month. that's hundreds in savings a year when you wave bye to the other guys.

save hundreds a year on your wireless bill over t-mobile, at&t and verizon. and right now, get up to $1000 off select samsung phones. switch today.

hello and welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes. appreciate your company. we do begin with the dramatic turn of events in russia. at this hour moscow as you can see there for yourself a live image for you. it's calm, but traffic restrictions are still in place on a major highway connecting the capital with southwestern russia. all that after an insurrection led by mercenary leader yevgeny prigozhin came to an end as suddenly as it started. video and sound there of prigozhin's wagner mercenaries shooting in the air as they pulled out of the city of rosative rostov-on-don on

saturday. not apparently before a clash between rush troops. under the deal the kremlin says wagner troops will not face any legal action but they'll sign new contracts with russia's defense ministry while moscow will drop its charges against prigozhin who will go to belarus. wagner leader said that he agreed to that in order to avoid bloodshed. >> translator: therefore realizing all the responsibility for the fact that russian blood will be shed from one of the sides, we turn our columns around and leave in the opposite direction to the field camps, according to the plan. >> the kremlin says it doesn't know where prigozhin is right now. this is video of people cheering as he left rostov-on-don where his troops seized military facilities on saturday. officials now tell cnn the u.s. intelligence believes prigozhin was planning to challenge

russia's military leadership for a while while washington did not see any change in russia's nuclear posture during the turmoil. for more on all of this let's go to ivan watson in hong kong. iven, yevgeny prigozhin is not one to be quiet for long, but we've not heard from him since he left rostov-on-don, have we? >> no, not since he essentially declared victory and said his troops were turning around after getting, he claimed, within 200 kilometers of moscow and saying he didn't want to spill blood. so that's left basically russia and the world trying to digest what actually just happened here. and i don't think even people close to the kremlin really have a firm answer because it was just saturday morning that vladimir putin was making a televised address to the nation saying that this was a dire threat to the country, that he was comparing this to the 1917

revolution and raising the specter of a possible civil war. so one of the propagandists on state television on his program saturday night you could see him almost physically wrestling with the discomfort of wagner mercenaries who he had broadcast alongside including prigozhin himself who he had called heroes who had brought russia to the brink as he put it of a civil war. take a listen. >> translator: the country was on the brink of tragedy. it was a very difficult day. it was a day where if not many then very many have revealed themselves. a day that cannot be forgotten, lessons that have to be considered. it should be closely examined who said what and when and how they behaved. >> and another powerful figure in russia is the president of

chechnya who had deployed according to chechen media thousands of his forces to poe potentially confront the wagner mercenaries on saturday. even after the deal was announced the charges would be dropped for what putin described as an armed rebellion, he came out and condemned this saying i trusted prigozhin and he betrayed that trust. he also went onto say he called prigozhin a businessman who said that his anger stemmed from the fact that his daughter had not been provided a desired land plot by the authorities of st. petersburg. so we're getting hints at kind of disagreements that you might not typically hear about anywhere in certainly the

heavily censored russian state media. then there's the flip side. there are those rugs who are outspoken critic of the kremlin. and let's take a look at the tweet from the political art punk band whose members were jailed for roughly two years for coming out with a song that criticized putin. six downed helicopters and i served two years for dancing. and what they're referring to there is that prigozhin himself claimed to have shot down at least one russian military helicopter on saturday, and there were reports of other russian military aircraft that were also downed that we were not able to independently confirm that have been referred to in the russian state media. so people lost their lives, pilots and helicopter crews. and yet in this deal the kremlin has said nobody's going to face

charges for that. >> yeah, that -- yeah, that's fascinating stuff. i wanted to ask you, ivan, putin has always been seen as a tough man. he deals with critics in a tough way. you go to jail for calling it a war or for criticizing the military. but here he did a deal with a man he blamed for an insurrection, a treason just a day ago. what does that do to his standing, the respect, his control? >> reporter: well, one of the arguments that i think the kremlin has made is we did this to avert bloodshed and to avert the specter of civil war. so for the short-term you did not have this potentially catastrophic scenario of thousands of mercenaries who had fought hard in the trenches of ukraine, who have seen their comrades die and whose ranks are

supplemented by convicted criminals who have been recruited from russian prisons. you did not see them going toe to toe against the russian security forces. so in the short-term something has been avoided here. but longer-term anybody with political ambition in russia has just seen that a rival potentially this -- prigozhin could be described as a rival -- could lead his men on a charge, a cannonball run up the highways almost to moscow through a number of different provinces, where the russian authorities were left with fewer options than basically trying to cut off the highways or park trucks full of sand on the highways to try to block these advancing columns of mercenaries. and to avoid that, the kremlin struck a deal rather than follow up on the reputation that putin

has of completely eliminating any critics whatsoever. so it's hard to see this in any way other than putin lost credibility, his reputation as a strong man has been seriously dented. >> yeah, yeah, indeed. ivan, thanks as always. ivan watson there in hong kong. all right, let's take a closer look at the role belarus played in all of this. i'm joined by cnn's abdella aziz in london. >> first of all, there's a lot we don't know. we know a deal was struck, of course. we saw those images of prigozhin leaving rostov-on-don with people cheering, clapping, trying to shake his hand. really dramatic images there of a support in a city he says not a single shot was fired as he rolled in with his men and took over the southern command of

russia. but as of now neither the kremlin nor prigozhin are confirming where he is. and the question that follows that is what role does he take in belarus? belarus has essentially been a satellite state for russia. its leader alexander lukashenko owes president putin essentially for saving him when there were lections a couple years ago and he was able to support him through the opposition that he faced at that time. and president putin has used that iou, if you will, to launch att attacks. now the question is does prigozhin still continue to maintain some semblance of control over the wagner mercenaries? you'll remember that the deal also includes that these mercenaries have to sign contracts with the russian

ministry of defense. that's actually already been taking place before these events. but one could read between the lines there's going to be an attempt to assimilate prigozhin's men into the organized russian military. will that take place? will these men switch loyaltiys easily to the ministry of defense? and looking at the character, prigozhin, this very loud bombastic public figure who has openly challenged russia's military leadership for months you don't think he'll go silently into the night. over the last 36 hours he's gone from showing up the russian military to showing up president putin himself demonstrating that he's not the only one with a monopoly of power, as you heard from my colleague ivan watson there. that might be the greatest threat of all is indicating that weakness, showing that sign of ability to do that and get away with it. and you've heard how are critics treated in the past by president putin. they are silenced, they are

disappeared, they are potentially killed, and prigozhin gets away with it. >> so far. sal muabdul aziz, appreciate it. thanks so much. a lecturer in the war studies department in london. she joins me now from london. thanks for doing so. prigozhin wouldn't have done this for nothing, would he? the question is what does he get in return for turning back and going to belarus? what do you make of that deal? >> good morning, michael. i think that as has been mentioned so far there are too many question marks about this deal. most we know about this deal is actually what's we've been told by peskov, putin's spokesman. and i think one thing we've learned in the past year and a half we don't trust -- i don't

trust what peskov is saying right now about this deal. the biggest thing when i look at this deal is what guarantees is prigozhin getting? everything that's been said they're quite silent on the wag nar wagner side. so if that doesn't make sense then obviously there are other things that are in play there. now, one of the things we could consider is actually prigozhin wanted to leave ukraine. he wanted to get himself out of this situation that is clearly not going in the right direction. and with a ukrainian counter offensive may go in a sour way for the russians, and so he actually in a way could have wanted himself out of that situation. he wanted to get out of ukraine, and now he has this way. at a very high price, but also he gained some popularity and power on the way.

>> putin doesn't like being embarrassed, though, and surely this is just that, embarrassing. how might he handle that? how does he let the man who just launched an insurrection just -- just carry on? >> this is a very good question. i think that what we've seen yesterday when in the morning the president of russia is saying that maybe heading towards a civil war, but civil war with whom supposedly, right? isn't 25, according to prigozhin 25,000 armed men, yels, they pose some kind of risk. but a large -- at least a military power as russia claims to be, it shouldn't be too much of a threat. and this kind of mutiny, right? and in order for this to move from mutiny towards say insurgency and a civil war, then there needs to be some kind of popular support for the idea that prigozhin was putting forward.

and so i think that although putin is now kind of what the kremlin is trying to show to the russian population is that we stopped the bloodshed and so we're still in control, yes? but i think everything the kremlin was doing throughout the day yesterday showed immense witness specifically to the fact they thought -- prigozhin yesterday called this a march -- a justice march. the idea is a kind of justice against the kremlin and corrupt officials. that they would have some kind of hold within the russian population. >> i guess the reality of all of this is that putin lost control of a mercenary army run by his friend and then had to rely on lukashenko, a man he treats pretty much as a tool, to cut a deal with a man he called a traitor. do you expect any sort of crack down in the kremlin? what do you expect to happen in

moscow? >> so we see immense level of witness within the kremlin with how things develop. the fact he relies on lukashenko is yet another sign they didn't have the levers to kind of put prigozhin back into his place within the russian system. the thing is that the place that the kremlin allowed prigozhin to carve for himself was from the beginning very problematic. from the beginning they allowed a paramilitary organization to get its money from the client states where it serves for instance in syria, in libya, in africa, so it has resources that are outside of the russian -- this was from the start a poor faith in monopoly and poor faith in levers they have over him. so, yes, they need to fix the system, absolutely. but how? i don't see what kind of tools they have.

>> and real quick, do you think yevgeny prigozhin will be alive in six months? >> well, if he has any kind of reign, he should have some guarantee what happens to his life. he's for sure a man who showed us yesterday he's not going to go down silent. >> yeah, good point. fascinating conversation. thanks so much. appreciate it. >> thank you. all right, still to come here on the program the wagner insurrection didn't give ukraine a pruprieve from russia's onslaught of missile and drone attacks. we'll show you the damage when we come back. lowe's knows you never come in for just one thing. so we've got to know a lot of things about a lot of things. like which mower makes the cut. the mulch that finishes the look. and picking a color that pops. you got this. we got you.

neutrogena® retinol? that's whenever you want it to be. it has derm-proven retinol that targets vital cell turnover, evens skin tone, and smooths fine lines. with visible results in just one week. neutrogena® retinol. if we want a more viable future for our kids, we need to find more sustainable ways of doing things. america's plastic makers are investing billions of dollars in new technologies and creating plastic products that are more recyclable. durable. and dependable. our goal is a cleaner, healthier planet for generations to come. for a better tomorrow, we're focused on making plastics better today.

back when i had a working circulatory system, you had to give your right arm to find great talent. but with upwork, there's highly skilled talent from all over the globe. right at your fingertips. ♪ this is how we work now ♪ if you're looking for a medicare supplement insurance plan that's smart now... i'm 65. and really smart later i'm 70-ish. consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. with this type of plan, you'll know upfront about how much your care costs. which makes planning your financial future easier. so call unitedhealthcare today to learn more about the only plans of their kind with the aarp name. and set yourself and your future self up with an aarp medicare supplement plan from unitedhealthcare.

from big cities, to small towns, and on main streets across the us, you'll find pnc bank. helping businesses both large and small, communities and the people who live and work there grow and thrive. we're proud to call these places home too. they're where we put down roots, and where together, we work to help move everyone's financial goals forward. pnc bank.

to restore order after a mercenary chief yevgeny prigozhin called off his armed up rising against the russian military. the government still has some restrictions in place on a major highway which prigozhin's forces used to advance towards moscow. prigozhin says he's stopped the convoy after reaching a deal. you see him leaving rostov-on-don there. the kremlin says he's going to go to belarus and will not face criminal charges.

his rebellion represented a huge threat to vladimir putin's grip on power. and according to ukraine's president, it even frightened him. >> translator: i will say it in russian the man from the kremlin is obviously very afraid and probably hiding somewhere, not showing himself. i am sure he is no longer in moscow. he calls somewhere and asks for something. he knows what he is afraid of because he himself created this threat. all evil, all losses, all hatred. he himself who spreads it. and the longer he can run between his bunkers, the more you will all lose, everyone who is connected with russia. >> for civilians across ukraine the chaos unfolding in russia seemed to change little about the war as russian troops launched more missile attacks across the country. ukrainian air defenses did intercept 41 out of 51 russian cruise missiles as well as two iranian made drones on saturday.

that's according to ukrainian state media. at least three residents, though, were killed in kyiv. more than a dozen wounded after falling missile debris landed on an apartment building. meanwhile an overnight russian missile strike hit a residential area in south eastern ukraine, according to a ukrainian official. four houses were destroyed, more than two dozen damaged during that attack. u.s. officials are especially wary about saying anything publicly that the kremlin night constrew as interference or being involved in any way, so the biden administration has said very little, but behind the scenes the white house said the president and vice president are getting regular updates on the situation and that mr. biden has spoken with the leaders of the u.k., france, and germany. tell us more about the white house, the u.s. government reaction. >> reporter: yeah, i think right now the big question hanging over the white house is how

this -- these events might affect the war in ukraine because certainly on their face a weakened vladimir putin would potentially be good for the ukrainians. but i think on the flip side there is this question that is being asked now at the white house, at the pentagon is what president putin might do if he feels cornered, if he feels boxed in? will he lash out? and remember, michael, russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, and so this is sort of an ongoing worry for the white house. and i do think that has informed some of the strategy that you saw unfold over the last two days, which is basically to say nothing. and, in fact, president biden when he did get on that phone call with leaders from europe this morning, he did make the point and the leaders did agree that trying to say anything more than they've said had the potential to allow president putin this pretext for claiming some sort of american or nato

plot to take him out, and they really did want to avoid that because that is a play book that putin has used in the past. and so president biden, he was updated. he did leave for camp david around midday today. and he did bring with him the national security advisor, jake sullivan. so certainly he's being briefed very regularly on this. but i think the question that he and his officials will want to look at now is really what does president putin's grip on power currently look like? does this change anything in terms of his ability to lead russia? and i think that is something that they will really want to take a very close look at. this is certainly a very volatile moment in the 16 months since this war began, michael. >> indeed, it is thank you. kevin liptak there in washington following things for us. stay with us. when we come back how did the russian media cover the wagner rebellion as it unfolded? also one of the questions at

the top of mind now is why did prigozhin call off the uprising and agree to leave russia? some possible answers after the break. lowe's knows you never come in for just one thing. so we've got to know a lot of things about a lot of things. like which mower makes the cut. the mulch that finishes the look. and picking a a color that po. you got this. we got you. i've become a a bit of an expert in suncare... an spf-icianado if you will. my bottle of choice? neutrogena® ultra sheer a lightweight blend that protects 6 layers deep with a smoot dry-touch finish. neutrogena® ultra sheer [narrator] why is aaron happy? well, just days ago, his old wheels gave out. but he knew carvana had his back. that's because carvana had tens of thousands of cars under $20,000. so aaron's folks could help him out with a sweet ride. [aaron] no way. [narrator] yes way. with the most cars under $20,000 and our car vending machines,

we'll drive you happy at carvana. hey. what are you doing right now? you up for something impetuous? i'm a palm springs hotel. i got the desert air, sun-kissed pools, and shady hideaways. i'm looking for someone who can decide on a friday that a one night commitment on a saturday is a fine idea. maybe you heard of the rat pack? they hung out here all the time. so, pack a bag. or don't. you could be here in a few hours. meet me at hotels.com meet the future. a chef. a designer. and, ooh, an engineer. all learning to save and spend their money with chase. the chef's cooking up firsts with her new debit card. hungry? -uhuh. the designer's eyeing sequins. uh no plaid. while mom is eyeing his spending. nice. and the engineer? she's taking control with her own account for college. three futures, all with chase. freedom for kids.

control for parents. one bank for both. chase. make more of what's yours. and this is ready to go online. any questions? -yeah, i got one. how about the best network imaginable? let's invent that. that's what we do here. quick survey. who wants the internet to work, pretty much everywhere. and it needs to smooth, like super, super, super, super smooth. hey, should you be drinking that? -it's decaf. because we're busy women. we don't have time for lag or buffering. who doesn't want internet that helps a.i. do your homework even faster. come again. -sorry, what was that? introducing the next generation 10g network only from xfinity. the future starts now.

welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm michael holmes. you're watching "cnn newsroom."

and we do have an update from russia where traffic is still restricted on the major highway that connects the capital to rostov-on-don to the south. a local russian official says the highway is being repaired after it was damaged possibly by departing wagner mercenaries who'd been in the area. as for yevgeny prigozhin the kremlin says it doesn't know where he is right now. he was last seen, of course, leaving rostov-on-don in a vehicle, pausing briefly to shake hands and then driving away. some wagner mercenaries were halfway to the capital when prigozhin abruptly ordered them back. a personal appeal by the president of belarus, a close putin ally, is credited with sursueding prigozhin to call off his mutiny. so how much do the russian people know about wagner's rebellion considering media in russia has been restricted -- had restricted freedom to report news. my colleague paula newton joins

us now from ottawa, canada. and putin's always been wary of the messaging, controlling the messaging, and i guess has that been the case here as well? >> reporter: yeah. in an unprecedented way on friday night net phlox, an internet monitoring group reported in fact any kind of news monitoring site with search history, google news, were blocked in russia. russians do know how to get around that if they are looking for the information. and in fact, this is what was fascinating, michael. so many of the russian websites themselves and the russian newspapers kind of covered this straight up, giving a lot of information to people themselves, if they were looking for it. and i want you to listen now to what went on on state tv as this unfolded. listen. >> translator: a statement from the ministry of defense. all the statements spread on social media attributed to yevgeny prigozhin and video on alleged strikes are fake and

nothing more than a provocation. we add that president vladimir putin has been informed about the situation surrounding wagner group founder yevgeny prigozhin. all necessary measures are being taken. >> this wasn't what -- while people wanted russians to stay calm, there was certainly a threat to russia. putin made it abundantly clear as did the media around him, and that's what was so interesting about what unfolded in that 36 hours. >> i want to ask you about, too, i mean prigozhin is famous for his railing against the oligarchs, the children of the oligarchs, why aren't they at the front? were those rants a threat? >> reporter: they were most definitely a threat, and they started to rankle and really annoyed many quite a bit especially because he outlined this corruption in detail. that corruption leading right back to the russian military. in the early hours of this, you

know, alleged plot, he called it a march of justice, a march for justice. and what does that mean, as if somehow russians weren't being treated fairly by the military or their own regime, and that poses a large threat to putin himself. you know, it's incredible that a man that basically hasn't -- the only man that has been that blunt about russian corruption is, you know, navalny who is in prison at this point and fighting for his life. and at the same time yevgeny prigozhin decided this is what he would rail against in so many videos and audio messages. and for that reason i have to say in terms of his connections as well to ultranationalists, this was a person that no one wanted in power whether it was the west or vladimir putin. he is considered dangerous, certainly accused of so many atrocities around the world. but it was that unmasking of the russian elite that really proved

threatening. >> yeah, yeah, indeed. paula good to see you, my friend. paula newton there in ottawa. well, for several long hours yevgeny prigozhin seemed determined to march on moscow in that armed mutiny of his. prigozhin, of course, abruptly ended the rebellion and agreed to leave russia in a deal brokered by the president of belarus. the kremlin announced there will be no criminal charges against him. now many are wondering why did prigozhin agree to the deal. here's more now from cnn's nic robertson. >> reporter: i think there's a calculation here an evaluation that says he overreached. there wasn't the readiness in russia to support him to overthrow shoigu and less still to overthrow putin, overreach there, perhaps overreacted. he's seen as somebody who can get incredibly emotional, so potentially if his troops were

attacked and he did overreact and he extended himself and potentially realized his best way to back out of his overreaction and overreach, although, he was safe temporary in rostov-on-don is to find a deal that would allow him to move out of russia, at least lick his wounds and make his next move. he's an extremely untrut trustworthy character. it's amazing anyone thinks they can make a deal with him that's going to stick. perhaps he's chastened by the fact he's got a pardon and make the most of it and get somewhere moderately safer like belarus. but let's face it belarus is perhaps no more safe than russia anyway. russia reaches right into belarus. they claim to have based their tactical nuclear war heads there at the moment. lukashenko, the leader there is really propped up by putin. although suddenly lukashenko looks like the guy who's helping putin out of a hole. it's hard to imagine a scenario where putin didn't have a sort

of a pre-back channel sign off on whatever lukashenko was doing. none of this really passes any kind of sensible sniff test at all. >> nic robertson there for us. let's get some more insight from the director of the carnegie russia eurasia center in berlin. prigozhin gets no charges, goes to belarus. do you think he's going to stay there? it's hard to believe he just calls it quits and everybody moves on? >> we don't know at this point because nobody who is involved is speaking like president lukashenko or prigozhin himself has a good track record of saying the truth. so we don't know a lot of details about the deal and don't know when the deal whatever it is will stick. >> now, the reality of all of

this is putin lost control of a mercenary army run by his friend. he then cuts a deal with a man that he called a traitor hours earlier. do you see these as signs of weakness with putin? >> it is a sign of weakness, and it is one of the major tests that the system has faced with putin in power for more than two decades. but we also see time and again a remarkable ability to adapt in order to pull more power. mr. putin will definitely try to learn the lesson, and my prediction is that the system will be ever more repressive because he will try to eliminate the very possibility that something that we saw yesterday will happen again. >> do you think that the genie of revolt, if you like, can be put back in the bottle? has that rubicon been crossed? what's the lasting damage to

putin? >> i think that the lasting damage to putin is that many members of the elite and of the population saw the incompetence that the system is absolutely unprepared for a group of armed men to march into 1 million city and seizing the very important command in rostov-on-don which also has a tactical nuclear dimension. that's definitely bad. but i think putin will work overtime now to dismantle this image, to present himself as being back in charge and also to reshuffle his personnel. >> yeah, yeah. the thing is with prigozhin he'd long criticized the military leadership. now he's undermined vladimir putin by saying the rationale for the war was bogus. and of course then heading for moscow. i guess what everyone wants to know and doesn't know is what his aims were and perhaps still

are. >> i think that he felt threatened that wagner group will be integrated into ministry of defense, and then he will lose his power base. he will lose his business. he also witnessed that a lot of ukrainian nationals who were used by the kremlin in 2014 and 2015 when russia launched its first stage of war against ukraine and donbas were later eliminated and killed. he knows that once wagner is fully under ministry of defense control, he himself is useless. so i see that this is an attempt to remain important, flu influential, and also liked. >> it's a fascinating point. i think what's interesting we saw him being, you know, cheered as he left rostov-on-don by some people at least. how much does his message of anger at the elites resonate,

his criticisms of the sons of oligarchs not fighting at the front? you know, the corruption allegations? is that a message that people on the russian street respond to? >> that will definitely be a message that will resonate. but corruption of the top leadership is not news to the russian people. they discuss it all the time. they know about it through the navalny investigation, and they see it in the daily life. >> there's always, i guess, the aspect of be careful what you wish for. how worried would the west be about if putin were to fall at some point in the near future? how worried would the west be about who comes next? >> the west definitely would be worried because russia is a peer nuclear state to the united states. it has a lot of dangerous

material, chemical weapons, conventional weapons. so losing control or having prigozhin in the kremlin is a terrible news also because of the domino effect it might send to other parts of the russia with the chechen leader and many others. the problem is that the west doesn't have a great degree of control here. events in russia will unfold, and there's not that much in joe biden's or any other western leader's toolbox to prevent that from happening. >> fascinate analysis. alexander gabuev, thank you so much. appreciate it. still to come here on the program, he survived an armed uprising, but vladimir putin's problems are far from over. how the rebellion hurt his image on the world stage. we'll have that when we come back. n. the network she can count on. and now she has myplan, the game-changing new plan that lets her get exactly what she wants and save on every perk. sadie is moving g to the big ciy

and making moveses on her plan, too. apple one, on. now she's got plenty of entertainmnment for the whole ride. finally there! hot spot, on. and she's fully connected before her internet is even installed. (sadie) hi, mom! (mom) how's the apartment? (vo) introducing myplan. get exactly what you want, only pay for what you need. act now and get it for $25 when you bring your phones. it's your verizon. i'm christine mahon. i'm retired from public health nursing and from the army reserve. my retirement funds allow me to enjoy what i lovto do. as long as y can make an impact, why stop? lowe's knows you never come in for just one thing. so we've got to know a lot of things about a lot of things. like which mower makes the cut. the mulch that finishes the look. and picking a color that pops.

you got this. we got you. [music plays] if your instinct is to help. ♪ then clearly you care. ♪ you have what it takes to be a care professional. home instead. apply now.

and welcome back to "cnn newsroom." more on our top story this hour. wagner mercenaries have been withdrawing from their positions in russia after their leader yevgeny prigozhin called off an armed up rising against the military. the kremlin says prigozhin agreed to end the standoff and leave to belarus. in exchange russia will drop a criminal case that was opened against him for starting the

rebellion. well, he went from putin's chef to an armed revolt. now wagner group's strongman yevgeny prigozhin headed as we say to belarus. and strangely enough the kremlin says putin personally guarantees prigozhin won't face any repercussions. fred pleitgen takes a look now at the mercenary leader who may be one of the first putin challengers to remain unscathed, for now at at least. >> reporter: yevgeny prigozhin seems to have had a pretty meteoric rise, on the one hand that was because he was so close to vladimir putin. however, he was pretty important for vladimir putin as well. if you look at the beginnings, it really was pretty small. at the start he was in jail in the 1980s in the soviet union and then started selling hot dogs in the 1990s in st. petersburg. it was there that he founded a catering company and became known as putin's chef.

and from there things really went up for yevgeny prigozhin. he started a media company which then turned into a media and propaganda empire which of course the u.s. says meddled heavily in the 2016 presidential election. prigozhin was actually indicted for that in the united states. but then there was also the wagner private military company, and i saw them in action really at the beginning when they were starting to go to places like syria. and on the ground in syria their forces back then were pretty much doing base protection for the russian military that was on the ground in syria. but from there, things really did evolve. they started getting involved in the oil business in syria and then of course also things like gold and diamonds in african countries and started training the forces of african countries as well. but it really wasn't until the war in ukraine that wagner turned into pretty much a full-on army with really heavy weapons. if you look at the battle in bakhmut, for instance, some of

the firepower that was unleashed there by the artillery, by the tanks wagner now had in its possession, that certainly seemed to be a very professional army. and it was now yevgeny prigozhin seemed today bow at the height of his power, but it appears as though he's gone one step too far. >> fred pleitgen there for us. now, prigozhin's actions are considered a serious threat to vladimir putin's grip on power. earlier we spoke about that with our russian affairs contributor, jill dougherty, and asked her how the russian president is now viewed through the eyes of other world leaders. here she is. >> i think if xi jinping, you know, the leader of china, looking at this he's already seen putin botch the war. this is not good i think for any type of respect that the chinese would have for the russians. he must be in the basement at this point. it's really a disaster, and so

it strengthens, you know, china. china comes out looking strong in most of this and russia looking very weak and disorganized, which is really is and chaotic. and other countries might be looking at putin let's say as a source of selling weapons. you know, north korea, iran. they too must be questioning will putin be in power? it's very unclear. so i think it weakens him domestically and internationally. >> cnn contributor jill dougherty there speaking with us earlier about the chaos in russia. plenty more to talk about. do stick around. we'll be right back after the break. you're watching "cnn newsroom." i got a new credit card, and i'm even finding ways to save. finally getting smart about money y feels really good. see all you can do with ththe free experian app.

download it now. if you're turning 6565 soon or over 65 and planning to retire... now's the time to learn more about an aarp medicare supplemt insurance plan from unitedhealthcare and gehelp protecting yourself fr the out-of-pocket costs medicare doesn't pay. because the ti to prepare is before you go on medicare. don't wait. get started today. call unitedhealthcare for your free decision guide. lowe's knows you never come in for just one thing. so we've got to know a lot of things about a lot of things. like which mower makes the cut. the mulch that finishes the look. and picking a color that pops. you got this. we got you. back when i had a working circulatory system, you had to give your right arm to find great talent. but with upwork, there's highly skilled talent from all over the globe. right at your fingertips. ♪ this is how we work now ♪

i'm lindsey vonn, and ever since i retired from skiing, i've had trouble falling asleep and staying asleep— you know, insomnia. before i found quviviq, an fda-approved insomnia medication for adults, you would not believe the things i used to think about when i couldn't sleep. hey, linds. i need you to sign this business contract. all 114 pages. lindsey! lindsey! hey, lindsey! it's workout time. hey, big man, we're in the middle of something here. yeah, it's called physical fitness. just a couple dozen more questions, lindsey. don't forget to pack your phone charger for tomorrow morning's flight. it's plugged in right over there. lindsey? quviviq helps you get more sleep. and when taken every night, sleep continued to improve over time. that's why i take quviviq nightly. quviviq works differently than medication you may have taken in the past. quviviq is thought to target one of the biological causes of insomnia: overactive wake signals. do not take quviviq if you have narcolepsy.

don't drink alcohol while taking quviviq or drive or operate heavy machinery until you feel fully alert. quviviq may cause temporary inability to move or talk or hallucinations while falling asleep or waking up. quviviq may cause sleepiness during the day. quviviq may lead to doing activities while not fully awake that you don't remember the next day, like walking, driving and making or eating food. worsening depression, including suicidal thoughts, may occur. most common side effects are headaches and sleepiness. it's quviviq. ask your doctor if it's right for you. ♪ ♪

we don't know where wagner boss yevgeny prigozhin is at this hour. we do know after an armed insurrection that lasted about a day and a half that prigozhin is apparently no longer welcome in russia. he did agree to leave for belarus under a deal brokered by

the belarusian president, alexander lukashenko. the kremlin says prigozhin will not face criminal charges, or will the wagner forces who marched on moscow. earlier i spoke with professor robert english at the university of southern california. i asked if prigozhin still poses a threat to putin even after calling off his uprising. >> putin won. but prigozhin is sort of like a cesar in exile, right? someone who can still threaten from abroad, someone who has enormous credibility as a military leader, who has loyal troops. although he separated from them for now. and someone who's anti-corruption, anti-elite. his anger at the sort of self-satisfied oligarchs in moscow resonates very strongly. so he could be a future threat

as well. again, i draw the analogy with a julius cesar, who came to power that way with his private army challenging the corrupt elite. as roman history showed, generals sent into exile often came back to pose a second and maybe successful challenge. >> yes. yes, so you believe -- i mean, obviously he didn't do this on a whim. so you think he has a grand strategy that's yet to play out, and the last day or so is perhaps just a chapter in that? >> i think vladimir putin is aware of the continuing threat as well, and there will be follow-on efforts to neutralize him, right? the fact that criminal charges were dropped, he's in a neighboring country -- doesn't mean putin is so foolish as to let the threat linger. it reminds us there could be another prigozhin. this is what's most concerning. we're all maybe excited to see putin's hold on power is shakier and the state is more fragile than we thought.

but we should also think as much about what would happen next. it probably will be somebody like a prigozhin or another sort of military leader who pretends for power. not a liberal like a navalny or these other liberal critics of putin but a populist from the right who appeals to the same anti-elite, anti-corrupt instincts, but has brutal dictatorial tendencies of their own. >> will be better english went on to say, putin's authority suffered what he called a shattering blow as a result of the rebellion and the subsequent concessions made to prigozhin. thanks for spending part of your day with me. you can follow me on twitter and instagram @holmcnn. kim brunhuber picks up our coverage after a short break. meet the team... behind the team.

the coach. the manager. and the snsnack dad. all using chase to keep up wiwith their finances. the coach helps save goals here, because she sasaved for soccer camp there. anddd check this out... the manager deposited a a check. magic. and the snack dad? he's getting paid back. orange slicesss. because this team all has chase. smart bankers. convenient tools. one bank with the power of both. chase. make more of what's yours. if you think you, a child in your care, or another loved one werearmed by endo or a related company, including par or ams, or theirroducts cluding ranitidine, transvaginal mesh, or opioids like opana®, opana® er, or percocet®, your rights may be affected by deadlines in the endo bankruptcy. you may be entitled to payment as part of endo's bankruptcy, but you must file a claim by july 7, 2023.

you may file a claim on behalf of yourself, a child in your care (including a child exposed to opioids in the womb), or a deceased or disabled relative. also, if you hold a claim or interest in endo, the deadline to object to the potential sale of endo's assets is july 7, 2023. for more information visit endoclaims.com ♪ ♪ ♪ [typing] ♪ you were made to act spontaneously. we were made to help plan accordingly. ♪

♪ welcome to all of you watching here in the united states, canada, and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber. we begin with a dramatic turn of events in russia. at this hour, moscow is calm after an insurrection led by mercenar