i'm margaret brennan in washington. this week on "face the nation," a dangerous drama unfolds in russia as a mercenary group fighting the ukrainians turns on vladimir putin and his government. breathtakingly bizarre twist to the war in ukraine this weekend, what could have been a

disaster inside russia. the tough nuclear adversary came to a halt late saturday. the crisis has cooled for now, but what will the impact of the uprising be on vladimir putin's weakened hold over a country struggling in its war against ukraine? here in washington, intelligence agencies have been quietly monitoring the escalating tensions between the wagner mercenary group and the putin government for some time, and spent the weekend nervously watching events in russia unfold. we'll hear from secretary of state antony blinken and the head of the house intelligence committee mike turner. one year after the end of roe versus wade, the march to ban abortion in some states continues. >> we will never rest and relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of american law in every state in the land. >> as do efforts to motivates voters to fight for the right to choose an abortion. >> the court was betting that

all of us would remain silent, butt but we're not. >> we'll talk with texas congresswoman veronica escobar. finally the new head of the united nations world food program, cindy mccain, joins us to talk about where the hunger crisis is worst and why we need to do more. it's all just ahead on "face the nation." ♪ good morning. welcome to "face the nation." there is a lot we don't know yet about the motivations behind and the consequences following wagner group leader yevgeny prigozhin's actions in russia this weekend. what we do know about what one senior administration official calls a very bizarre episode, is that there seems to be a pause, at least for now, due to a truce struck between vladimir putin

and prigozhin that was brokered by the president of belarus. the terms of the deal are emerging but even after prigozhin abruptly stopped his march to moscow yesterday, there remains trepidation about the risks ahead on this unpredictable path for russia which holds the largest nuclear arsenal. ian lee reports from dnipro, ukraine. >> rarely do failed mu tain eyres received place. as they left the city last night, come back alive and take care of yourself shouted people in the crowd. the mer nary group leader yevgeny prigozhin smiled and posed for selfies on the way out. some greeted them less warmly with jeers and insults. for 24 hours the world watch wagner forces inch closer to

moscow, updates of their advance splashed across social media. the russian military secured the capital, soldier deese ploids on the streets and heavy equipment ripped up roads leading to the city. after accusing the russian military of killing his men in ukraine with a missile strike, a claim russian defense officials deny. his men seized rosstov home of the southern military headquarters before advancing towards moscow. on russian state tv president vladimir putin accused prigozhin of treason, though he never mentioned his name and called for unity. we will protect our people and country from any threats including internal betrayal, said putin. with wagner troops just 124 miles from moscow the kremlin spokesman announced a deal. wagner troops would be pardoned and returned to bases, criminal

charges against prigozhin would be dropped and he would go into exile in belarus whose leader brokered the agreement. this morning an uneasy calm settled on moscow, life in rostov returned to normal. putin's hold on power survived, battered and bruised, but not all may be forgiven. in a 2018 interview putin told a state tv reporter there's one thing he can never forgive. betrayal, he said. russia continued air strikes on several cities here in ukraine while kyiv took advantage of the chaos to launch assaults. it will take time to see what effect this mutiny has on the war. margaret? >> ian lee in ukraine. thank you. secretary of state antony blinken is one of the many top biden administration officials who have been monitoring the events of the last two days and joins us from the state department. good morning to you, mr. secretary. >> good morning, margaret. >> can you tell us who in the biden administration has been in

touch with russian leadership? >> well, i instructed my own team at the president's behest to engage with the russians, first and foremost, to make sure they understood their responsibilities in terms of protecting our own personnel, ensuring their safety and well being, as well as any american citizens in russia, so a number of people have engaged to make sure that russians got that message. >> is the u.s. ready for further unrest in russia, and the scenario that vladimir putin does not remain in power? >> margaret, this is an unfolding story and we're in the midst of a moving picture. we haven't seen the last act. step back for a second and put this in context 16 months ago, russian forces were on the doorstep of kyiv in ukraine, thinking they'd take the city in a matter of days, erase ukraine from the map as an independent country. over this weekend, they've had to defend moscow, russia's

capital, against mercenaries of putin's own making. prigozhin himself in this entire incident has raised profound questions about the very premises for russia's aggression against ukraine in the first place, saying ukraine and nato did not pose a threat to russia, and it was a direct challenge to putin's authority. this raises profound questions and shows really cracks. we can't speculate or know exactly where that's going to go. we know that putin has a lot more to answer for in the weeks and months ahead. >> but is the u.s. prepared for the potential of the fall of the putin government? is their nuclear stockpile, the largest in the world, secure? >> we always prepare for every contingency. in terms of what happens in russia, it's an internal matter for the russians to figure out. of course when we're dealing with a major power especially a major power that has nuclear weapons, that's something that's of concern, something we're very focused on. we haven't seen any change in russia's nuclear posture.

there hasn't been change in ours. it's something we're going to watch closely. >> vladimir putin is appearing on television this morning, but it appears to have been prerecorded. do you know the whereabouts of vladimir putin right now? is he in moscow? >> i don't want to -- i don't want to speculate on that or what information we have. again, we're watching that carefully. i think one of the things this tells you is that we still don't have finality in terms of what was actually agreed between prigozhin and putin. i suspect that we're going to learn more in the days and weeks ahead about what deal they struck. the president brought together not only the national security cabinet yesterday, he brought together the leaders of our key allies and partners and instructed all of us to do the same. we have tremendous unity of purpose and action when it comes to supporting ukraine and that's where our focus is. >> as you just said, prigozhin

drew into question the very premise for vladimir putin's war. >> that's right. >> do the wagner fighters return to the fight in ukraine? do we know? >> too soon to tell what's going to happen to the wagner forces. whether they go back to the fight. it was extraordinary they were moving out of ukraine into russia, but too soon to tell whether they're going to go back into the fight as wagner, whether they get integrated into russian forces, what this means for wagner in other parts of the world. both putin and wagner responsible for committing terrible acts in crane against ukrainian citizens but in wagner in country after country in africa, wherever wagner is, death and destruction follow. but all of this is likely to unroll in the coming days and weeks. to the extent it presents a real distraction for putin, and for russian authorities, that they have to look at sort of mind their rear even as they're trying to deal with the counteroffensive in ukraine, i

think that creates even greater openings for the ukrainians to do well on the ground. >> as you indicated yevgeny prigozhin has a footprint that goes from africa to syria to ukraine. do you have any idea where he is right now? >> i can't get into what we know or don't know through intelligence. it's something that we're looking at and that we're tracking. >> one of the things prigozhin did was directly undermine the russian military leadership. do we know who is in charge of the russian military right now? how could vladimir putin agree to any changes in the leadership of his military and still look like he's in charge? >> those are great questions and i think we'll get the answers in the days and weeks ahead. it's too soon to say with any certainty what the final chapter in this particular book is going to be. the rising storm of prigozhin, inside of russia, is something that many people have seen over months now. direct challenges to the

leadership, to the military leadership, powerful criticism of russia's conduct of its aggression against ukraine, and now, questioning the very premises of the war. prigozhin himself saying that ukraine and nato did not pose a threat to russia, which is, as you know, been part of putin's narrative. these create more cracks in the russian facade, and those cracks were already profound. economically, militarily, its standing in the world all those things have been diminished by putin's aggression against ukraine. he's managed to bring europe together and managed to bring nato together and get europe to move off of russian energy. he's managed to alienate ukrainians and unite ukraine at the same time. across the board this has been a failure. now you introduce into that profound internal divisions and there are questions he's going to have to answer in the weeks ahead. >> is there a possibility of civil war? >> i don't want to speculate on that. these are fundamentally internal

matters for the russians to figure out. it's not our place to do that. >> will president biden reach out directly to vladimir putin? has the cia director reached out to russian intelligence? >> margaret, i'm not going to get into any diplomatic contacts that we may have or have had. i can tell you that on my instruction, on the president's instruction, we had some engagement with the russians over the weekend to make sure they understood their responsibilities when it comes to looking out for the safety and security of our personnel in russia. very important we do that and did that. >> i want to ask you about beijing. i was there with you earlier this week and listened to you pick your words carefully, and then on our way home, president biden called xi jinping a dictator with economic problems who didn't know what his own military was doing by flying the spy balloon over the united states. how much did that hurt the work you did? >> margaret, one of the things that i think you heard me say during the trip and after the trip, is the main purpose was to

bring some greater stability to the relationship, but one of the things i said to chinese counterparts during this trip was that we are going to continue to do things and say things that you don't like, just as you're no doubt going to continue to do and say things we don't like. if you look at what comes out of the. >> are you saying that's a strategic remark? >> the president always speaks candidly, speaks directly, he speaks clearly and for all of us. >> you said that chinese officials assured you they won't provide lethal assistance to russia but chinese companies are. according to u.s. treasury, chinese companies have done business with the wagner group. have you reached out to the chinese about trying to gauge what is happening on the ground inside russia now? >> again, i can't get into any diplomatic contacts that we may or may not have had. you're right, when it comes to the visit the chinese did reiterate to us, as well as to

many other countries, that they have not and will not provide lethal military assistance to russia for use in ukraine. i also raised the concerns that you said about chinese companies providing that kind of support, and pressed them to be vigilant about that. i'm sure they're making their own assessments about what's happened inside of russia in recent days. >> secretary blinken, thank you for your time this morning. >> thanks, margaret. good to be with you. we turn to the chairman of the house intelligence committee, republican congressman mike turner of ohio. he joins us from dayton. good morning to you. >> good morning, margaret. >> i understand top congressional leaders, yourself included, have been briefed multiple times in recent days by the administration in regards to the risk posed by the wagner group. last year, u.s. intelligence had extraordinary detail, those are the words, the head of u.s. intelligence, about putin's plans to invade ukraine. i wonder how you would describe the intelligence the u.s. had

about this march on moscow? >> sure. well, the intelligence committee was very much aware that conflict between prigozhin and putin was inevitable, and even from public sources you've seen, prigozhin for months has put out videos critical of the russian government, critical of putin. putin has allowed this. as the secretary said, those videos themselves even included criticizing putin's very premise of the war that it was not started by nato, there were not nazis in ukraine. and then entering into moscow, entering into russia itself and taking their convoy to moscow shows the basic issue of whether or not putin controls his military. for any government to have stability, they have to control their military. obviously, prigozhin in order to make that's distance, where was the russian air force preventing this? that's an issue that putin will have to deal with internationally and domestically, is, you know, his government as an authoritarian

government, depends on its assertion of power force to contain -- to continue to weald power and that certainly is going to be an issue. >> was vladimir putin himself aware of the potential of this uprising? >> well, you know, i can't go into what our intelligence was. these videos he was allowing prigozhin to put out were public and distributed around the world. putin was aware of them because he was allowing them. the content of them, where they not only criticized putin and the russian government, and called for the removal of the minister of defense, ultimately as you know, this weekend prigozhin's statement was the removal of the president himself. vladimir putin had lots of public notice that prigozhin was a critic and was threatening the government and now ultimately took his military action into russia itself. >> but that raises the question of whether this was a strategic move by prigozhin or just sort of a gamble, and an opportunity he sees?

do we have any insight? >>s you know, he's a military guy. this is a 12-hour trip from ukraine to moscow. he got within two hours of moscow. he understands the logistics and the assistance he needs to do that. this is not a weekend trip he's taking. taking his convoy and military convoy up to moscow. there's a number of accomplices including as we saw of the russian people on the border with ukraine who clearly support the wagner group. in contrast to their support for the russian government. this is something that would have had to have been planned for a significant amount of time to be executed in the manner it was. >> there was a report last month that prigozhin had offered in january to help ukraine attack the russian military by sharing information on troop positions that he had. is this in any way helpful, what has just occurred, to ending the war in ukraine? like where is prigozhin's interest? >> right. so this really does hurt putin.

not only just politically and in his leadership from russia and his presidency, but in his efforts to continue the war in ukraine. i think, obviously, in the beginning there's going to be an initial increased activity against ukraine, but because he went -- putin went on national tv to respond to prigozhin and prigozhin said that your government has lied to you, this is not a war that nato started, there are no nazis in ukraine, taking down the very premise makes it much more difficult for putin to continue to turn to the russian people and say we should continue to send people to die in this war that for which prigozhin himself has said to the russian people the premise is a lie. >> there was a lot that secretary blinken said he could not answer during our interview. is that because u.s. intelligence does not know or because it's classified? >> you know, i can't answer that either. you can assume certainly that we have been very focused on russia and ukraine and this is an area

where, you know, ukraine's success has been a result in part because of the successes of the intelligence community, so we've been very focused on this. i think that as we go forward, this is going to be even more critical as it -- as we face the threats for ukraine and the united states, what's going to happen to putin and russia next. >> chairman, please stay with us. we have to take a break. we'll be right back in one minute with more of our coconversationon. ♪ when you start a business you put everything into it.

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hasn't happened for 100 years. that is the march of authoritarianism against democracy that we wanted, that they're now rising up against. he's standing next to a guy who can't even control his own military. remember, putin in his national address said that these individuals are going to have inevitable punishment, and then in the end, prigozhin gets a vacation in belarus and his troops will sound contracts, sounds like paperwork than a kgb agent doing punishment. xi seeing that with putin, has got to understand that putin's stature in the world has diminished that diminishes president xi and as putin looks weakened, certainly not being able to control his military and being a strong power, president xi has to be worried about the stability of russia itself. >> we'll be watching that. last friday, this past friday, sorry, back from beijing and my time frame is screwed up here, the director of national intelligence released this

declassified summary in the findings in links between the wuhan institute of virology and the covid pandemic. it said several researchers at that institute were nil 2019 with symptoms consistent with, but not diagnostic of covid. why is it so inconclusive still? >> well, this is the problem really what the director of national intelligence has done. we passed a law saying declassify the information you have about the covid and wuhan lab's activities. what they did is basically went and did a paper on what they believe about the intelligence they've looked at. to give you an example we've asked to open the curtain and release the intelligence and they went behind the curtain read the stuff and said this is what we think about it. this is not sufficient and this is going to set up a battle between the congress and director of national intelligence to make certain that law passed unanimously both

the senate and house and signed by the president, complied with, but also the american public get the answers they deserve. >> so there was a classified an next to this, though, that was not released. i would assume that you have read that. is that -- >> no. actually we got this late friday. i haven't had access it to in a classified setting. even releasing a classified an next goes against what the law says. the law says declassify, not give us more classified information. my committee has seen a significant amount of this intelligence, giving my committee more intelligence doesn't give it to the public and that's what declassification law was about. >> the report says that, you know, it details two agencies say it was a lab accident. cia can't determine. national intelligence council and four other agencies say most likely caused by natural exposure. do you believe that there actually is a definitive conclusion that the government is not releasing? >> so i have seen, for example, the classified an next to the report that president biden

requested the intelligence community gave. what you just read were more conclusions by the intelligence community. in the report that was given to the president, the 90 day report, they have information in that report that contradicts, i believe, the impressions that are given in these statements by the intelligence committee. we want the intelligence released and their opinion about the released. if we wanted their opinion we would have asked for it. we passed a law saying declassify it so the american public can see it. expert in the community besides the intelligence community need to take a look at this and help us understand what happened that resulted in millions of people dying. >> congressman, thank you for your time today. wewe'll be rigight back. ♪ ( (♪ in my y ozempic® tri-zone,e,i lowerered my a1c, , cv risk, and lost s some weightht. ozemempic® prorovides popowerful a1c1c reductiono. in studieses, the majojority f people r reached an n a1c ununder 7 and d maintaineded.

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lot more "face the nation." stay with us. gazzes, cbs news, w

york. this is the "cbs overnight news." >> we begin with that fallout from the rebellion against russian president vladimir putin and his military officials. tonight, the whereabouts of putin's former ally, yevgeny prigozhin, are unknown. kremlin officials say he is