nic robertson is out front. >> alina kabaeva, back in the news again. to president putin more than a decade ago. a relationship he has denied ever since. they met years earlier. reportedly, when she was a young medal-winning gymnast, he looked smitten. last week, stepping out at a mock y moscow gymnastics event, rally the weekend as it slips into international isolation. >> translator: competitions will be held only in russia, on the contrary, the gymnastics will be better, more spectacular and the russian gymnastics is not losing anything in this situation. >> reporter: her life transformed much richer, u.s. officials say according to the wall street journal following her proximity to putin. questions now, why hasn't she been sanctioned like him? >> why you would refrain from sanctioning someone so close to putin. >> i don't have analysis at this point because we're still reviewing, there's more we will likely do. >> reporter: the two rarely if ever seem together, their precise relationship unclear, but more than a decade of rumors undimmed with time.

alina kabaeva, it was she who came up with the idea of ​​the participation festival, in which alreadys take part with performance indicators, and for beginners, but very talented children from all over russia, this is a chance to make themselves known about the festival alina is the eleventh in a row to tell olga pautova show, in which you can not worry about mistakes, but just enjoy the performance. here, folk dances are replaced by acrobatic numbers, and the olympic champion in artistic gymnastics. alexei nemov share the stage with the hostess of the evening rhythmic gymnastics. it is a great joy when on the same site it is possible to combine , connect, and even in the compositions of representatives different sports and combines masculine energy, feminine energy and the energy of children of champions and tiny, very little gymnasts who are in love with their first steps in this sport. selflessly in gymnastics. all this is a festival. alina for the eleventh time, he gathers the most talented girls from all over the country and gives them a chance to express themselves this year, th

alina kabaeva, bringing together young and talented athletes from different regions and countries, famous champions and famous artists. i am proud of these a-a projects. i am i am happy that many children come to this project. well, look what an opportunity it is for specialists for coaches to see the kids , see the stars, and then give him a path to the big sport. and the fact that you understand such a topic. and this story does not become a thing of the past. she stays with us, because this holiday is not only for our country. this is a holiday for every family. every family has a history of the war, and in no case should we forget about it, but the festival has been passed on from generation to generation for 13 years, and this is one of the biggest events in the world of sports. there are no vacancies. so the alina festivals are always last year if the pandemic had to be avenged. this incredible show gathers viewers from all over the country. well, where else can you see, the legendary spin of lala kramarenko, nine revolutions at a time, a unique element that rhythmic gymnastics seem

putin, yuriy, because you appeared, you know, in the wall street journal, there is a report that kabaeva is not touched, in order not to annoy putin, one should annoy is it not necessary to annoy putin, that is, with a paraphrased question, is it sometimes closer to the oil depot than kabayev? well, the fact that you are addressing this question is a little strange to me, i am not an american. in german, as you know, the fear of russia increases with the distance, the closer you are. it's not as scary as it turns out, but at the same time , it should be noted that when you look at this symphony of fire, which is not laid out like in the previous video, into separate fragments, for some reason you immediately remember how the oil depot burned here in lviv and not only in lviv, that is, i i remember that even the taste, so to speak, of that fire and that smoke that erupted and curled up here above the city in the sky, and it is difficult to talk about the fact that there is one oil depot for two oil depots, what should be the exchange rate, but of course emotions prevail that we have what

is withholding sanctions on a woman named alina kabaeva.nd for long stretches of time. according to the report, u.s. officials say she's suspected of playing a role in hiding vladimir putin's personal wealth overseas. downing me now in brussels is cnn's nic robertson. so "the wall street journal" is saying the u.s. prepared sanctions against her, but at the 11th hour decided not to include her name on the list. why was that? >> reporter: yeah, she is really important to vladimir putin. you've only got to look at those pictures to see how smitten he is with her. we know from putin's spokesman, dmitry peskov, that he really does not believe sanctions should be put on leaders. peskov has said before that's not right, it's not suitable. he's also said that this would poison the relationship between -- the political relationship between president putin and president biden. but this is something different. i mean, you can look at this and say, in a diplomatic situation like this, you could leave the threat of something that for putin would be rea

is withholding sanctions of alina kabaeva.of playing a role in hiding vladimir putin's personal wealth overseas. joining me in brussels is nic robertson. the washington journal is saying the u.s. prepared sanctions against her but at the is 1st hour decided to not include her name on the list. why was that? >> yeah plus she is really important to vladimir putin. you've really got to look at those pictures to see how smitten he is with her. we know from putin's spokesman, dmitry peskov, that he really does not believe sanctions should be put on leaders. peskov has said before that's not right, it's not suitable. he's also said that this would poison the relationship between -- the political relationship between president putin and president biden. but this is something different. you can look at this and say, you know, in a diplomatic situation like this, you can leave the threat for something sma for putin would be ugly and untouchable for him, leave on the table the sanctions on the one person you cherish the most. remember w

was ready to hit kabaeva, but at the last minute the u.s.ff saying it would be incredibly escalatory and needlessly punitive in that it wouldn't actually impact anything. due do you agree with that logic or is it at this point, time to sanction her? >> you know, it's long overdo you we hit putin where it hurts. look at the tratrocities the russian military is committing on a daily basis in ukraine, women, children, innocent civilians being targeted, murdered, raped, you name it, i'm sorry, but alina kabaeva living in luxury in switzerland with putin's own children, is enjoying things many ukrainians have never had access to and certainly no longer have access to now. so the idea that somehow sanctioning her would be an escalation, i find a little surprising. >> all right. thank you very much, not mincing words, alina, appreciate your time. >>> and biden administration under fire from its own party. president biden's border policies. >> it's clear to me that the federal government is not prepared. not even close. >>> and republican congressma

considered but then pulled back on sanctions a woman rumored to putin's girl girlfriend gymnast alina kabaeva. >> so since tiff they decided to hold off because they believe putin's response could be so irrational, so angry, that there would be some sort of backlash. >> trevor: this is interesting. the u.s. government has sanctioned everyone except putin's girlfriend? i guess they watch the oscars and were like maybe we should stay away from spouses. play it safe. and before we get into the sanctions or not sanctions. am i the only person that is shocked that vladimir putin has a girlfriend. am i the only one? like if will is any man out there who has some red flags, girl, let me tell about vlad. i know some people like a bad boy but this is next level. there is bad and then there is genocide, okay. also putin must be relieved that the u.s. is not sanctioning his girlfriend because let's be honest, sanctions take a relationship to a whole new level. it puts a lot of pressure on the relationship. i always tell my friends sanctions in a relationship, oh yeah alot of pressure, yeah. i'm sure put

do you think this was the right call by the treasury department to stop short of targeting kabaeva who for some of -- his many billions in wealth? >> so the u.s. should absolutely sanction putin's mistress and the mother of his children, as they should also sanction various oligarchs like roman ibramovich. it seems to me a strange situation where putin is killing women and children all over ukraine. we know -- we want to get to putin personally. we know who he cares about. she surely is holding some of his assets, and she's not been sanctioned. i don't really understand the logic. i think that it's an appeasement strategy, and to be honest, i've looked recently at the list of sanctioned individuals and compared it with the european union, the uk and various other countries. and at this point, in terms of sanctioning high-value targets like oligarchs, the u.s. is seriously lagging the eu, uk and other countries. and that's a new situation. it wasn't like this before. >> yeah, it's a good point. a lot of sanctions that europeans were dragging their feet on now seem to be ahead of the gam

. >> reporter: whatever kabaeva's proximity to putin, her financial moves never more closely watcheding a major recession for the u.s. economy. the bank claims the federal reserve will likely raise interest rates too aggressively making the recession even worse than the bank's economists initially expected. matt egan is here with me on set with the very latest. so deutsche fwbank has researcho back up its claims. >> this is really all about high inflation. doich do you ha deutsche bank to say recession in the united states but they first said a mild one. but now they say that inflation is so high, it won't be mild, it will actually be a major one. and the crux of their argument is that the federal reserve is really, really late here when it comes to -- >> and too reactive. >> well, in this case that they are not reactive enough up until now, and then that they might overreact. they found that when you look at inflation and the unemployment rate, the fed is further behind the curve than it has been at any point since the early '80s. and the concern is that to catch up, they are going