Russia, Wagner and Vladimir Putin: BBC security expert explains what's been happening

Russia has been in the news because of a recent rebellion that took place in the country.

Last year, Russia invaded neighbouring country Ukraine and an army of privately paid soldiers - known as Wagner - have been fighting alongside the Russian military.

The Wagner group's leader is a man called Yevgeny Pregozhin.

However, Pregozhin and his troops decided to march towards the Russian capital of Moscow in an armed rebellion over the weekend.

Although the rebellion was called off, the events have been seen as a big threat to the Russian president Vladimir Putin's power.

Newsround spoke to BBC security expert Frank Gardner to find out more about the events in Russia, what it means and how it will affect the war in Ukraine. Watch the video at the top of this page, and then read on ...

Who is Vladimir Putin?

Vladimir Putin (centre) has been the Russian president from 2000-2008, and from 2012 onwards

Vladimir Putin is Russia's leader and he's been charge for more than 20 years. He's the man responsible for the conflict currently going on in Ukraine.

Frank Gardner explains:

"Last year, [Putin] ordered his army to invade the neighbouring country, that's Ukraine.

"And the war has been going on there ever since, with terrible destruction, lots of homes, schools, hospitals destroyed."

What's recently happened in Russia?

The Wagner group took over the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don

A group called Wagner was helping Russian troops fight against Ukraine and over the weekend, part of that army started a rebellion.

Frank told us: "They took over a whole city of a million people, nobody was hurt in that, then they announced that they were going to march on the capital Moscow.

"It would be the equivalent of part of the British army deciding they were going to rebel against the British government and marching from Lincoln down to London.

"The march didn't get that far. It got about half way, there was some shooting and then suddenly, it stopped."

What is a mercenary and who are the Wagner group?

Soldiers in groups like Wagner are paid to fight

Wagner is one of the biggest group of mercenaries and it's estimated there are tens of thousands of Wagner troops fighting alongside Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

Frank told us more about mercenaries and what they do: "These are people who take money for being soldiers, but not as part of the real army. They're working for a private army."

He also told us more about the Wagner group in particular:

"They've got a very bad reputation. They're very brutal, they're pretty mean people, but they are good soldiers, they're very effective soldiers."

How has president Putin responded to the recent events?

Yevgeny Prigozhin leads the Wagner mercenary group and Putin has ordered him to leave Russia

The Wagner group challenged president Putin and his government, which doesn't make the Russian leader look very good.

"Because they have challenged president Putin, this basically gives him a bit of a problem," Frank says.

"He's decided to say, right, I forgive you all, but you've now got to belong to the real army, the big army.

"Some of them will do, some of them will go home, some of them may possibly end up going to prison because this army, it's got some quite nasty people in it.

"Some of them are convicts, they've committed crimes, they've been robbers and they've been taken out of prison to go and fight in this mercenary army, the Wagner group."

What does this mean for the war in Ukraine?

The Wagner group has been weakened which could help Ukraine in the fight against Russia

Frank says the recent rebellion could actually benefit Ukraine.

"It probably helps Ukraine, because Ukraine is trying to push out the Russian invaders and because this Wagner mercenary army is no longer there in Ukraine in a big way, it might make it easier for Ukraine to push them out.

"It might make it easier for them to beat the Russians there, but we don't know yet, it's still pretty early"

Why do events in Russia matter to us? Are we less safe in the UK because of what's happened?

Russia used to supply important resources like gas and oil to the UK

Although Russia is far away, Frank explains that it is still an important country.

"We used to get a lot of our energy from there, a lot of gas, a lot of oil, but in the last year, Britain and other countries in Europe have been able to find other places to get there oil and gas from and Russia's pretty much isolated.

"Russia doesn't give us anything, so the fact that Russia is cut off now with what's called sanctions, doesn't really affect us too much in the West.

"The one place it does worry us though is that Russia's got a lot of missiles, a lot of really big powerful missiles, so we don't want to ever go to war with Russia.

"We hope that the Ukraine war will eventually end without the West, that's Britain, France, Germany and America, ever having to go to war with Russia."