joining me now is michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to the russian federation, and msnbc international affairs analyst. ambassador, thank you for being here this, morning what does it say about putin's leadership that it was belarusian president lukashenko who negotiated the deal with prigozhin? >> i think it is pretty embarrassing for vladimir putin that he had to rely on lukashenko, so many -- to do this deal, and more generally, i think it is pretty embarrassing to putin all around, just hours before he did this, deal he went on national television and gave a very tough speech where he told the people of russia, i'm going to crush this rebellion, and these traders, then just hours later he cut this deal allowing this progression to go freely to belarus. so it is not a great look for vladimir putin, who always likes to look like a strong and in command. >> you know, we learn through -- a spokesperson that a criminal case against prigozhin will be closed, and as you just mentioned, he will remain in belarus, two, questions,

ambassador to russia and msnbc international affairs analyst michael mcfaul.llowing nonstop over the last 48 hours as this whole entire thing played out. and one tweet after it has stood out for me that i want to read for folks. the lesson of the war in ukraine is clear. putin is more likely to negotiate an end to his war if he is looking -- louisiana battlefield. those who have argued that ukraine must not attack crimea for triggering escalation must now reevaluate that hypothesis. i want you to talk more about this first and then i have a challenge for you after. but tell me more about this first. >> throughout the course of this horrible invasion of ukraine, we have been having a debate in public and with the biden administration and around other governments in europe, always worrying about the fear of escalation. if we do this, putin will escalate. if we provide this weapon, putin will escalate. if we don't negotiate with him, give him some territory some even say, he has to have a face saving off-ramp. and those are many of the analogies, rattling the cor

back with me to discuss, the experts are experts, michael mcfaul, former u.s.rnational affairs analyst. i'm so glad you are here tonight. what is your reaction to this report? i mean, this whole thing has been so mind-blowing. >> complicated stuff, we don't know the answers to a lot of questions. but the reporting in the new york times is from senior people in our government that suggests that there were generals involved, surrogate serve the can is named in particular as someone who was coordinating with mr. prigozhin. they have a long history. they've been together a long time. severe beekin was the head of the armed forces in ukraine, and then suddenly was demoted when cross of took over. and general gerasimov is the guy that prigozhin allegedly was marching to moscow to overthrow. and the second thing i think that is very important in the reporting in the new york times and another, in great reporting that we've had in the wall street journal, as well, just today, prigozhin got to rostov very easily, right. he marched to the city, a city of 1 million people

my friend michael mcfaul, thank you as well.back, he is twice impeached, twice indicted, and trump is still democrats biggest fear for 2024. our political panel gets into that. plus the breaking news on the new trump tape when the 11th hour continues. hour continues when you really need to sleep. you reach for the really good stuff. zzzquil ultra helps you sleep better and longer when you need it most. its non-habit forming and powered by the makers of nyquil. up at 2:00am again? tonight, try pure zzzs all night. unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. and longer. zzzquil pure zzzs all night. fall asleep. stay asleep. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ cargurus. shop. buy. sell. online. jackie: community schools are so important to us. this is truly what students need. cecily: no two community schools are alike because it goes by what is happening in the community. rafael: we want this to be a one-stop shop for our families that puts parents and students first. kenny: the health and wellness center is a part of our

we still don't know the details of that. >> ambassador michael mcfaul, so much to watch.so much over the next couple days. i know you'll be watching. thank you so much for joining me this afternoon. we have a huge our head. former nato supreme allied, james doritos joins me to discuss what this all means for the battlefield in ukraine. plus, a conversation with the atlantic's anne applebaum about how damaging this weekend was for putin and his group and power. later, my one-on-one interview with house speaker, amrita pelosi. she had a lot on her mind about abortion rights and so much more. we're just getting started today, we'll be right back. ght back the rec league's self-crowned pickleball king. do you just bow down? no you de-thrown the king. pedialyte. 3x the electrolytes. want a worry-free way to kill bugs? zevo traps use light to attract and trap flying insects with no odor and no mess. they work continuously, so you don't have to. zevo. people-friendly. bug-deadly. ♪♪ when you're a small-business owner, your to-do list can be... a lot. ♪♪ [ buttons clicking ] that

my dear friend and partner ali velshi is here on the ground in ukraine, and michael mcfaul on what iteans. and later, former president trump's lead in the primaries has actually grown since his indictment. democrats are sounding the alarm, but for what? joe biden is running, what do they want us to do? the 11th hour just getting underway on monday night. every hour of your life. except the hours that you're sleeping. so why do we leave so much untapped potential on the table? this is a next level bed, for a next level you. my circadian rhythm is kicking your circadian rhythms butt! it's not a competition. i know, but i'm still winning! so, it is a competition. the queen sleep number 360 c2 smart bed is now only $899. plus, 48-month financing on all smart beds. shop now only at sleep number 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

with us now to discuss michael mcfaul, former u.s.ook is titled from cold war to hot piece, ambassador mcfaul what we need to kno about this village and how the counteroffensive is going? >> the actual village is a ver small village. -- it means five houses translated it is a victory. there have been several othe villages that have been take over the past two weeks. by thinks the central messag that i have for everybod watching is wait the patient, this is the beginning of a major counteroffensive that we wil not know if it has bee successful or not for weeks an probably months to come. the second thing to remember i that this is one counteroffensive, my predictio is that there will be many counteroffensives before thi tragic war is over >> to your point about u needing to wait, despite these heavy losses, are these smal advances in fact a sign that the ukrainian counteroffensive is working what are you watching for? >> i think it is working, i am waiting for the heavy artillery, the heavy, heavy weapons, th brigades that were trained

former ambassador michael mcfaul. and that is all for this monday night.s at 10:00 a.m. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, ali i am both glad and worried to have you where you are tonight thank you for being there my friend great report this whole hour. thanks for being willing to make that trip, man. we are glad and worried in equal measure. >> thank you, my friend. enjoy your home. >> thanks to you at home for being with us.th before he became the editor of the most important english language magazine in the world david remnick was moscow correspondent for "the mn washington post" and in fact won the pulitzer prize for his os landmark 1993 book about the er last time russia fell apart at the end of the soviet union.ss david remnick will be joining us live in a few minutes as we try

joining us now is michael mcfaul the united states.assador to russia, current msnbc international affairs analyst. thank you for being with us, mike. >> how are you, if you are advising president zelenskyy in this moment looking at a potentially wounded metaphorically speaking vladimir putin what would you advise him in this crisis moment. >> what he's saying to the russian soldiers is exactly right geno also saying? that prigozhin, i think this idea of undermining the morale of the soldiers on the battlefield not those in moscow or their commanders but to those soldiers, saying hey why are you here, your commanders back home are fighting amongst each other your top commanders, general gerasimov didn't have the guts to take on these rebels these traders but he wants you to die here, that kind of messaging is very important right now. that's exactly what i would be doing a fire president zelenskyy. >> do you make anything in fact we haven't seen in the top two military commanders? >> too early to tell. there is tons of speculation out t

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ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul, thanks for being with us. so in listening to that translation, obviously it's a translation. masha gessen. >> i listened to the russian. >> tell me what you got out of it. >> i think it's very clear what he's trying to do. everybody thought it was going to be something dramatic because peskov thought it was. he's trying to divide the wagner mercenaries, the soldiers, from their leadership. he's trying to do exactly what prigozhin was trying to do with the russian conventional forces. you have been lied to by them. they dragged into this war. said the same thing about the wagner fighting forces. that's my interpretation of why he did the speech. what i think is behind is that they must have signalled that they're not lying down their forces as you were reporting. prigozhin said a couple percent did that. and putin is afraid of them. they are trying to put some division saying they were deceived to do this mutiny. joining us and let's throw your commanders under the bus. >> prigozhin might be in belarus. we know

ambassador to russia and nbc news international affairs analyst, ambassador michael mcfaul is joiningas well. ambassador, i want to start with you, the kremlin calling the reports that the senior russian general may have known about prigozhin's plans in advance. they're calling it speculation, right? "the new york times" going on to say this, american officials also said there are signs that other russian generals may have also supported mr. prigozhin's attempts to change the leadership of the defense ministry by force. current and former u.s. officials said mr. prigozhin would not have launched his uprising unless he believed that others in positions of power would come to his aid. you and i did not speak about this specifically over the weekend, but while we watched the advance on moscow, it was perplexing to see prigozhin not really meet any barriers as he made his way and seemed somewhat preplanned. what do you make of this reporting? >> well, lots of things ask lots of questions, right? first that the kremlin says it's just speculation. that's not a big denunciation, they didn't

the perfect person for that is michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to russia and analyst. join the conversation, colin clarke director of policy and research at -- ambassador mcfaul, you heard my colleague richard engel lay out a lot for us to break down. so, i want to start kind of broadly speaking, which is how unnerved is a vladimir putin right now? how unnerved is the entire kremlin, after the events of the last 24 hours? before we get into what happens next, they must be looking at this and saying, what in the hell just happened? this andi think that's exactly . that's exactly what they are saying. they're worried that they didn't have good intelligence about what happens. they must be horrified that mr. prigozhin marched to rostov and captured that city. one of the ten biggest cities in russia with no resistance at all. and he was on his way to moscow with zero resistance. remember, putin, while that was happening went on national television and told his entire country that he is a traitor, prigozhin is a trader, and they're going to deal with him, squish him and def

this won't change that. >> michael mcfaul, former u.s.assador to russia, we're grateful for your expertise on this this morning. thanks so much. >> thank you. >>> demonstrators marched across the country on saturday to mark the one year anniversary of the supreme court's overturning of the landmark re versus wade decision. groups on both sides of the issue rallied, including in washington. in north carolina, vice president kamala harris said the high court's ruling created a public health crisis. she pushed for a federal law protecting the right to an abortion. and abortion was front and center at a gathering of the faith and freedom coalition in washington last night, where former president trump was the keynote speaker. the former president taking credit for overturning roe versus wade while avoiding the question of whether he would support a federal abortion ban. chuck todd is nbc's political director and moderator of "meet the press." chuck, good morning. great to see you. the former president got a big, rousing ovation. he was well r

that brings me to discuss the expert of experts, michael mcfaul, former u.s. has been so mind-blowing. >> complicated stuff. we don't know the answer to live questions but the reporting in the new york times is from senior people in our government that suggests that there were generals involved senator -- in particular as somebody that was coordinating with mr. prigozhin. we have a long history. they have been together a long time. senator beacon was head of the armed forces in ukraine and then suddenly was demoted when gerasimov took over and general gerasimov is the guy that prigozhin originally was marching to moscow to overthrow. and the second thing i think is very important. in the reporting in the new york times and other great reporting that we've had in the wall street journal as well today, prigozhin head to russia -- he marched to the city, a city of 1 million people, nobody stopped him. he got just a couple, 200 kilometers outside of moscow, with very little resistance. and now we're finding out there was a lot of weapons that were already pre posi

ambassador michael mcfaul and. he is also an msnbc analyst. ambassador, help me make sense of this video. it does not make sense to me right now. as you said today on twitter, what happens? he goes to belarus and just chills? it doesn't all add up. >> you're right. i can't explain it because i don't know what the deal is. i want to remind everybody, we actually don't know -- there has been allegations on different social media platforms that one of the quid pro quo's was that the minister of defense, mr. showing you, and the general in command of the armed forces of russia, general gerasimov, would have to resign. that would be a fantastic achievement for mr. prigozhin. but that hasn't been confirmed. but to your point about pillars, also mysterious. so remember, just hours ago, putin got on national television and told all of his citizens that prigozhin is a trader and will face serious consequences. several hours later, he dropped the charges. they allow him to go to belarus under mr. lukashenko's -- in belarus with mr. lukashenko, he is ver

with me now, paul beckett, washington bureau chief at the "wall street journal," and michael mcfaul,a and msnbc analyst. i appreciate you both being here. paul, as a friend and colleague of evans, i'm sure you're not surprised by today's ruling. but disappointed. your reaction? >> very disappointing for evan, for his family, for the "wall street journal," and for all of the people who have done an extraordinary job in supporting his cause. pretty soon he will have been in prison for a hundred days. that comes in about two weeks. we obviously consider these charges completely unfounded. and every time we have the opportunity to get him released and it doesn't happen. >> it was particularly moving, and we have seen him in court before, but to know that his family was there, do you know anything about that interaction? has the paper been in touch with his family? >> i think it was obviously very meaningful for both of them, certainly for evan's parents. it was the second time they had gone to moscow to show support. couldn't touch him. you're not allowed to put hands through the bars of

ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. ambassador, i know a lot of still unclear, but when you look at what happened today, was this all a stunt to prove a point? or a real attempt to overthrow parts of the russian government? >> i don't think it was a stunt. i think it was a mutiny. i think that's the right word. not a coup d'etat. a fighting among armed forces to take over, but to be loyal to putin with dramatic consequences for undermining the stability and the consolidation of russian armed forces. >> has this changed the power structure inside the kremlin? is putin mortally wounded politically? >> i don't think he's mortally weakened. i think he can survive this. but he is much weaker today than he was just 24 hours ago. just think about it. these armies used to be fighting together with each other against the ukrainian army. they were threatening to fight each other inside russia. and no matter how the dust finally settles, i think putin emerges from this a lot weaker leader inside russia. >> ambassador mcfaul, thank

and where he talked about a lot of different things, in particular, about who will win and how, michael mcfaulfor his part, also assessed that russia has already lost and he believes that russia has already lost strategically regardless of how the war ends well, we'll talk about it a little later, because there is already bohdan tkachuk, bohdan tkachuk, a deputy of the kharkiv district council, in touch with us in kharkiv now it's not so bitter, life has become a little sweeter after certain renamings have taken place streets, and besides that park , which was called gorky park, mr. bohdan, welcome to the sweet park, now we will ask mr. bohdan p. bohdane, we welcome you on our airwaves , they actually said and earlier suggested that there should be a kernes park. and i understand that the shortage good morning, well, this idea was not supported by the public, well, it can be felt very quickly, because on our social networks , gram channels work, as they say, fire and immediately. her reaction to those names and to these, but already somewhere at the beginning of the war the name central park,

ambassador in russia, michael mcfaul, is working at stanford now and we'll be on the "today" show tellinght comes up at 7:00. >>> a new nbc news poll of republican voters taken shortly after trump was indicted on federal charges show trump polling ahead of his competitors, most notably florida governor ron desantis. 22% support desantis, dropping from 31% last month. as one pundit put it, the more people get to know desantis, the less they like him. these are not all the candidates for republican nomination, but they are the most popular. >>> former president trump campaigned in michigan over the weekend, a state he lost in 2020. he spoke out against electric cars. >> electric cars will kill more than half of u.s. auto jobs and decimate the suppliers. they're being decimated already. it will decimate the suppliers and decimate your jobs and decimate, more than anybody else, the state of michigan. >> now, decimate might be right. it's entirely possible this trend will cause some job losses, maybe one in ten, or at least some job changes because electric cars use far fewer moving parts. you

let's bring in two russia experts, michael mcfaul and from kyiv, former director for european affairsal security council, lieutenant colonel alexander vindman. putin might be remembered as putin the weak. he controls the air. at the same time, they are dug in. they are mining the whole area. there has been slow growing. it's been a slog, a lot of casualties on both sides. >> my piece is about his hold on power inside russia. i go through various things that show why this has weakened him. you are asking the most -- in my opinion, the most important question. does the appearance and the facts of weakness back home undermine the morale of russian soldiers occupying ukrainian territory right now? to me, that's the crucial issue. of course, we don't know that. we don't have public opinion polls of those soldiers. if i were one of those soldiers and i was watching the chaos back home, i was watching how my commander said, we are going to be tough against the defectors, against them and let them go to belarus for nothing, i would wonder, why am i fighting? they don't have to listen to me. t

he'll have interviews with senator amy klobuchar and representative don bacon and as mentioned michael mcfaul ambassador to russia. if you stay with us after "today in the bay," "meet the press" is officer an this. we'll talk to nbc bay area political analyst larry gersten on analysis. we'll talk about contributions and where that money goes. >>> a children's pride celebration turned sour after protesters crashed the party. this happened yesterday in sacramento at the children's museum. it hosted its third annual kid centric pride festival. it's supposed to be a safe place for kids to have fun and be themselves. organizers say it was peaceful in the final hour of the event when protesters confronted children and parents outside the museum. people passing by said there were heated exchanges. police were also there. >> who in this community supports this garbage? and it's sad so many parents bringing their children to this. >> you know, this is the sweetest event, right, we have leo reading to kids. we have the sacramento gay men's chorus singing. kids are coming here because it's what kids do,

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. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> michael mcfaul served as the ambassador of russia under president obama.e week. ambassador mcfaul joins me now. ambassador, thank you, we always count on you in these complicated times, to try to explain what's going on. i want to start now -- i know we've been talking to a lot over the last few days, but the story continues to emerge and new facts emerge. what is your take right now on the aftermath of this armed rebellions, for putin, for russia, for ukraine? >> well, the update i would say is about putin's speech today. we were told this was gonna be a very, very important speech by mr. peskov. and what did he focus on? he focused on a central message of trying to divide the wagner mercenary thugs, soldiers, from their commanders are. ironically, it is exactly what prigozhin was trying to do several days ago within the russian military, they say gerasimov is that, you guys are good. that's what putin is saying. you are soldiers, you are good, you are patriots. you are commanders, and now i need you to put down your weapons and support me. he wouldn't ha

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ambassador to russia michael mcfaul. ambassador, we'll start with you.couple of days there in russia. what do you think it means for vladimir putin right now? >> lots of wild chapters changed over the last 48 hours. you had a mutiny with mr. prigozhin. as they were marching to moscow, not to overthrow putin, but to get rid of the corrupt military leaders. as they were marching to moscow, both sides blinked. putin didn't escalate. he negotiated. he cut a deal. i'm not sure if the deal is going to hold. we don't know the details. right now that mines prigozhin will go to belarus. his soldiers will either join the regular forces or most certainly disarm. that's part of the deal. i think the overlying message here is putin is not as invincible and as all powerful as we sometimes believe. and, secondly, this is very important with respect to the war in ukraine. we've had debate about what happens if we do this or that or provide this weapon or that weapon. well, putin is going to escalate. he's the rat in the corner and he can only escalate. in this episode,

ambassador michael mcfaul says russia could be coming closer to a compromise with ukraine. >> the idea that the only thing that we can do to end the war in ukraine is to give them a face sitting way out which usually translates to by the way giving him ukrainian tele-tory think this is a whole episode has really undermine the hypothesis. maybe putin will negotiate not when he's winning or not when he's given a gift of territory in ukraine but when he's using, as he just did yesterday. >> joining me now with the latest nbc news foreign correspondent raf sanchez. what more can you tell us about president zelenskyy's conversation with president biden? >> >> well, alicia, these conversations between kyiv and washington are ongoing in regular and they are happening at all levels of government. president biden spoke to president zelenskyy but lloyd austin the u.s. defense secretary spoke to his counterpart ukrainian defense minister today also. and yesterday we saw that general mark really the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff speaking to his counterpart here in ukraine. so this relation

michael mcfaul, thanks for your time today. >> thanks for having me. >>> despite the potentially dire outcomes of the situation in russia, markets seem to be shaking it off stocks are lower but the losses are relatively small by comparison so let's bring in stephanie link, chief investment strategist at high tower and cnbc contributor the ambassador comments were telling. i think that this is very much a situation that still has another chapter or two or three. why are the markets so calm, if i can use that word, about the geopolitical issues happening with nuclear powers? >> well, i mean, anything could happen for sure, right, but for now, it looks like it is a nonevent in the short term, so what are we, as investors, to do we go back to focussing on fundamentals while everybody is obsessed about the recession that's about to come, and the inverted yield curve, the economy actually has hung in there pretty well. the last couple of weeks worth of data it suggests that you're running a gdp level at 2%. that's not recession, not now for sure, and it's led by the consumer the consumer is

i want to play something our friend and obvious expert ambassador michael mcfaul said earlier. >> throughoutdebates about putin needs to say face, he needs exit ramps, you've heard these metaphors 100 times. he will never quit. and yet here we have the play of that. putin was very tough in his address to the russian people, by the way. we are going to squash these traders, we're going to give them justice, and yet hours later he backed away. >> mike is right these, absolutely right. president putin backed down all of the concern about putin being so tough not backing down, never taking an off ramp it's wrong. he has backed down, he blinked. both sides did. both sides did both prigozhin and putin both blinked. the swerved in the game of chicken. >> what do you think? >> i wouldn't be surprised if putin is making some phone calls to friends in china, or potentially even to saudi arabia trying to shore up the allies that he had, or at least had kept neutral against the nato allies who have an upper hand at this moment. now that upperhand only gets maintained if nato allies in united states move

as michael mcfaul, the former u.s.r to russia told "the new york times," quote, there were just too many weird things that happened that in my mind suggest there was collusion that we have not figured out. think of how easy it was to take rostov, mr. mcfaul said. there were armed guards everywhere in russia, and suddenly there's no one around to do anything? let's bring in "new york times" pentagon correspondent, helene cooper and joining us from kyiv, my colleague ali velshi. it's an incredible piece of reporting from you and your colleagues. take us through it a little bit further than what i read. >> hi, nicolle, thanks for having me. hi, ali. it was such a weird weekend. i mean, you really felt like you were watching history unfold. it sometimes felt like 1917, but on monday we went -- eric and i went into the pentagon, and we were talking to some officials. we talked to other officials in other buildings, and we started to hear the gist of, you know, different officials within the u.s. government apparatus saying

filmed joining our conversation, former ambassador to russia msnbc international affairs analyst michael mcfaulto connect. the russians by design, by strategic design, didn't say a lot about the counteroffensive but it's clearly under way, and it seems to be going well for the ukrainians what is your assessment, and what is it that we can't see that's happening >> well, before getting to the ukrainian counteroffensive i want to remind your viewers about the russian offensive ha failed we're not good about talking about non-events, nicolle, either in academia or on tv. but remember, nine months ago we were all waiting for that offensive which made some territorial gains in bakhmut, one city, but that was it. so i think that's an important context to remember first. second, i honestly think it's too early to make any assessment about what's going on. the counteroffensive is on the move president zelenskyy's talked about it his advisers are talking about it but it's very early. and i think we'll measure the results of this in weeks and months before we really know what's happening and the second t