tv Don Lemon Tonight CNN April 11, 2022 7:00pm-8:00pm PDT
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from mass graves. crimes against humanity has to do with protection of individuals and egregiously violent acts. and actually, it's interesting, the term crimes against humanity was devised by a lawyer educated right here at lviv university, and he was working with the americans and the brits on the prosecutions that would end up being the nuremberg trieals in 1942 at the same time his family was being rounded up and killed by the nazis right here in lviv. >> it's really important what you're doing bringing the p personal stories to our viewers. get some rest, we'll see you tomorrow. >> this is don lemon tonight. it is hard to imagine we could be on the verge of thing getting much worse. after more than six weeks of bombs raining down from the skies, pulverizing, homes, schools, hospitals, bodies of
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civilians left lying in the streets where they died. it is hard to imagine that it could get worse, but that is exactly what we're hearing tonight. ukraine bracing for the worst in the east as vladimir putin tries to refocus his murderous efforts on the donbas region. the pentagon calling it the early stages of a new offensive. russia amassing troops and equipment. cnn has geo located this vehicle showing a large column of russian vehicles today traveling in the direction of the donbas. after his 75-minute meeting with putin, austria's chancellor has this grim warning, quote, the attack being threatened cannot be underestimated in its violence. when you think about what we've seen, the warnings of worse to come, they're appalling. disturbing reports just coming out of the possibility of a strike involving chemical substances of some kind of a target in mariupol today. those reports unconfirmed, but president volodymyr zelenskyy
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warning the possibility should be taken seriously. >> translator: today we heard a statement from the occupiers confirming they are preparing for a new stage in their terror against us and our defenders. one of the spokespeople of the invaders said they are considering usiiing chemical weapons against the defenders of mariupol. >> a mariupol official saying information about a chemical attack is, quote, not yet confirmed. the pentagon cannot confirm the reports either, but they are issuing a statement tonight saying, and i quote, these reports if true are deeply concerning and reflective of concerns that we have had about russia's potential to use a variety of riot-control agents including tear gas mixed with chemical agents in ukraine. cnn cannot independently verify any canikind of chemical strike mariupol. our teams on the ground have so far seen no evidence of a chemical attack, that as president zelenskyy says tens of
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thousands of people in mariupol have been killed in russia's unending assault from the air. cnn hasn't been able to verify that toll. and it is hard to wrap your head around it, the idea that tens of thousands of people may have been killed in a city that just a few weeks ago was home to nearly a half million people. in the face of all that, president zelenskyy has a message that may be hard to hear. he says the world is responsible for what's happening to his people. >> translator: whether the world is responsible for this, i believe so, yes. i believe so. stand in front of the mirror every day and ask yourself were you able to do something, or were you unable to do something? you will find the answer in the mirror to this question. and to another question, who are you? that's what i believe. >> straight now to cnn's
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fre fre fre fre frederik polite again, cnn located a vehicle showing a large column of russian vehicles. zelenskyy says they are ready for a major russian offensive. what is the latest? >> reporter: hi there, don, you're absolutely right. troubling video that we're seeing there from that area naerer the donbas region on the russia side. it's interesting, i was actually in that area right before this war started, and you know, from the terrain that is out there and from the proximity also to the donbas, it certainly does seem as though the russians are really trying to beef up their forces in that part of ukraine. they probably would have gone by rail to rustof, which is the next major big city, and they now seam to be heading in a northwestern direction that would take them to the area of donetsk on the ukrainian side of the border and then they could join some sort of large scale offensive, which the u.s. says
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is still shaping up but hasn't yet begun in full force. one of the things that's troubling for the ukrainian forces out there, they do have pretty strong military on the ground there as well, some of their best fighters from the ukrainian side also defending that part of ukraine is that the russians seem to be trying to close in on them from the south and encircle the ukrainian forces, tens of thousands of them that are defending cities where late last week we had that awful rocket attack that killed so many civilians there. if you keep looking at that convoy on our screens right now, that is a lot of vehicles that are moving there towards that region, so certainly it seems as though the russians really beefing up their forces after having been beaten back so badly here in the region around kyiv. >> you took the words out of my mouth. that is a major convoy. you have gone to see the devastation, as a matter of fact, left behind after russia's withdrawal from the kyiv area. what have ukrainians told you about living through russia's bombardment and occupation, fred? >> yeah, you're absolutely
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right, and they said it was absolutely devastating, and one of the things that we've done over the course of the weekend is really checked out even more of the areas than before towards the northwest of kyiv. and i think there's several things that really stand out that are important for our viewers to know as well is that the devastation that was left behind by the russian forces is a lot bigger than many people would have thought. there's scores of towns that are just absolutely destroyed, buildings destroyed, a lot of russian armor destroyed also that was left behind by the russians. and you know, don, you were obviously here for an extended period of time as well, and you understand that there's a lot of people here who are absolutely traumatized by what this war has brought to the population of ukraine. of course nowhere more so than in pralaces that were occupied russian forces. we have a lot of people who just broke down in tears when they told us the stories of some of the things that they witnessed. there's also still a lot of dead bodies that are being recovered, and you know, just to get a sense of that, i want you to listen to one elderly woman that
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i talked to, she actually was very young when world war ii happened, and now she had the war right in front of her doorstep. let's listen in. >> there were explosions, explosions from all sides. it was scary, she tells me. i am in my house. i cross myself and lie down, and then i hear how it thundered and all the windows in the house were broken. >> so you have some harrowing tales of one of the many people that we spoke to on the ground there in the area northwest of kyiv. but don, i think there's also another thing that's also really important to point out. you do obviously have a lot of grief. you have a lot of anger. you have a lot of people who lost loved ones in all this, but you do also have a great deal of resilience as well, and that's something that we've seen especially over the past two or three days here in kyiv that more and more people are already returning, people who were in
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the west of the yrncountry, peo outside of ukraine are coming back to kyiv to try to breathe new life into the city that was all but abandoned for such a long period of time. there's big traffic jams trying to come into the city. for the first time today we keep going past this area that was abandoned. there was a playground there, that always seemed like a really sad place. for the first time there today we actually saw children playing on that playground. >> look, you're reporting on this tonight the possibility of chemical weapons and what have you, and we were just talking about the last time i spoke with you on friday, i mean, it's just awful. you know, zelenskyy tonight says the reports that russia could use these chemical weapons against mariupol, it should be taken seriously. what more is he saying? what more are you hearing from him about this? >> yeah, that's absolutely what he said. he said that those reports need to be taken seriously. he said that the russians had hinted at the fact that an attack like that could happen, and there was a little bit of back and forth tonight about whether or not something of that
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nature may have already happened in the town of mariupol, the deafe defenders of that town had talked about a substance possibly being dropped from a drone by russian forces. that there were forces in mariupol who had had trouble breathing. there was also a senior official, an adviser to the mayor of mariupol who said also that there were unconfirmed reports. we heard the defense department talk about that, also the british foreign minister talking about that as well. again, unconfirmed at this point, but it's certainly something that the ukrainians are taking very seriously. i think that president zelenskyy understands that the russians right now in that area around mariupol are quite frustrated by the fact that the ukrainians are putting up such stiff resistance, and you know, we've said this so many times, we're now, what day 47, i think of this war against ukraine, and the russians still have not managed to take a single major population center and certainly mariupol was a very important one for them to take, and they are still being frustrated by those defenders who are holding out, don.
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>> all right, fred, thank you very much. i really appreciate it. be safe. i want to bring in now the former ambassador to ukraine, ambassador steven fifer, thank you so much. i appreciate you joining us. i just want your take on what we're hearing from president zelenskyy. he says that the west does bear some responsibility. let's listen to more of his "60 minutes" interview, and then we'll talk. here it is. >> translator: i remember, all of us remember books about the second world war and about the devil in uniform, adolf hitler. are those countries who did not participate in the war responsible? the countries who let german forces march throughout europe. does the world carry responsibility for the genocide? yes. yes, it does. when you have the ability to close the sky, yes, it's scary that a world war could start. it's scary. i understand that, and i cannot put pressure on these people
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because everyone is afraid of war, but whether the world is responsible for this, i believe so, yes. >> what do you say to that, ambassador? >> i guess i would make two comments. one, this war, to my mind, the blame really goes on one person. that's vladimir putin who decided to launch this war as a war of choice, but i think what you're hearing from president zelenskyy is his frustration that the outside world is not doing more to support ukraine, which is the victim of naked aggression. i think he's looking for two things from the west, one is more arms. the west has supplied a lot, but there are more needs on the part of the ukraine military. and also his frustration that the sanctions haven't had a bigger impact and his concern that, for example, the russians are still able to sell a lot of oil and gas in international markets, and that's continue the flow of revenue to russia. i read into his comments, he's looking for the west now to do
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more to help ukraine defend itself. >> so, listen, now that putin has invaded, now that russian forces have committed apparent war crimes, now that this invasion has created a security crisis in europe, will the west wonder later on if more could have been done now? >> i think that's the question the western governments knead to be asking themselves right now, and there are things that could be done. for example, there are different types of weapons that we could begin to provide the ukrainians. up until now, the goal has been to get weapons to ukraine that the ukraine military could use very quickly without a lot of training, but if this war now looks like it's evolving to a longer affair, you know, should we begin thinking about perhaps more sophisticated weapons that could give the ukrainians some capability, albeit requiring the ukrainian military to train on them first. and then the second question gets to what can the west do to
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really tighten down the sanctions on russia, and this particularly is with regards to oil and gas. and maybe the way to think about this is not so much reducing the flow of oil and gas from russia to europe, but can you reduce the revenue that russia gets? one idea that's been thought act, it's complicated and i'm not sure it'd work, but worth exploring, could you have european countries when they purchase gas and oil from russia put it into an escrow account where russia couldn't have access to the funds until after this war is settled. an alternative would be to apply a really high tariff on russian oil, for example, and that might force the russians to lower their price to remain competitive, and again, that would be a way of reducing the amount of money going to russia right now. there are some ways, they're complicated and have to be worked through, and i hope people in europe are thinking in a creative way about this. >> interesting, i've never heard what you've proposed but i mean, it sounz sounds good and perhaps
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someone should propose that. zelenskyy is also saying they're ready for a major russian offensive in the east of ukraine. this comes as russia's appointed a new general, known for his brutality against civilians. is this yet another sign of the worst may be yet to come? >> don, i think it could still get very difficult for ukraine. unfortunately, regardless of who is in command, you have seen this pattern of russian war crimes and atrocities. i mean, mariupol and mariupol i find particularly ironic. this is a city of a half million people. it's now been deceased for six weeks, this is a city where pretty much everybody spoke russian as their first language, and the city has been destroyed by this continuing russian bombardment, that kind of indiscriminate shelling that we've seen in kharkiv, that's a war crime. then the atrocities that have been revealed as the ukrainian military liberates areas north of kyiv. unfortunately, it looks like the
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russian military thinks this kind of brutality is helpful in terrorizing the population, but i think it's actually going to be back firing on russia because it seems to me that while some are traumatized by it, a large number of ukrainians it basically doubles down their resolve to resist and b ffight. >> they may gain ground, but they certainly won't gain people, right? they won't gain the sentiment of the ukrainian people. they can never occupy them. they may occupy their land, but they won't occupy them. ask and what you're saying about most of the people from mariupol, those i heard from who were escaping, said they spoke russian. that was their native language. they tried to reason with the russian soldiers as they passed these check points. they said there was no reasoning. they completely believed the russian propaganda obviously, and they were shocked by it. i have to ask you about austria's leader. he had this face-to-face meeting with putin. it is being described as not a
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friendly visit. he said it's important to confront putin and tell him that he lost the war morally. will meetings like this make a difference? >> i'm not sure. i mean, it may be useful for putin to hear this, particularly from somebody like the austrian chancellor. austria's always been seen as one of the european union countries that was inclined to sort of keep the door open to russia, so it was good that he got a hard message, and by all appearances it was a very tough message, and it was probably not all that well-received by the fact that the meeting lasted only a little bit over an hour. compare that with, i think, french president macron was the last western leader to be there. he had five hours of putin, so it was good that putin got the message, but i'm not sure it's going to budge putin. what's going to budge putin is, i think, more defeats on the battlefield, and as the sanctions continue to take their toll on the ukrainian economy. >> let me just ask you something real quick.
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i want to ask you about this moment with uk prime minister boris johnson and zelenskyy walking around kyiv over the weekend we saw these pictures. what did you think of that? >> i thought it was amazing. i mean, kyiv, this was the number one target of the russian military. they deny it now, but clearly by the forces that were being moved out of belarus towards kyiv, that's what they wanted to get. they wanted to get the ukrainian capital and then stage a victory parade, and here you have, you know, two weeks after the russians have really called it quits around kyiv, the ukrainian president takes the british prime minister out for a walk. i mane, i could recognize the streets. he took him from the presidential administration down to the main street in downtown, out for a walk. when was the last time we've seen vladimir putin taking a walk with anybody around moscow? >> you haven't seen it. not at all. >> not at all. >> thank you, ambassador, appreciate it. we'll see you soon, you be well. >> you too. russian forces in the early stages of a new offensive, what's their likely target?
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our military analyst colonel cedric leighton breaks it down for us. that's next. fifinding military informatio, newspaper articles, how many people were liviving in the house and where it was, makes me curious and keeps pulling me in and the photos reminding me of what life must have been like for them. finding out new bits of information about the family has been a wonderful experience, it's an important part of understanding who we are. at adp, we use data-driven insights to design solutions to help you manage payro, benefits, and hr today, so you can have more success tomorrow. ♪ one thing leads to another, yeah, yeah ♪ appreciate it.
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and as russian forces amass and resupply, ukrainian officials say that the assault on donbas is already underway. that as the world is bracing for what could be the most vicious fighting yet of the russian invasion. joining me now to discuss is cnn military analyst and retired air force colonel cedric leighton, happy to have you on once again this evening, colonel, fwgood evening to you. russian troops have been seen east of kharkiv where there is heavy shelling and in the besieged city of mariupol, defenders are still fighting tonight. where could we see the main thrust of russia's next assault? >> so, don, tonight it looks like the russians are looking at this area right here, right near bell ga rod, which is on the russian side heading toward kharkiv. that is one place that they could be going. the other part of this is potentially in this area right here, augmenting what they have now around mariupol, the city that has been besieged for so long, and then of course it also ends up working with the
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separatist-controlled areas that we have right hear, thre, the s area in yellow. if they do this and they move up from the south, potentially on this line or even further or slightly northwest to the town of nipro, that would then make for a very interesting effort on their part. what that would do is it would allow them to cut the country in half this way or at least into thirds. that might be one of the things that they're going to be doing, but they're definitely very active active here, and i would say kharkiv is the area they're looking at right now given the shelling and all the other activity now. >> that infantry has been seen heading towards donbas, and we remember the massive convoy that was north of kyiv in the early days of the war, could this one prove more dangerous?
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>> potentially it could. of course it fedepends on what in the convoy. this convoy is one that is east of kharkiv. note, though, that the spacing is a bit different. if you look at how far apart these tanks are, for example. you can see that they're further spaced than the ones that were in the 40-mile long convoy. so the russians are learning. what they're doing is they're spacing these vehicles out so that they're not as vulnerable to attacks from the ukrainians, they're not as vulnerable to the type of stalling tactics that the ukrainians very successfully employed against these convoys, that convoy, i should say that was northwest of kyiv. now, the other convoy is one that we saw in russia, and this is in the region that is just to the east of the donbas, so this, there's a lot of armored personnel carriers, long, long column that is on its way clearly to some kind of combat.
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the kinds of things that they're doing here clearly indicate that they're coming into some kind of area where what they might very well do is go this way into the separatist regions, augment the separatist troops and then head this way and pull down this way toward donetsk, and also potentially up this way to cram tors k where the train station was attacked. those are the kinds of things that they might be doing with these convoys, don. >> putin has put a new general in place to lead his war in ukraine, a man known quite frankly as the butcher of syria. what could that mean for the next chapter of this war? >> general alexander dvornikov is his name. he is known exactly as you said as being a very ruthless commander. this could mean a doubling down on the part of the russians on their strategy of civilian intimidation. basically it's terror. it's the use of intimidation, of
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course, of tactics and techniques and, frankly, torture both psychological and physical, and that's something that we could expect are from this man. >> the pentagon says that it's working to help get long-range air defense systems into ukraine and that ukraine still has a lot of their air defense capability in the current arsenal, but how much will they need to survive the next push? i maean, as you heard the ambassador on earlier, we need to start getting -- at first ukrainians were getting from the west weapons that were easy for them to work, right? without a lot of training. now he says they need more sophisticated weapons. >> i think he's right. i think the ambassador is spot on in that assessment because this is -- the ukrainians have this already, in fact, they got this from slovakia, and my understanding is that it has already been delivered to the ukrainians and they're going to augment their existing air defense capability with this. the good thing about the s-300 is this very fact right here.
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it can reach an altitude of 82,000 feet, and with that, it allows them to control t-- the ukrainians to control a portion of their air space. it's not a no fly zone, but it does deny the russians air superiority over that particular air space. and if they can get a lot of these or similar equipment, then they can have a much more important impact on the air battle and anything else that the russians might throw at them from the air. other weapons that they would be using, of course, would be the t-72 tanks, which both sides have, and of course the big desire on the part of the ukrainians is the mig-29 fulcrum. if the ukrainians got more sophisticated weapons from the west such as let's say f-16s, something like that, that of course would require a lot of training, you know, somewhere upwards of a year in some cases, and i don't think we have that much time. but it's something that we should consider when and if the
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battle changes and the tempo of the battle changes. that's, i think, the key ingredient that has to be assessed when we look at which weapons to supply, when to supply those weapons, and what, if any, training they might need for those weapons. >> thank you very much. i appreciate it. i'll see you tomorrow. >> you bet, don, absolutely. finally free, cnn goes inside the villages surrounding kyiv that endured five weeks of russian occupation. stay with us. so carvana worked with my shift manager to getet it all worked out. i was over the moon, even though i was underground. we'll l drive you happy at carvana.
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. so russian forces may not have been able to capture the ukrainian capital or surrounding neighborhoods, but what they left behind is horrifying. communities destroyed, bodies lying in the street, cnn's clarissa ward visited two liberated areas near kyiv, and i must warn you, the images you're about to see are incredibly disturbing. >> reporter: ukrainian soldiers returning from the front, jubilant after a humiliating defeat for russian forces in the north. in the neighboring villages exhausted residents are emerging from their homes. after five weeks of russian occupation and the horrors that came with it. on day four of the war, this peaceful community became a front line, and nowhere was off
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limits. russian forces transformed the local school into their base. the principal shows us the carnage that was left behind. >> she's saying that they were using this as a toilet as well. >> reporter: the main entrance is now spattered with blood, the scene of heavy fighting. russian soldiers took cover in classrooms and treated their wounded with whatever they could find. >> so you can sea thee they wer eating here. these are some russian military rations. >> reporter: walking the ravaged hallways, she says she is still in a state of shock. what wasn't destroyed was looted. we are for education, education is the future. our students, she says, it's such a shame that our occupiers didn't understand this.
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why steal everything? this is a school. in several classrooms, there are signs that some of the russian soldiers felt ashamed of their actions, a message on a chalkboard. >> it says forgive us. we didn't want this war. >> reporter: but forgiveness will be hard to come by here. at the local cemetery, valentina takes us to the graves of six men who authorities say were executed by russian forces on the day they arrived. it's so hard to get over this, she says. they murdered them. valentina says the russians held on to the bodies for nine days before dumping them at the end of the village with instructions to bury them quickly. we dug very fast so they wouldn't shatoot us, she says, t there was shooting over there and heavy shelling. among the dead, her neighbors,
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brothers egor and oleg yavon. outside the family home, we meet their mother olga. for days she thought her sons were in hiding until a neighbor called her with the devastating news. the agony and the grief are still very raw. they were very good boys, she says. how i want to see them again. >> do you have any idea why the russians would kill your sons? >> who those. there was a bridge that was blown up and somebody shot at a russian drone, she says. the russians were searching the village and rounded them up on the street, six boys. i don't know anything else. a few streets away, catarina
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andrusha is also looking for answers. her daughter, victoria, a school teacher was taken by russian soldiers on march 25th. they said they found information on her phone about their forces, she says. they told me she was in a warm house, that she was working with them, and she would be home soon. but victoria never came home. we hope that she will get in touch, catarina says. with somebody, somewhere. in this small community of 2,000, it seems no street has been spared. the invaders marked their newly seized territory with crude graffiti and battle markings. >> but brave residents like tomara carried out quiet acts of
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resistance. we kept it, we kept it, she says, showing us a ukrainian flag given to her husband for his military service. we hid it. a bold risk in anticipation of this moment when russian troops would be forced to retreat. and the villages would finally be free. >> don, ukrainian authorities say that some of those russian troops who were occupying these areas in the north of kyiv and in chernig region are now being redeployed to the east, so there's a real fear that these harrowing accounts and stories that we've been seeing across this area will now be playing out in the east as russia pushes forward with this offensive. don. >> all right, clarissa ward, thank you so much. offshore accounts, loopholes, corruption, inside the efforts to track down
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russian oligarchs' money, that's next. hi. we're zerowater. and we believe everyone deserves the purest tasting water. that's why we strive for zero. you see, to some it means nothing. but to us, it means everything. here, take a look. this meter showing triple zeros means our five-stage filter did its job, and that virtually all dissolved solids or tds have been removed. and all that's left is the purest tasting water. let's compare. a two-stage brita filter stops here. but our five-stage filter doesn't quit. zerowater. we strive for zero.
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large out-of-state corporations have set their sights on california. they've written a ballot proposal to allow online sports betting. they tell us it will fund programs for the homeless, but read the fine print. 90% of the profits go to out-of-state corporations, leaving almost nothing for the homeless. no real jobs are created here. but the promise between our state and our sovereign tribes would be broken forever. these out-of-state corporations don't care about california. but we do. stand with us.
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a closer look tonight at how russian oligarchs shield their wealth and their connections to vladimir putin and the kremlin. "the washington post" out with a new investigative piece entitled "u.s. hunt for russian oligarchs huge fortunes face barriers offshore." greg miller is the foreign investigative correspondent with "the washington post." he is one of the reporters behind the story, and he joins us now. fw greg, we appreciate you joining us. thanks so much. people think of luxury yachts and private jets when it comes to these ole figarchs but you m it very clear their wealth is so much more than that. exactly how much money are they able to hide by using offshore accounts and taking advantage of the banking system in.
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>> we don't know an exact number, of course, don, and that's part of the problem because it is so well hidden, this wealth, there are no reliable estimates of its magnitude, but we do know that it's well into the billions of dollars. and in fact, globally, it's well into the trillions of dollars. but, you know, as a senior treasury person that i spoke to for this story said, that those yachts and the properties here in london and in other cities, those are the easy things to find. they're sitting out in the open. the money that's buried in offshore accounts is the most difficult thing to find. >> greg, russian billionaire solomon care move is one of the oligarchs you mentioned. you describe him as a reclusive figure, but he's known for ostentatious displays. he also crashed a $650,000 ferrari into a tree in france. just how deep are his ties to the kremlin? >> his ties to the kremlin are
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extensive. in fact, there is speculation and suspicion among u.s. officials and others that some of his wealth isn't really his wealth. it is wealth that he is holding for other members of the inner circle or the kremlin elite, if not vladimir putin himself. >> interesting. >> he's in part of the russian government. he's a member of its upper house of parliament. he has massive investments in many of russia's biggest state-run industries or formerly state-run industries. and much of his wealth until very recently was in its gold, its largest gold mining operation. >> well, let's talk more about his wealth because you report that he apparently even had a swiss accountant who french prosecutors believe was just a straw man to front some of karimov's financial assets and
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activities and billions of dollars i should say, flowed between them. what's that all about? >> right, i mean, he was actually arrested by french authorities in nice on the french riviera several years ago, and was accused of engaging in tax evasion and money laundering as part of a purchase of four villas in france for over $100 million. and by using a swiss proxy, an in intermediary as his front man, essentially as posing as the actual onnerwner when the money that purchase came from russia. those charges ultimately were dropped after extensive interference by the russian government and lobbying by the russian government. but a company associated with karimov and the swiss accountant
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paid many millions of dollars in fines and back taxes to settle this and to make it go away, and that's just part of the kind of trail of corruption that has followed karimov. >> a trail of corruption and a big trail of money. that's a lot of dough, greg. the ties between these russian billionaires and the kremlin aren't always clear. if we don't know for sure where they're getting their money from or how they're moving it around, how much harder does that make it to effectively sanction these oligarchs? >> well, there's two parts of that question. one is it may make it impossible in some cases, don, to actually ever freeze that money, let alone seize it. if you can't find it, you're not going to be able to lock it down. on the other hand, other aspects of the sanctions may make it very difficult for these oligarchs to get their hands on that money or to make use of it. i mean, they can't fly into
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europe now. they can't afford to heavy ru -- leave russia. they can't afford to spend that money the way they might want to. in fact, as you alluded to just a few moments ago, they may not be able to afford to board that yacht or take it to the places where they have bought properties over the past decade or more. so it may be impossible for western authorities to get at the money, but it might be very difficult for the oligarchs to do it as well. >> i was just looking at the picture that was up, the first one. that yacht is enormous. i mean, it's crazy. look at that thing. it's ridiculous. the biden administration has created this clepto capture task force to help seize items like yachts, but it's also targeting banks that aid and abet russian oligarchs. how hard will that be when there's so many loopholes that these oligarchs can take advantage of? >> yeah, i mean, the loopholes are -- some of them still exist,
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and it's going to take taime to close them. as we write about in this article, some of the information that banks are required to submit about suspicious transactions. i mean, in other words, when it looks like somebody out there is moving hundreds of millions of dollars around, sometimes the bank themselves that are moving the money are oblivious to who's behind it. in a case that we write about, there were hundreds of millions moving in offshore accounts for karimov, and one of the banks involved couldn't figure out where it was going or who it was coming from and connected it to a british fruit and vegetable merchant. it was almost ridiculous their inability to track the actual source of this money. >> greg, thank you. >> thank you, don. so he said he'd only do it at the end of the world, but john lennon's son is singing his father's biggest solo hit now. we're going to tell you why right after this.
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in times of tragedy and upheaval, john lennon's song "imagine" is often brought up as a reminder of better angels. and that is true today. fort first time ever, julian lennon publicly performing his father's 1971 mega hit seeing those victimized by the war in ukraine. ♪ imagine there's no countries ♪ it isn't hard to do
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♪ nothing to kill or die for ♪ and no religion too ♪ imagine all the people ♪ living life in peace ♪ you -- >> lennon explaining his decision to finally sing his father's famous song, quote, i always said the only time i would ever consider singing "imagine" if it was the end of the world. within this song we are transported to a space where love and togetherness become our reality if but for a moment in time. the cover came in support of #supportukraine. lennon says he's calling on leaders and everyone who
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believes in the message behind his father's song to donate and give support for refugees everywhere. we'll be right back. ♪ you may say i'm a dreamer ♪ but i'm not the only one . [ forde ] rereplacing marcia's teeth with dental implants at clearchoice was going to afford heher that permanent solution. [ marcia ] clearchoice dental implants gave me the ability to take on the world. i feel so much better, and i think that that is the key. at adp, we use data-driven insights to design hr solutions to provide flexible pay options so you can have more success tomorr. ♪ one thingeads to another, yeah, yeah ♪
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for me, being in nature and putting my hands in the ground, it's almost a spiritual experience. i wanted to use our garden as a way to share food and love with my friends and family. i had this idea for this other way of life, or sustaining myself. to me it's all reflective of my personality, it's artistic. join the millions of people who are finding new ways to grow this year at miracle-gro.com.
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. this is "don lemon tonight." president volodymyr zelenskyy warning that russia could soon use chemical weapons in ukraine, though there is no proof of any kind of chemical strike in mariupol. it comes as we get new tanks and artillery helded to ukraine. and putin has brought in the general who brough
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