what vlad said, a dental hygienist who lives in an apartment building in kyiv, struck by russian missiles over the weekend. that attack killed five people, filling vlad's apartment with debris and smoke. so, he now joins millions of ukrainians who have been victims of this war. yet, vlad told me putin will not break ukraine's fighting spirit. >> i love the country for all my life, and i know that our country will win. so, it doesn't -- it depends what happens with us. we just understand that we must live, continue living, and just stay here in ukraine, not to go anywhere, other place. >> not to go anywhere else.

vlad and so many of the people that we have met here on this visit and of course that we've talked to over the past 16 months, they all have that incredible, powerful reservoir of strength. thanks so much for joining us. it's time now for "ac 360." good evening. we begin tonight with breaking news. we have obtained what is expected to be a central piece of the government's case against donald trump, the actual audio recording of the former president talking as if he's showing a highly classified document on u.s. war plans against iran, with people not clear to know it exists, let alone what's in it. you will hear what jurors will hear one day. the recording was made two summers ago in bedminster new jersey. you will clearly hear the former president, as he is speaking to several people. they include a writer working on mark meadows' memoir, the publisher, and two of trump's staff members.

the president was aware he was being recorded. it is the first time it is being played publicly. >> these are bad, sick people. >> that was your coup, you know, against you. >> well, it started right at the -- >> right when milley's talking a about -- they were trying to do that before you were even sworn in. >> that's right. >> trying to overthrow your election. >> with milley -- let me see that. i'll show you an example. he said that i wanted to attack iran. isn't it amazing. i have a big pile of papers. this thing just came up. this was him. they presented me this. this is off the record. but they presented me this. this was him. this was the defense department and him. >> wow. >> we looked at some. this was him. this wasn't done by me. this was him. all sorts of stuff. pages long. let's see here.

isn't that amazing? this totally wins my case, you know? except it is highly confidential, secret. this is secret info. but look at this. you attack -- >> hilly would print that out all the time. >> she would send them to anthony weiner. the pervert. by the way, isn't that incredible? i was just saying because we were talking about it. and you know, he said, he wanted to attack iran. this was done by the military, given to me. i think we can probably, right? >> i don't know. we'll have to see. yeah. >> declassify that. as president, i could have declassified it. now i can't. this is classified. >> now we have a problem. >> isn't that interesting? >> yeah. >> it's so cool. and you probably almost didn't

believe me, but now you believe me. it's incredible. bring some cokes in, please. >> joining us now, cnn anchor and correspondent kaitlan collins, also paula reid. kaitlan, first of all, what do you make -- this is the first time we're hearing this audio with cnn transcript. there's more in this audio than we had seen in the transcript. what stands out to you? >> there is more in this. this is a two-minute clip of the recording we're told is over an hour long. this is the part that is at the center of jack smith's investigation. and we knew about this. you know, cnn first reported that this existed and that jack smith's prosecution had it in their hands. but to hear it, i think really just drives home, and it undercuts everything that trump has been saying. even as of a few days ago, he was saying, there was no document per se. you can hear him very clearly referencing something in his hands. >> you can hear him shuffling through papers.

>> he's not just saying, here's this document. he clearly appears to be showing it to them. only the people in the room could know that. you could hear in that why this is so critical to jack smith's case because it's trump acknowledging, i have this document, it is secret, it is classified, i cannot declassify it now because he's six months out of office. and it's just remarkable to hear him actually saying it. and i was talking to someone in trump's orbit about this because obviously a lot of people -- several people in his orbit have heard it themselves when they found out about it in mid march. and we were talking about comparing it to the "access hollywood" tape how if you just had a transcript of that, it wouldn't have been maybe as controversial and contentious as it was when you could actually hear it. same with this. the fact that we could read the transcript, but hearing it, i think, drives it home so much more. >> paula, you've reported extensively on this case. what's your reaction to hearing that audio? >> anderson, it's remarkable how casual this conversation is. the former president knew he was being recorded during this

meeting. his own aides were in the habit of recording him any time they talked to journalists or people working on books. in the room were two people working on an autobiography with mark meadows. even though he knows he's being recorded, you hear him casually discussing classified documents, admitting that he cannot declassify these, and then just a few moments later calling to someone to bring them some coke. it's very conversational. it's one of those things that really sticks out to me. and i think it's important for people to really hear exactly what this sounds like. there's a lot of laughter in that recording anests well. one of the other things that stands out to me is the fact that he and the people around him in that room were joking about former secretary of state hillary clinton's use of a private email server. that was something we did not previously know about because it was not included in the indictment. it makes sense that prosecutors would not include that because it's not incriminating. it's not really relevant to their case. in the court of public opinion, the fact he's making jokes about

hillary clinton, other people in the room making jokes about anthony weiner as well, that, i think, really comes off as some hubris. we have the benefit of hindsight here, right? now this is being used as a key piece of evidence in a federal prosecution. >> kaitlan, there is that moment where he says, you know, that these are the papers and you can hear them. and i want to play that again because it's instructive to actually kind of visualize what he's doing. let's play this. >> i was just saying because we were talking about it. he said he wanted to attack iran. >> this was done by the military, given to me. >> that wasn't in the indictment. that part of it, i think, was not in the indictment. why do you think that is? >> it's unclear. what he's talking about there -- for people who aren't watching it super closely -- is chairman mark milley, the joint chiefs of staff. he's saying this is proof he wanted to attack iran, not me. we should note the document in

question here, it was predated. milley, it wasn't actually something he produced. it's something we heard the former national security officials in trump's orbit talk about, which is this is not just any kind of information, any kind of document. this is the nation's secrets, which don't just change on a daily basis. you don't just come up with a new attack plan for iran, that he is just brandishing to people in the room. these are random autobiographers who are working were mark meadows in the room. i just think this audio changed a lot about the way that trump's legal team viewed this case. they told me and paula and i, our other colleague, we've been covering this for months. we have heard they weren't worried about this investigation. they had this argument that he just took what he had with him, it wasn't nefarious. he's trying to use that now saying it's just golf clippings. you can see there, he knows exactly what he has. he knows it's not declassified. it's his own words. >> and why he is showing it to

them? to bolster his own case, to show himself, to brag. >> there's reporting on how the doj and the fbi, they kind of struggled as they were investigating this. they knew there was classified information that had not been returned. but they had questions about trump's intent. this is before they knew there were surveillance videos of him moving boxes around before his attorneys come to search. i think this also speaks to his intent here. >> i also wonder at the end, where he says, bring us some cokes, i wonder if his body man is in the room, because he is also facing charges. >> that was walt nauta's job in the white house. and of course he's getting arraigned tomorrow. >> i want to play what trump said to fox last week in this interview. >> there was no document. that was a massive amount of papers and everything else tal talking about iran and other things. and it may have been held up or may not. but that was not a document. i didn't have a document per se.

there was nothing to declassify. these were newspaper stories, magazine stories, and articles. >> so, he's down playing the papers he's holding as articles and magazine stories. clearly that does not seem to be the case when you hear this audio and he says, these are the papers. and he said, look, this just popped up. >> these are the papers -- that specific quote, that was not included in the transcript that the special counsel included in its indictment. and now it has taken on more significance because he has altered his difference here to say, no, i didn't have a document per se. there were no documents. now, we reached out to the special counsel's office to ask if this was an intentional omission or a mistake. special counsel's office declined to comment, but anderson, you know, your team's been working all day to try to get our own transcript. i helped them a little bit, and it appeared to take about a dozen iterations before everyone agreed on exactly what they were hearing. it is most likely just a mistake. and it's unclear at this point if the special counsel will make

an amendment to the indictment to include that line. >> it is an interesting idea, though, if it was an intentional omission in order to see how the president would react. maybe that's, like, thinking chess too much in advance or maybe i'm overthinking this. >> they had the opportunity, look, to go background of this, go on the record say, hey, we made a mistake. there are a lot of different layers to the audio. and at this point it's just unclear if this was a mistake, if they didn't hear it, if it was a typo, or an intentional omission. but it is likely to come up in the course of this case because this is a really significant substantive line now. >> and paula, in terms of the other people in the room, do we know exactly who they are, beyond being incredibly s sycophantic. >> among the people in the room, liz harrington, margot martin, one of his longtime aides, and two people working on an a autobiography for former white

house chief of staff mark meadows. and it is interesting when you hear this recording that even the special counsel has labelled as staffer egging him on, laughing, again, like you said, being sycophantic. it sort of encouraged him throughout, this feedback he was getting from the room. and in hindsight, you have to ask whether his staffers were really serving his best interest, given their responses throughout this exchange. even at one point one of the staffers acknowledged, now we have a problem. but they're still sort of laughing, even nervously. >> kaitlan collins, paula reid, appreciate it. joining me now, george conway. george, how damning is this for the former president do you think? >> well, the special counsel already had trump dead to rights because we knew this tape existed in some form. but to actually hear a former president of the united states committing a felony, probably multiple felonies, on audiotape while laughing about it is something i just -- i think it's

just stunning. and i just don't see how. i mean, i can understand exactly why trump's legal advisers think that this really changes the complexion of the case because i just don't see how a jury is going to -- i don't know how you can explain that in front of a jury. he's waving around a document. he's saying it's confidential. it is almost by definition one of the most confidential things you could probably have, which is, you know, to off the shelf plan to attack a potential enemy of the united states of america. it's very, very valuable top secret information. it's something the iranians would probably pay tens of millions of dollars for. it's something that if it ever got into the wrong hands, it could lead to the deaths of american servicemen, if the iranians were able to prepare for an attack and they knew what the attack was going to be, if they knew what the options laid out in the pentagon document were. and the fact that he is just so absolutely cavalier, i mean,

it's just sociopathic. this man has no respect for rules, no respect for the lives of other human beings, no respect for the country, no respect for the constitution, no respect for his duties. he is a sociopathic criminal, and this is just another nail in the coffin of -- it's just another thing that's going to put him away. >> i just played the video of the former president last week to brett, down playing them, calling them articles and newspaper stories. >> he's lying. >> this is what he has continually done, which is, you know, he lies, creates a story, and then that story gets debunked. and then he creates a new story based on information that's out there then because he can't stop himself from speaking, he'll give an interview with that new story. and then that gets debunked and he'll come up with a new story. >> i once wrote a semihumorous piece in "the washington post" when this first came out last year about cookies.

he's saying he doesn't have the cookie jar. you put the cookies there. the jar is mine. the cookies are mine. the story changes from moment to moment to moment. it's like the narcissist's prayer, which is, if i did it, i didn't do it. if i did it, you made me do it. it was okay anyway. the endless lying. and he just -- it's like an onion. you peel his lies and get more lies. >> how much of this undercuts the former president's legal argument that he could declassify anything whenever he wanted, when was the argument they were making early on, a lot of his supporters were making early on. he acknowledges he could have declassified it when he was president, but now no longer. >> he knows. he knows he didn't do it. he knows that he can't do it now that he is no longer president. and he's telling them, oh, this is off the record. this is confidential. look at this. and it's manifestly -- it's manifestly top secret, manifestly still classified, and that doesn't even matter under the more serious charges that

have been filed against him under the espionage act because that doesn't even require the material to be classified. it just requires it to be sensitive national defense information. which unquestionably, the plans to attack a foreign power is -- that's secret national defense information and quite sensitive. >> and yet there are plenty of people in the republican party right now who will hear this tape and continue to defend what's in it. >> yeah. you know, i don't know what drugs they're on. i'll have what they're having. it's just amazing that they're able to do this and able to pretend that this man is not a criminal for so long. >> george conway. appreciate it your time tonight. thank you. more on our exclusive breaking news in a moment, including what this tape. we'll play you more of it in a moment, now means for the former president's recent defense. they claim there was no document. we'll talk to adam kinzinger. also tonight, tensions remain high af this weekend's

short lived insurrection, vladimir putin calling traitors but not mentioning anyone by name. and yevgeny prigozhin defended his actions but saying he was not trying to threaten putin. i'll have a live report from moscow. they charge you a lot. we charge you a little. they put theirir names on arena. we put ours on my lower back. so naturally when they announced they'd be raising their prices due to inflation, we decided to deflate our prices due to not hating you. and if this were one of their ads, they'd end it here with a "happy customer". so we'll end ours with an angry goat. oh h-ho, look at the angry goat. are we saying there's a chance that when we push that button... we destroy the world? detenator's charged. i don't know if we can be trusted with such a weapon.

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documents and obstruction of justice. the taped remarks occurred mont months after he left the white house in july of 2021. >> these are bad, sick people. >> that was your coup, you know, against you. >> well, it started right at -- >> when milley's talking about, oh they're going to -- they were trying to do that before you were even sworn in. >> that's right. >> trying to overthrow your election. >> with milley, let me see that. i'll show you an example. he said that i wanted to attack iran. isn't it amazing? i have a big pile of papers. this thing just came up. look. this was him. they presented me this. this is off the record. but they presented me this. this was him. this was the defense department and him. >> wow. >> we looked at stuff. all sorts of stuff. it's pages long.

let's see here. isn't that amazing? this totally wins my case, you know? except it is, like, highly confidential, secret. this is secret. look at this. you attack -- >> hillary would print that out all the time, you know? private email. >> she'd send them to anthony weiner, the pervert. >> he is a pervert. >> by the way, isn't that incredible. i was just saying because we were talking about it. and you know, he said, he wanted to attack iran. this was done by the military, given to me. i think we can probably, right? >> i don't know. we'll have to see. yeah. >> declassify it. as president, i could have declassified it. now i can't. this is classified. >> now we have a problem. >> isn't that interesting? it's so cool.

look -- and you probably almost didn't believe me but now you believe me. >> no, i believed you. >> it's incredible, right? bring some cokes in, please. >> we're joined by cnn political commentator adam kinzinger, former republican congressman who served on the january 6th committee, and carrie cordero, former counsel to the attorney general for national security. congressman, 2016 then-candidate donald trump ran on the protection of classified information saying, quote, in my administration, i'm going to enforce all laws concerning the classified information. no one will be above the law. you hear this and it's just a joke. >> it's a total joke. hypocrisy through donald trump's whole administration was an everyday occurrence. this is a huge example of that. and, i mean, the whole thing about protected classified information in 2016, we'll just state the obvious, had nothing to do with classified information. it was a way to go after hillary clinton. that's what led to the whole

"lock her up" chants and all that kind of stuff. he has no regard for the protection of classified information when he can sit in front of a group of people and impress them with the papers he has. what i thought was interesting is i think he was trying to act surprised he found it. look at this here. like, first off, come on. but secondly, he's just sitting there, upset because general milley tried to pin something on him, and his emotion is just welling up so much he had this iran attack document put in the papers and he pretended like he found it to make his case. >> we heard the former president say, this totally wins my case. it's incredible how ironic that is, because if thinking, this is now -- this proves the government's case. >> yeah. i mean, when he's talking about his case, he's talking about the argument of who in the administration was in favor of developing a war. >> of course. >> but with respect to his legal case, this obviously is going to

be a critical piece of evidence if the government ends up going to trial. in other words, if he doesn't ever end up pleaing first and this really does go to a trial. the transcript of it we had in the indictment. so, we knew that this incident occurred already because the text of it was in the documents. but one of the things that stood out to me now in hearing the audio was that individual who says, wow, because when that person says, wow, when it sounds like he is showing the individual a classified document, you hear in a different way than came across in the text, that it really does sound like the person is looking at a document that they observe to be classified. now, i still think that if this was evidence being presented at the trial, the government would have the audio. but the government would also have to have these witnesses who say and corroborate, yes, at that time, i was looking at a

document that i understood to be classified. but the audio itself and when that person says, wow, i think does have a different impact than just reading the indictment alone. >> and carrie, if you were representing the former president, what kind of defense could you offer to rebut this recording? >> again, i think the question goes to, does the government have other corroborating evidence that he wasn't just bsing, that he wasn't just ruffling through papers and flashing something in front of them and pretending like it was classified. from a defense counsel perspective, the burden -- they will need to put the government to task to make sure that the government can authoritatively convince all of the potential jury members that, in fact, there was a specific document and there is corroborating evidence that he showed it to people who were not authorized to see it. >> congressman, the fact that you hear the former president saying he could declassify these

documents, i mean, again, he is saying all this stuff out loud that he should just be keeping in his head if he wants to defend himself at all. >> it's kind of funny because it's like every argument he's made, he basically rebuts in this two-minute thing. oh, i can declassify. quick point on the wow. as somebody that's seen classified documents, when you see something classified for the first time, it is kind of like, woah. i think it makes sense that somebody that's not seen this classified information looks at that and goes, wow. but donald trump has no defense here. and what he has decided to do -- and it's worked for him in the past. i think the legal system will be very different. but he wins public opinion or at least wins enough public opinion in his party to survive. i think that's his defense, to try to win the people over, run for president, win the re-election, and maybe some day pardon himself. >> that's the goal. that's the goal. >> he obviously -- his ego wants

to be president again. he doesn't want to be considered a loser. but i guarantee you in his mind right now, he thinks, if i win -- that's why i think the trial is going to get stalled as long as it can. he's like, if i win, i will pardon myself. >> and carrie, the special counsel would have access to the people in that room. they wouldn't really have any legal argument for not -- if they were called -- for not testifying, correct? >> well, i would presume that the special counsel has at least tried to talk to these people. i would expect that these are people that the government has already spoken to. i don't have the information. i haven't seen the reporting that these individuals were, for example, before the grand jury. but one would think that that is the type of information that the government would have wanted to know what these people in the room observed before putting this into the indictment. because, again, one of the key things i think, anderson, in the government's decision to charge

this case, even not withstanding the high classification of the information and the potential damage to national security, even not withstanding all of that terribly damaging information, i think the government, because they had evidence that he showed it to other people, combined with the obstructive conduct that's laid out in the indictment, those are the two factors that i think would have pushed prosecutors' hands to have to -- to force them to have to bring this case against a former president. once they had evidence that demonstrates that he showed information that was classified to people unauthorized to have it, that was a critical factor i would judge in the investigation. >> so, it's just so extraordinary. when you think about all the people in the national security apparatus of this country who try to -- who spend their lives trying to keep stuff compartmentalized and keep stuff safe, the fact he's telling this to just a room full of random people, none of whom have

security clearances, all of whom can go back to their loved ones that night and say, you'll never guess what the former president showed me today. it's crazy. i saw a classified document. there's nothing to stop somebody from doing that. >> no, i mean, look, we all have egos. but hopefully the goal is to put the country above your own ego and the interest of your country above your own ego. in this case, it's his ego. you can look and say, he shouldn't have had it in the first place. but he knows that's going to impress people. he knows it's going to win his little argument against milley. jack teixeira, there is no other american that knowingly does something like this that gets away with it. the president can't be any different. coming up next, live reports from moscow and ukraine in the wake of friday's mutiny by wagner group mercenaries. what all sides are saying about the apparent deal to end it, where it leaves the power

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russia's president vladimir putin addressed his nation tonight about the mutiny by wagner group mercenaries. their actions ended inexplicably with forces on the march forth to moscow, stopping short of the capital and a deal that exiles yevgeny prigozhin to belarus. no one friday night expected that to be the end of it. by the same token, three days later, no one fully knows what will come next. late today putin said any move on moscow would have been defeated.

>> translator: an armed rebellion would have been suppressed in any case. the organizers of the rebellion, despite the loss of adequacy, could not fail to understand this. they understood everything, including that they resorted to criminal acts to divide and weaken the country, which is now confronting a colossal external threat, unprecedented pressure from outside. >> prigozhin, his whereabouts unknown, spoke out as well today. >> translator: the purpose of the march was to prevent the destruction of wagner and the prosecution of those who made a huge number of mistakes in the course of special military operation due to their unprofessional actions. society demanded this, and all the soldier who is saw us supported us. >> and president biden also weighed in. >> we made clear that we were not involved. we had nothing to do with it. this was part of a struggle within the russian system. >> new reporting as well tonight on what american intelligence

knew leading up to the event. sources familiar with the matter telling cnn it was significant and extremely detailed and accurate picture of prigozhin's plan, including where and how wagner was planning to advance. the intelligence was so closely held it was shared only with select allies, including senior british officials and not at the broader nato level. two reports from matthew chance in moscow and eastern ukraine, ben wedeman. talk more about what vladimir putin said today. >> well, this is the first time, anderson, first of all, that vladimir putin has appeared since this crisis, this armed rebellion or mutiny came to an end. so, it's been three days that he's been silent. and that was being noticed kind of around the country and around the world. he came out, though, on russian television looking visibly, i think, very angry. he didn't look like somebody who was preparing to forgive. and he talked about how the

people who led this uprising -- and he was referring obviously to yevgeny prigozhin, didn't mention him by name, were traitors. he talked about how they played into the hands of russia's enemies. and could reclaim what authority he certainly lost over the course of the past several days over that weekend of mayhem, by saying that it was down to him basically that there wasn't more bloodshed and he personally ordered for the authorities to make sure there was as little bloodshed as possible. he also restated an offer made to the wagner fighters that took part in this mutiny to either sign contracts with the russian military or to leave the country and go and live in belarus, where it's believed that yevgeny prigozhin, their leader, is also heading as well. >> is it clear where prigozhin is or if he is actually going to go to belarus?

>> i mean, he sort of referred to the possibility of that today in his first audio message, you know, since the rebellion was kind of called off, saying that alexander lukashenko, who's the leader of belarus, and a close putin ally, had offered the potential for wagner to keep on operating there legally because it's officially illegal in russia. so, that was something he was referring to. but russian officials i've spoken to repeatedly over the course of the past couple of days refusing to confirm or deny that prigozhin is already there. and there are some reports that he might be. but there is a press conference that's scheduled tomorrow with lukashenko, the belarusian leader. so, hopefully we'll get a bit more clarity on it then. >> so, i mean, i'm still unclear if -- was this all about wagner forces being forced to join the regular army, and that was what

was motivating this push by prigozhin because he didn't want to see wagner forces dissipating like that? what happens to them now? because, i mean, they do play a role in a number of countries, certainly in africa, that bring in a lot of money, i assume certainly to prigozhin, but i assume also to the kremlin in some way. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, i think so, yes. i mean, look. i mean, there have been long-standing rivalry between yevgeny prigozhin and the sort of higher ups in russian military, sergei shoigu and valerie ge ras move. but that battle blew up on the surface. and vladimir putin quite publicly backed his defense minister in that standoff and called on wagner fighters, odded them, in fact, to sign contracts with the russian military, in other words, to basically take them away from this private military company status and make

them officially under the sway of the russian military. and that was something that, you know, yevgeny prigozhin just didn't like. following that, it was on friday night. there was an attack prigozhin said, on one of the camps of wagner, which he said several of his fighters were killed. and that really sort of pushed the situation to this crisis point. >> matthew chance in moscow. i appreciate it. "new yorker" editor david rennic joins us now. david, i don't even know where to begin with you. first of all, what did you make of the speech from vladimir putin today? >> well, he's incensed. he's furious. he's been unmasked like the wizard of oz when the curtain is stripped back. you know, for years, we've been talking about or certain people have been talking about vladimir putin as the grand chess master of strategy, who plays the weak hand strong on the world stage like no other, et cetera, et

cetera, cue all the clichés. now what's happened is is that this personalist regime of putin's, in which everything is dependent on him and relationships to him, beginning with prigozhin, by the way, who's a creation of vladimir putin, we're beginning to see the fishers at the highest moment of tension in putin's regime. now vladimir putin is at war on three fronts. he invaded ukraine unnecessarily, so he's facing the ukrainian army, a very determined army. he's facing nato forces. and now to some degree, he's finding opponents at home. and i don't mean the liberals that he's jailed or "the wall street journal" evan gershkovich, who should not be forgotten, jailed. and he knows he's been exposed 23 years into his reign.

and speculation is rife in moscow and people know about this. >> what was prigozhin's game? was he intended to really have a coup? he says he was wanting to go to moscow to confront the leaders of the army who he believes are incompetent and he wants to see removed. hard to see, he was going to show up at their offices and disarm them? i mean, i don't understand how that would have played out. was he expecting that there would be others in the security services maybe who would rally if they knew the forces were coming and therefore -- but then he realized they're not rallying, so he turned around? what was that? >> well, we shouldn't underestimate the factors of ego and idiocy. ego and idiocy. because, look, prigozhin is a guy who spent nine years in jail for breaking into apartments. that was his distinguished beginning. then he sold hot dogs at the flea mark, made some money,

became a great restaurateur, and vladimir putin set him up. he became one of the new oligarchs of the regime. and one of his new acquisitions sponsored by the kremlin was this mercenary army that proved to be quite successful. and forgive -- place air quotes around it -- impressive in ukraine. and that built prigozhin's sense of ego and his pretensions to power. suddenly he was found in political ratings. he was getting support in various polls. and he decided he was going to show putin that his army was incompetent and weak in denying him the glory and ammunition that he deserved. and like an idiot, he marched toward moscow until he thought better of it. and i don't mean to say it's as simple as all that, but we should not underestimate the very human dynamic -- >> that's an important point. >> -- of ego and stupidity. >> what happens to him now?

vladimir putin allows him to just live in belarus? i mean, does that seem real linguistic? >> i don't think aetna is striving to give him an increased life insurance policy, considering what the record for putin's opponents have been. by the way, let's distribute these analyses evenly. it's not that putin turned out to be such a genius here. a year and a half ago, he recklessly and for no reason at all, politically or otherwise, other than his own sense of power and empire, invaded a country that he thought he could take over in a week. and that proved to be absolute folly. so, he is in a spot. i'm not saying he's going to be out of power next week or next month, but i think it might hasten the process. >> david remnick, i really appreciate your time. thank you so much. >> my pleasure. ukraine's president zelenskyy visited frontline troops today, giving combat

citations and getting a briefing. he is framing the wagner -- as positive for ukraine. how has this impacted things on the ground in ukraine? >> well, at this point, anderson, it's not altogether clear. what we're -- i'm sorry. i'm having ifb problems. what we understand is that it hasn't really had a huge impact on the war effort that many ukrainians were hoping that this chaos and the kremlin would last a little longer. but it really, it didn't. today they announced they were able to take one village, a very small village in the south. and we heard, i think, the frankest expression of frustration with this situation from the deputy defense minister who said, our troops are having a really hard time. it is very difficult. >> and is the issue the air superiority that the russians

have, the artillery superiority that they have? >> well, what we've heard from troops at the front is that often times when they advance, the russian troops basically run away. the problem is, in fact, the artillery, that the artillery is then unleashed and their gains are nullified. and also, yes, they do have air superiority at the front lines. now, the russians are very cautious with their use of helicopters, for instance. they don't fly them over the ukrainian positions, but they simply have more of them than the ukrainians and use that to their maximum advantage. anderson? >> was there any response in ukraine to what vladimir putin said today that you heard? >> well, we have. in fact, we heard one statement from high low pe doan yak, who is a senior adviser to the ukrainian president dripping with sarcasm.

he said putin's speech was a truly epic address that determines the future of russia. he said that doubts are finally dispelled. russia is waiting for a new president. anderson? >> ben wedeman, appreciate it. thank you. just ahead, to understand how putin may deal with this latest threat to his power, it's helpful to understand perhaps how he's dealt with previous threats. randi kaye has more on his rise to power. that's next.

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before the break, russian scholar david remnick said the wagner group uprising shatters the image to the world that vladimir putin is a grand chess master. that is the image he's cultivated of himself for years. randi kaye has more tonight on putin's rise to power. >> he is the ultimate alpha male, or at least he'd like the world to believe that. vladimir putin always presenting himself as the picture of strength, often shirtless, captured hunting, or taking a submarine down deep in the black sea. putin was born in october, 1952, in what is now st. petersburg. in 1975, he joined the kgb as an intelligence officer. in 1999, then president boris yeltzen appointed putin prime minister. in 2000, putin was elected president of russia. at the time, even president

george bush was impressed. but it didn't last. putin was re-elected in 2004. by 2008 he reached the term limit, so he got creative and switched jobs with medvedev. so, medvedev was named president and named putin prime minister. medvedev changed the constitution, extending presidential terms to four years to six years, before putin was re-elected president again in 2012. putin has ruled russia for more than two decades, and his power is undeniable. he escalated the war in chechnya, invaded ukraine, and his government allegedly interfered in the 2016 u.s. presidential election, though he's denied that.

he also allegedly had a hand in disposing of his critics, like former spy alexander l-- putin won his last election in 2018 with more than 76% of the vote. his critics have slammed the election as unfair, citing tight control over the media and election monitors. some critics have suggested putin has used his reign not to better the lives of the russian people, but to enrich himself through theft and corruption. bill browder, who once invested heavily in russia, is now one of vladimir putin's toughest critics. >> getting an estimate his net worth, 200 billion. >> exact details about putin's wealth are hard to come by. these photos from inside one of putin's lavish homes were shared with cnn by an independent russian journalist, who left the country. >> and this man loves g

gold manically, and he loves his rich live. news of his longtime misstress, with whom he reportedly has children, has made headlines. these are pictures with putin alina kabaeva, who is about 30 years younger than putin. she and putin met more than a decade ago, but are rarely seen together. despite his grip on power now suddenly in question, putin is expected to rule at least until 2024, when at age 71, he will end his fourth presidential term. however, he signed legislation in 2021 that would allow him to run for two more terms, which could mean he may be in office until 2036. randi kaye, cnn. coming up next, remembering one of the great innovators in television news, someone who was very special to me and so many people here.

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i want to take a moment tonight to tell you about someone who is incredibly important to all of us here at cnn and to plenty of folks at nbc news and cbs news and a whole lot of other places. his name is david bohrman. david bohrman was so full of life and joy and enthusiasm and

ideas, so many ideas. he loved television and news and thinking of new ways to convey the extraordinary events he himself was able to see first hand as a producer. david grew up in the news. his mom was a television writer, and his dad was a fixture in california local news. >> good evening, everybody. it's 6:00 in the bay area, and i'm stan bormann. >> that was david's dad. by 2026, david was one of the original staffers at "nightline." he quickly became the youngest senior producer ever in network news. he was a visionary. he would come up with ways of doing things that no one had before. he was the first to get live video from mt. everest. at abc he created a kind of news web page before the web as we knew it even existed. and he also created "world news now," aaron brown and lisa mccree were the first anchors. the show is still on the air.

i was at abc news in the late '90s and struggling to find my footing. and get to anchor that show was like a life raft. >> you're prefeather weight. you're tiny. >> i'm teeny? how long have you been here? can i just show you something? can i just show you something? can we get a tight shot of this? what does this say? what does this say? anderson cooper, senior anchor. >> we're on in the middle of the night. you do a lot of stuff you can't do elsewhere. were it not for that show, i would not be sitting here tonight. cnn and david pioneered so much using technology and innovation to create shows like "stoate of the union" and "the situation room." i'm wolf blitzer and you're in "the situation room." >> david also created "news night" with aaron brown. david gave me a shot at filling in on "news night."

yet again, he changed the course of my life. david just had so much energy and so many ideas. he changed the way we did presidential primary debates. he pioneered how we covered election nights, bringing the excitement of elections into the studio with video monitors and the imagic wall. david bohrman took so much pleasure in doing what he did. and in a business where people have big egos, david had a big heart. and he was beyond generous with his time and talent, not just to me. david is survived by his beloved wife, katherine, their kids, amber and harrison, and two granddaughters, sloan and paige. our hearts go out to them and to all the friends and colleagues remembering him tonight. thank you, david. you are missed. the news continues. ""cnn primetime"" with kaitlan ""cnn primetime"" with kaitlan collins starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com