Skip to main content

tv   Fareed Zakaria GPS  CNN  April 10, 2022 10:00am-11:00am PDT

10:00 am
all present. at the museum a picture of our local producer's grandfather was on the wall. he had been imprisoned for two years before being sent to a soviet gulag for 25 years. thanks for spending your sunday morning with us. more reporting from ukraine over the next week. the news continues next. this is "gps," the "global public square." welcome to all of you in the united states and around the world, i'm fareed zakaria coming to you live from new york. today on the show, russia's brutal war shifts focus to the east. we will bring you the latest from cnn's team on the ground. then, the case for war crimes.
10:01 am
western governments have vowed to hold vladimir putin accountable, but what can the world do? i will speak to the former british prime minister gordon brown who is calling for a nuremberg-style war crimes tribunal. and 1 billion euros a day, that is how much energy europe is still buying from russia. how will sanctions ever work if the oil and the oil money keep flowing? finally on a lighter note, i will bring you a clip from my new cnn plus interview with the extraordinary billy joel. but, first, here is my take. when russia launched its attack on ukraine a wide variety of commentators believed that there was at least one silver lining in this catastrophic cloud. putin's assault on the liberal order they hoped would expose and delegitimize the illiberal populist forces that have been surging for years. one commentator speculated that the ukraine war could end the age of populism.
10:02 am
another scholar saw it as an opportunity for people to finally reject right wing nationalism. alas, six weeks into this conflict such speculation looks like wishful thinking. in europe two pivotal elections in hungary and france tell the tale. as recently as a week ago it was possible to suggest as an essay in the athletic did that the ukraine world was upending european politics by highlighting the illiberal and efforts of the french -- experts were quoted saying that orban was desperately trying to reframe the events around the war and predicted that the french would now see macron as probably the only person who can lead them through there crisis. in fact, viktor orban won reelection and a fourth straight term in office by a handy margin, getting around 53% of the vote compared to the opposition coalition's roughly
10:03 am
34%. the same day voters in serbia reelected a populist staunchly pro-putin president by a landslide. in france where the first round of presidential elections set for today polling suggests that macron's lead has been evaporating and that le pen has surged significantly. as a "new york times" head line says even before france votes the french right is a big winner. in europe at least right wing populism continues to thrive. it's not that russia's actions in ukraine are popular, they just don't dominate people's world view . the reputations of the pro-russian politicians have not suffered from the war as many expected.
10:04 am
frustrated by the hungarian leader's cozying up to putin volodymyr zelenskyy actually denounced orban, calling him virtually the only one in europe to openly support mr. putin. it didn't work. in america one sees similar forces at work though they are not as strong. initially in the first weeks of the war the republican party seemed to revert to its historic hawkishness on foreign policy, many of its older guard are vociferously anti-putin and pro-ukrainian but that would not describe the position of the man who is still its most popular leader, donald trump. who has praised putin since the invasion. >> why shouldn't i root for russia, which i am? >> fox news' highest ranked leader tucker carlson who two years ago declared he was on russia's side against the battle for ukraine has repeated russian propaganda about alleged american sponsored bio weapons labs in ukraine. it's worth noting there are some mitigating factors at play here. viktor orban has manipulated hungary's democracy in ways that give him structural advantages. in 2010 he gave citizenship to
10:05 am
2.4 million ethnic hungarians living abroad and portrayed himself as the only defender of their rights, which gained him massive support from these newly minted voters. he's quashed the independent media, the government actively promotes orban sending out publicly funded posters with his image. these practices have led freedom house to rate hungary as the only european union country that is just partly free. even so, right wing populism in hungary and elsewhere is genuinely popular. while le pen has taken advantage of rising inflation, castigating macron's government for price hikes of all kinds, her fundamental appeal comes from her strident, cultural nationalism. others on the right constantly rail against immigrants, multiculturalism, lgbtq rights and a new phrase that has cropped up in france. at the same time these leaders have cast aside much of the free market economics of the old right.
10:06 am
le pen has denounced many of macron's liberal reforms and embraced the old statist policies of the french left such as the 35 hour workweek and early retirement. she has publicly speculated she might bring in members on the left who agree with these ideas on protectionism and industrialism. she has long time practiced a statism that doles out state subsidies to groups his party favors. in america tucker carlson spends little time on the ukraine war, focusing his program instead on a daily diet of outrage about woke politics and cancel culture. leading republicans like ron desantis do the same. if you were to listen to the american right these days you would think that the most pressing issues in the world today are school boards that are indoctrinating children with ideas about gender fluidity. it is true that these ideas appeal to only part of the electorate, especially those who are older, more rural and less educated, but by now it should
10:07 am
be clear that these voters are numerous enough and passionate enough to win elections on both sides of the atlantic. go to cnn.com/fareed for a link to my "washington post" column this week. and let's get started. in perhaps the most telling sign yet that vladimir putin knows his war effort in ukraine has fared poorly, he's made a mid-course change to the top of his command structure. general aleksandr dvornikov will now lead the russian military in ukraine. cnn's phil black joins knee now from lviv, ukraine, to talk more about this move and what it means for the future of the conflict. phil, welcome. what we do know about this man, general dvornikov, is his record in syria which was one of brutality, particularly towards civilians, but effectiveness,
10:08 am
right? >> reporter: that's right, fareed. so he is a man with history, the sort of history that is going to make people concerned about the brutality that could still be yet to come in this war. and, yes, in syria he was the commander, the first commander of russia's intervention in that civil war. the war that eventually turned the tide and ultimately saved the syrian regime, but at tremendous costs. it was an operation that had great willingness to use terror and cause suffering and death among civilian populations, notably of course in the city of aleppo. what this all shows, though, is that it is yet another sign that russia is aware that things haven't gone well so far. a tacet admission that its efforts so far simply haven't worked because the assessment so far has been that russia's various units and various parts of the country have been operating with considerable
10:09 am
independence, and what that means is no overall cohesion, at times there have been crossing over, at times they've been competing for resources and logistical support as well. this as russia now focuses its efforts in the east, as it is expected to launch a more consolidated effort to take territory there in the hope of making tangible military gains in the donbas region. this new commander is seen as a new effort, as an additional part of that effort, i should say, fareed, in order to bring that new cohesiveness and bring results quickly. >> the tragedy about what you're telling us, phil, is it means the worse things get for russia, the worse they get for ukraine's civilian population because they then, you know, wreck even great destruction. i want to ask you very quickly about the eastern strategy now because we have these satellite images of a long supply line going to kharkiv. what is specifically going on
10:10 am
here? is it an effort to really cordon off the east? is this going to be a new and powerful offensive? >> reporter: that's the expectation. so these images show us -- and back up what we've been hearing from ukrainian officials in the region and that is that russia is bringing in large numbers of troops and resources ready to launch operations in the hope of breaking through ukrainian defensive lines. that convoy is heading south, the line advancing south of kharkiv through the city of izyum this is thought to be a key point where russia really wants to direct attention in order to expand its control of that donbas region. it is a region that has already experienced significant fighting in recent weeks and that is expected to get much worse with the launch of these new offensive operations. >> phil black, terrific reporting. thank you so much. stay safe. next on "gps," britain's former prime minister gordon brown on his plan to hold vladimir putin accountable for
10:11 am
his military's actions in ukraine. k you choose. try boost glucose control®. it's clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels and contains high quality protein to help manage hunger and support muscle health. try boost® today. pre-rinsing your dishes? you could be using the wrong detergent. and wasting up to 20 gallons of water. skip the rinse with finish quantum. its activelift technology provides an unbeatable clean on 24 hour dried-on stains. skip the rinse with finish to save our water. [sound of helicopter blades] ugh... they found me. ♪ ♪ nice suits, you guys blend right in. the world needs you back. i'm retired greg, you know this. people have their money just sitting around doing nothing... that's bad, they shouldn't do that. they're getting crushed by inflation. well, i feel for them. they're taking financial advice from memes. [baby spits out milk] i'll get my onesies®. ♪ “baby one more time” by britney spears ♪ good to have you back, old friend. yeah, eyes on the road, benny. welcome to a new chapter in investing. [ding] e*trade now from morgan stanley.
10:12 am
when alaska airlines needed a partner for the complex operations of travel - they made the switch to t-mobile. our 5g has alaska airlines and their customers covered, from major hubs to remote destinations. with 5g coverage ready now. for the demands of today and the future, t-mobile's network powers alaska airlines as they deliver next-level care for all customers. 5g ready now. that's how unconventional thinking is better for business. your record label is taking off. but so is your sound engineer. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger.
10:13 am
asya agulnik md: st. jude was founded with an understanding that no child should die in the dawn of life. to work with many partners all over the world, nothing stops in the way of us achieving that mission, not even war. marta salek md: when there is a need, people stand up and do what is right and ensure that they restart medical therapy as quickly as possible. carlos rodriguez-galindo md: any child suffering today of cancer is our responsibility. ♪simply irresistible♪ ♪ ♪ ♪simply irresistible♪ applebee's irresist-a-bowls are back. now starting at $8.99. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood.
10:14 am
(girls giggling) ♪ (fun music) ♪ the comfortmat from weathertech offers support where you need it. mom's gonna love this! grandma's gonna love it! (girls giggling) comfortmat provides anti-fatigue cushioning while you're standing. and won't slip against your floors or under your feet. perfect throughout the home, or on the job. the weathertech comfortmat comes in three colors and finishes. (girls giggling) mmmm... it's so good! order your american made comfortmat at weathertech.com. does daily stress leave you feeling out of sync? new dove men stress-relief body wash... with a plant-based adaptogen, helps alleviate stress on skin. so you can get back in sync. new dove men. a restorative shower for body and mind. why burn a candle when you can switch to air wick essential mist? it's the modern way to transform fragrance infused with natural essential oils into a mist. air wick essential mist. connect to nature.
10:15 am
the scenes of death and destruction from ukraine in recent days have amplified calls to hold russia accountable for its actions there. a warning, we're going to show you some of those scenes and they're graphic. the images from bucha shocked the world, a mass grave behind a church and dead scattered around the town's streets. then on friday in the eastern city of kramatorsk a train station backed with people trying to escape to safety was hit by a russian missile strike. at least 50 were killed and 100 wounded.
10:16 am
one of the big questions surrounding this is should vladimir putin himself be prosecuted for war crimes? could he be? the former british prime minister gordon brown has proposed a way to make this happen. he joins me now from scotland. gordon brown, explain why this idea of yours would make a difference? after all, we are not going to arrest vladimir putin anytime soon. >> what we're seeing now is torture, rape, mutilation, murder, not as by-products of war but as a policy of war being conducted by putin and we have already found this morning far more evidence in other villages just outside kyiv of these kinds of crimes. so we've got to, first of all, say that putin cannot act with impunity, secondly, we have to say that those people in his inner circle are complicit and they could be charged with crimes of conspiracy. and thirdly, we've got to give
10:17 am
the ukrainian people the sense that we will continue to monitor and report and investigate and eventually prosecute these crimes. they need the assurance that the eyes of the whole world are upon ukraine. and i believe that we should set up a special tribunal in this case to charge putin with a crime of aggression. clearly he has invaded the country and clearly he continues this process of invasion even if he is now focused on the east rather than on kyiv. and i believe a special tribunal could be created very quickly, it's at the request of ukraine whom i have talked to about this and many other countries should support their efforts to get this tribunal. it should probably be set up in the hague alongside the international criminal court which would over time investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity but this crime of aggression is the initial crime, the supreme
10:18 am
crime. it was what was prosecuted after 1942 when we decided that there would be what became the nuremburg trials and it's perfectly within our power to agree that we should set up this tribunal now. >> the big difference between nuremberg and now, gordon brown, is that people say you're going to have to cut a deal with putin. the only way out of this crisis is some kind of negotiated settlement. obviously in world war ii the goals were unconditional surrender, total destruction of the nazi regime and the imperial japanese regime. given that you're going to have to deal with putin most likely, does it make sense to do this? >> that would be for a decision of the ukraine people what sort of deal that they might in the end reach as an agreement with the russians, but we've got to understand the only thing that putin understands -- i've worked with him, i've dealt with him, i've negotiated with him -- the only thing he understands is strength. if you show any sign of weakness either disunity or a willingness to compromise on principles then
10:19 am
he will use that as a sign they can go further. so we've got to display strength and strength is saying you cannot act with impunity. these are war crimes, probably crimes against humanity, they may extend over time to genocide, a form of ethnic cleansing, we do not yet know about that, but what we do know is that there's been a crime of aggression. that was the initial crime in 1942. now, the question then is how do you get to putin and his inner circle to punish them? you make it clear of course that the crime of aggression is in russian law, it's in ukraine law, you make it clear that if he left the country he would be arrested, you make it clear to his inner circle that if they stick with putin then they are liable to be arrested, too. what you have to do is set up a process, probably in the hague as i say, working alongside the international criminal court, but we will publish this week what is, if you like, a list of the crimes of aggression which makes it clear that there is a prima facie case against putin
10:20 am
and his inner circle. >> it sounds like you're saying putin is essentially persona non grata, become an international pariah. in that circumstance, for example, should russia's membership in the g20 be suspended in some way? this is what jake sullivan the national security adviser has raised. you were instrumental in making the g20 important after the global financial crisis. should russia be out? >> well, of course, russian has been thrown out of the g7 which for a brief period of time became the g8 and i think that was the right decision to take. suspension is different from expulsion and of course in circumstances where you cannot work with a country -- russia is basically on the sidelines in the g20 at the moment, it is not participating. i don't think putin has attended a meeting recently or any of his ministers in-person. i think that's a decision the
10:21 am
g20 can make when it meets -- >> what would you recommend? >> i would recommend suspension but i would hope that it would not lead in the end to expulsion, but that depends. putin's regime is a pariah state. as long as putin is leader of russia, in my view, it will remain a pariah state. it is leading to the decoupling of russia from europe and the decoupling of russia from the west. we don't know yet what final attitude china will take to this. it is more ambivalent perhaps than what people thought at the outset of this crisis. what i feel we're moving towards unless we take action as one world and two systems, the future of one world two systems, what i think the west has got to do, that's europe and america, is offer people a global marshal plan which is not simply about military action to
10:22 am
contain russia and potentially in future to contain china, but economic and political action that can bring those parts of the world together, whether it's through free trade or whether it it's through interventions to make sure people can enjoy prosperity. we have to show that there is a superiority in the way that their economic prosperity has developed in the countries of europe and america. >> you dealt with putin when he had essentially ordered the poisoning and the killing of a former -- of a russian defector. you know, when -- in your view when he faces these setbacks, when he feels like plan a is not working, what is most likely? what do you imagine putin's plan is now in ukraine? >> putin is opportunist. you know what his final objectives are, but he's opportunist. when the man was assassinated in london, we knew he was behind it. we also knew he was planning other assassinations on british soil, and the only way we
10:23 am
prevented these until the attempt in salisbury ten years later was massive security on our side, but the threat to russia about the action we would be taking if there were further attempts at assassination of our soil. in other words, the only thing he understands is threats, the only thing he understands is strength and we've got to show that this united strength that has started this approach to dealing with this crisis continues and that will mean, i'm afraid to say, for germany and others, they will have to do oil and gas sanctions, they will have to cover all the banks and not just some of the banks, and it would be ridiculous if we ended up paying the post of putin's war by allowing the continuation of payments from the west to russia for oil and gas over a very considerable period of time. >> gordon brown, always good to have you on, sir. thank you. >> thank you. next on "gps," we will take up gordon brown's challenge and talk about exactly how europe can wean itself of russian energy. back in a moment .
10:24 am
10:25 am
10:26 am
10:27 am
when it comes to cybersecurity, the biggest threats don't always strike the biggest targets. so help safeguard your small business with comcast business securityedge™. it's advanced security that continuously scans for threats and helps protect every connected device. on the largest, fastest, reliable network with speeds up to 10 gigs to the most small businesses. so you can be ready for what's next. get started with internet and voice for $64.99 a month. and ask how to add securityedge™. or, ask how to get up to an $800 prepaid card.
10:28 am
earlier this week ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy asked an urgent question, how many more ukrainian men and women will the russian military kill before western governments implement a ban on russian energy? the chorus of voices calling for such a ban is growing, but how could europe do it? the eu depends on russia for about a quarter of its oil imports and about 40% of its gas. meghan o'sullivan is here with some answers. she is the director of the
10:29 am
geopolitics energy at harvard kennedy school. she was deputy national security adviser for iraq and afghanistan under george w. bush. meghan, welcome. so i want to start by asking you a baseline kind of question, which is if you had your job as deputy national security adviser and president biden called you in and said, i want us to work on driving down putin's oil and gas revenues, can you come up with a plan? is the basic -- is your basic view it's doable, but hard, or it's really not in the realm of possible? >> well, thanks, fareed. good to be with you. and i would say it's certainly doable and the question is at what cost? and there are different components of this, as you know, and any -- actually, the biden administration, as you know, has already decided to cut off its import of oil and gas from russia, but the real question, i think is, is europe?
10:30 am
you know, the extent of the rest of the world and europe makes up such a significant amount of the purchase of russian energy from, you know -- from both the oil and gas perspectives. so i would say if i were asked to present a plan i would say let's break this into pieces. the first piece is probably coal which europe has already announced its intention to do. the next piece would be oil and that i think is really the critical piece because in 2021 the russians made about $3 for every dollar -- they made $3 in oil revenues for every dollar they made in gas revenues. so while we hear a lot of talk about oil and gas together, if we're really trying to choke off russian revenues it's oil that is the critical factor and then gas is even harder, but not as critical to the russian revenue streams. >> so let me just put up a graph which illustrates the point you're making in terms of where revenues come from. russian revenues from oil, 2021,
10:31 am
$178.9 billion, gas is just $61.8 billion. a lot, but, as you said, almost a third as much as oil. so what would you do about oil? how do you replace russian oil? >> sure. and let's talk about this from the perspective of europe. we just heard very passionately from gordon brown and europe is really -- this is where the sanctions against potentially russian oil are most in play. so right now russia exports about 7.8 million barrels a day or up until recently let's say that, both oil and oil products. and about half of that goes to europe. so we're talking about 4.5 million barrels of oil going from russia to europe every day. what would happen to the world and to europe if that were cut off in very short order? so the oil market, unlike the gas market, as you know, is global and oil is a fungible product. at least in theory the oil that
10:32 am
europe wasn't consuming could be fed back into other markets and that ultimately there would be some kind of rebalancing or reshuffling of the whole global system. that's in theory. in practice i think it would be a lot harder, although certainly some of that oil would make its way back into the system, most likely through china. china is really the key here if we're asking about what happens to the oil market. it depends on how much china takes. china has the ability to take a lot of that, let's say a substantial portion, the majority of that 4.5 million barrels of oil that europe might not take, but that is just from a feasible, technical feasibility. it really also is a political question for the chinese. they've become -- you know, they cultivated this very close relationship with the gulf producers and might be reluctant to jettison that or to scale it back in favor of accepting a substantial amount more of russian crude. so there is the chinese, we can
10:33 am
talk about opec being another source of trying to make up that lost supply as well as some outliers like iran and venezuela. but all of these have uncertainties around them and there are time lags to all of them. add to those pieces of supply you also have the prospects of american increased oil production, but more likely we're looking at a continued reliance on the strategic petroleum reserve at least for a few months. so the bottom line, fareed, is that there are a lot of places where the world could make up that shortfall, but all of these, as i said, have a lot of uncertainty around them and it would take an unprecedented amount of cooperation and real savvy execution to make sure that there wasn't a huge disruption in the oil markets as a result of a ban on russian oil to europe. >> meghan, so what you're saying, which is very important and i think not enough people understand, it's not just enough
10:34 am
to increase the supply by getting opec to pump more or getting venezuela to pump more or getting the iran nuclear deal so iranian oil comes out, you also have to make sure that putin's oil doesn't just go to another buyer and that's why dealing with the chinese, dealing with the indians potentially who would otherwise simply substitute and putin would get the money just from another source. now i've got to ask you very briefly the hardest one, which is gas. what do we do about gas? i have a minute so i'm going to ask you to be -- to be brief here. >> sure. okay. so the international energy agency says looking at this from a less political, more technocratic perspective they say of the 155 bcm of gas that flows from russia to europe every year that by the end of this year, 2022, the europeans could displace a little more
10:35 am
than half of that russian gas and this would be through a variety ways, through increased lng increased natural gas from other sources, a significant increase in coal, a very modest increase in renewable energy and an increase in nuclear capacity and very significantly about 10% of that reduction of the 155 would come from demand destruction, basically conserving energy. so there is some way of feasibly replacing about half of russian gas exports within the year, which is not overnight, but, again, all of this requires a lot of coordination and it would still leave a significant shortfall that would end up resulting in much, much higher prices, particularly for europeans and would result in probably more demand destruction because there wouldn't be sufficient quantities of gas to meet demand in the immediate
10:36 am
term. so, again, i would conclude by saying all of this is feasible and under the circumstances i think it is almost inevitable, at least on the oil side, but it will require a lot of -- a lot of coordination, a lot of markets moving things, a lot of political stamina to actually see this happen. >> meghan, thanks so much. that was very instructive. next up, masha gessen on what is happening inside russia. and tonight on cnn, we have a special. there was no one like anthony bourdain. this is the story you haven't heard from the people who knew him best. "roadrunner" a film about anthony bourdain that premieres tonight at 9:00 p.m. on cnn. >> woman: i have a few more minutes. let's go! >> tech vo: that's service that fits your schedule. go to safelite.com. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ let's go on the open road with a safe stay! now get double best western rewards points on every stay.
10:37 am
and with rewards points that never expire, you get free nights fast! book now at bestwestern.com. hey businesses! you all deserve something epic! so we're giving every business, our best deals on every iphone - including the iphone 13 pro with 5g. that's the one with the amazing camera? yep! every business deserves it... like one's that re-opened! hi, we have an appointment. and every new business that just opened! like aromatherapy rugs! i'll take one in blue please! it's not complicated. at&t is giving new and existing business customers our best deals on every iphone. ♪ ♪ people with plaque psoriasis, are rethinking the choices they make. like the shot they take. the memories they create. or the spin they initiate. otezla. it's a choice you can make. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, you can achieve clearer skin. don't use if you're allergic to otezla.
10:38 am
otezla can cause serious allergic reactions. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. ♪ ♪ we believe there's an innovator in all of us. ♪ that's why we build technology that makes it possible for every business... and every person... to come to the table and do more incredible things. lactaid is 100% real milk, just without the lactose. tastes great in our iced coffees too.
10:39 am
which makes waking up at 5 a.m. to milk the cows a little easier. (moo) mabel says for you, it's more like 5:15. man: mom, really?
10:40 am
one of the novel aspects of this war in ukraine is the speed at which the rest of the world is able to see the tragedies, hear about the brutality of it all, but it leaves one wondering what do the russian people see?
10:41 am
what are they being told? the russian-born masha gessen is a staff writer at "the new yorker," written brilliantly about all of this. the first question i have is we hear about these polls and we hear about the fact that russians seem to support the war, putin's ratings are at 83%, anecdotal evidence does seem to support this when you hear of reporters, they go out and ask people. what should we make of this? >> there's a certain point when opinion polling becomes meaningless and it's misleading to call it opinion polling. right? you can't have public opinion in a country that has no public and people have no opinions. at this point you're measuring the level of totalitarianism in society, when you get into numbers that are over 70% you are talking about how totalitarian is this place? where for people it feels like a matter of survival to mirror back to the state what the state says to them, that's what you're
10:42 am
seeing. in a sense maybe it's even more significant to look at the 17% who somehow objected, even though it's now punishable by up to 15 years to so-called spread false information about the russian military. >> but does that mean you think putin is not popular? because in most countries you have a war, people rally around the flag. >> absolutely. no, it does not mean that putin is not popular. by no means am i trying to say that people are trying to hide their real opinions. what i'm trying to say is that they are in a situation of extreme state pressure and extreme propaganda where they don't even have the opportunity to form their own opinions. >> there is a "new york times" piece about how people are starting to denounce one another in a way that is reminiscent of the stalin era. >> totalitarian society is not only one that applies pressure from above but one where people start horizontally to enforce the rules that they see the state enforcing. >> do you think it is
10:43 am
significant that by some accounts 200,000 to 300,000 russians might have left or, again, it's a large country, this may not be that telling. >> a portion of that, of those people who left, which is probably about a quarter million the best estimate we have, those are people who were trying to create or creating a civil society in russia. that's a really important part of the population, it's a tiny group comparatively in a country of 145 million people, but it's a really important group. these were the people running ngos, who were the last remaining independent media and the fact that they've left and left in despair and left because they felt they had no choice is really heartbreaking for the country. >> and to me that makes me ask this last question. so if they think they can't change what is going on, is there anything from the outside one could do to penetrate through this totalitarian what
10:44 am
you're describing as a totalitarian state but also a totalitarian society, a society so shocked and scared by all of this that it's numb in a sense? >> i don't think at this point there is any pressure from the outside or from the inside that can change what goes on in russia. i think that the ideas that rhetorically underpin sanctions, that people are going to rise up and overthrow putin because life gets difficult or that the elites are going to stage a palace coup are mostly fantasies. they are not entirely impossible but they are mostly fantasies. >> so what would you recommend? >> i think we have to think differently about it. i think we have to focus more on what is the actual lifeline of the regime and the actual lifeline of the regime is income from energy and think hard about the kind of hardship that the sanctions -- what we have now is not even sanctions exactly.
10:45 am
they are sanctions but there's also this huge spontaneous boycott by multinational corporation that is didn't have to pull out but feel that public opinion makes them pull out and also there is a snowball effect because the worse things are there the less sense it makes to do business there. but the impact of that is disproportionate. the impacts of sanctions is always disproportionately on the poor but the kind of sanctions we're seeing now is really disproportionately hitting the poor. it's making ordinary people not have access, for example, to life-sustaining medicine and that's an impact that we have already seen. what we haven't seen is cutting off the actual income for the regime and that's gas, oil, coal. >> let me ask you about the piece that "the new yorker" is going to publish tomorrow, i guess it is. it is about the great atrocity, the holocaust atrocity in ukraine. one part of what i want to ask you is it does feel like the
10:46 am
ukrainians are experiencing a kind of brutality that is oft the kind of epidemic proportions or epic proportions that happened. do you think enough is being done to recognize this? gordon brown wants to do a war crimes tribunal because it does feel like we're living through one of these moments in history that will be remembered for centuries. >> you know, for this article on the largest mass shooting of the holocaust that has never been properly memorialized and the biggest reason it has not been properly memorialized is because the soviet union suppressed any memory of the holocaust. in talking about it i talked to a priest who has become an investigator, dr. patrick dubois, who is known for coining the phrase holocaust by bullets,
10:47 am
and he made this point that, you know, the holocaust as we think about it, the holocaust by gas, industrial murder, that's a unique event in history, but mass killing by bullets happens all the time. >> and in a sense that is -- >> and goes unpunished. >> and that is the kind of thing we're seeing now, masha gessen, pleasure to have you on. thank you. we will be back. well, i feel for them. they're taking financial advice from memes. [baby spits out milk] i'll get my onesies®. ♪ “baby one more time” by britney spears ♪ good to have you back, old friend. yeah, eyes on the road, benny. welcome to a new chapter in investing. [ding] e*trade now from morgan stanley. (cto) ♪ i want the world ♪ (production manager) ♪ i want the whole world ♪ (supervisor) ♪ i want to lock it all up in my pocket. ♪ (ceo) ♪ i want today. ♪ ♪ i want tomorrow. ♪ (warehouse worker) ♪ presents and prizes and sweets and surprises... ♪ (driver) ♪ of all shapes and sizes. ♪
10:48 am
(dispatch) ♪ i want it noooooow! ♪ (vo) t-mobile for business has 5g that's ready right now.
10:49 am
♪simply irresistible♪ ♪ ♪ ♪simply irresistible♪ applebee's irresist-a-bowls are back. now starting at $8.99. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. migraine attacks? you can't always avoid triggers like changes in weather. qulipta™ can help prevent migraine attacks. you can't prevent what's going on outside, that's why qulipta™ helps what's going on inside. qulipta™ is a pill. gets right to work to prevent migraine attacks and keeps them away over time. qulipta™ blocks cgrp a protein believed to be a cause of migraine attacks. qulipta™ is a preventive treatment for episodic migraine. most common side effects are nausea, constipation, and tiredness. learn how abbvie can help you save on qulipta™.
10:50 am
10:51 am
now for an interlude, something completely different. when i was a teenager growing up in india, i fell in love with
10:52 am
the music of billy joel. so when i started thinking about a new show on cnn plus, he was the first person i wanted to interview. i traveled down to his home near palm beach, florida, and we had a wonderful wide-ranging conversation about his music, his creativity, his life. it was at times very funny and other times very serious. here's one of my favorite parts from the premiere episode of the series "extraordinary with fareed zakaria" only on cnn plus. sometimes you bring stuff to the band and in the course of playing, it will get redone? >> i brought stuff to the band that they said, that stinks! >> really? >> oh, yeah. they don't hold back. my band is -- they're all from new york. this is back in the day. and they didn't like something. my drummer would throw his sticks at me. >> liberty. >> yeah, terrible. that sucks! there was a -- one song "movin'
10:53 am
out." originally it went -- ♪ anthony works in the grocery store saving his pennies for some day ♪ ♪ mama leoni left a note on the -- >> they left a note at me, that's "laughter in the rain by neil sedaka. crap, i wrote all those words for nothing? so i changed the melody. ♪ anthony works in the grocery store ♪ wrote a whole new song. so in a way it was a motivator to write a completely new song. but they won't let me get away with anything. they're tough. >> there's much more to see of this conversation with billy joel. part of my new series "extraordinary with fareed zakaria." and you can only see it on cnn's new streaming service, cnn plus. to subscribe, go to cnnplus.com. if you do so right now, your subscription will be 50% off for
10:54 am
life. that is cnnplus.com to subscribe. now i want to close this program with a final thought about the crisis in ukraine. or rather about the crises being set off around the world because of the war in ukraine. you have heard about the challenges that western countries, particularly european countries face with regard to their energy security. but in even more dramatic problem is ravaging some of the poorest countries in the world. as energy and food costs rise, many developing countries are finding that they simply do not have the money to import the minimum they need to survive and grow. in sri lanka, a country that had been reforming and growing after years of civil war, the government faces massive protests, has seen most of its cabinet resign and much of its parliamentary support erode, all triggered by huge spikes in prices. now sri lanka's economic problems predate the war in
10:55 am
ukraine, but that war has undoubtedly exacerbated those problems, and it is exacerbating the crisis we are seeing. egypt, another country with an impressive recent record of reform and economic growth is the world's largest importer of wheat with 85% of that supply coming from russia and ukraine. the government has devalued its currency and put price controls on bread, but more emergency measures are likely to come. pakistan is in the middle of a political crisis anyway, but the war has made it more likely that the country will default on its debts. in fact, the world bank has noted that over the next year, a dozen developing countries could default on their debt. the largest debt crisis in developing countries in a generation. and as sri lanka vividly shows, these debt problems will turn into political instability very quickly. so when you hear about high energy costs, don't just think about high heating bills in the
10:56 am
west. it might also mean strikes, protests, governmental collapse and a plunge into poverty in some of the most vulnerable parts of the world. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. new dove shower collection is infused with hyaluronic and peptide serums to make your skin feel smoother and more radiant. new dove body love. face care ingredients now in the shower. you're a one-man stitchwork master. but your staffing plan needs to go up a size. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire
10:57 am
10:58 am
10:59 am
11:00 am
hello, everyone. thank you for joining me. i'm fredricka whitfield. and brianna keilar is joining us from lviv, ukraine. we'll get to you in a moment. we begin with russia's new shifting strategies in ukraine. president vladimir putin appointing a new commander to lead his force