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At This Hour

Satellite Shows at Least 60 Russian Helicopters Arriving in Crimea; NATO Sees No Signs of Russian Deescalation on the Ground; Scandal-Ridden Russian Skater Competes in Short Program; Sandy Hook Families Reach Settlement with Gunmaker Remington. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired February 15, 2022 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Here's what we are watching at this hour.

The threat of more: Russia claims it is pulling troops back but Ukraine's leader and pretty much everyone else is doubtful.

First place but no gold yet: Russian skating star taking to the ice after testing positive for a banned drug.

And keep waiting and worrying: a new delay in vaccinating kids against COVID-19.

Thank you so much for being here. We begin with new developments on Russia's aggression. Vladimir Putin is now saying this morning he's ready to discuss what he calls confidence-building measures with the U.S. and NATO.

The Russian leader saying this after meeting with Germany's new chancellor in Moscow.

But what does he really actually mean?

This all happens as NATO disputes unsubstantiated claims from the Kremlin that some troops have begun withdrawing from the Ukrainian border. NATO's secretary-general said there's no signs of Russian deescalation on the ground, despite what Russia is trying to say.

New satellite images also show dozens of Russian helicopters positioned in the past few days at previously unused air bases in Crimea. Let's begin our coverage today with CNN's Nic Robertson, live in Moscow for us. Nic, what's the latest?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, the latest is, Putin says that he is willing to engage on some of those issues that the United States has indicated -- weapons control, missile arms agreements, that sort of thing.

But Putin is setting a high bar. He's saying that the issues that are key and core to him, that Ukraine can never join NATO -- and doubled down on that today, saying no sort of short-term guarantees, should never join NATO and NATO to roll back to 1997.

He said those things need to be on the table for negotiations as well. The NATO secretary-general saying, while it's a good indication that Russia is talking about the possibility of continued dialogue, there is no indication that they've begun deescalating their forces.

And satellite imagery from around the borders of Ukraine to the south in Crimea, to the east and north, indicate that Russia continues to have a military build-up there.

Now the Russian generals are saying that they have withdrawn some troops from some areas back to their permanent bases. The numbers and locations are not clear. But they also say that the vast majority of their forces remain in those massive military maneuvers and exercises around the borders of Ukraine.

And Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Putin, has said this is on Russian sovereign territory and we'll pull back when we're ready.

BOLDUAN: Nic, thank you so much for that.

Despite what Putin wants the world to believe, NATO's secretary- general say they see no signs that deescalation is actually happening. New satellite images reinforce that skepticism, showing more Russian troops and equipment near Ukraine's border. CNN's Sam Kiley is live for us in Eastern Ukraine for an important perspective there.

What are you seeing there?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, we traveled up to the border of Russia in Belgorod, where some of the images you've been showing have come from.

They show an increase in the numbers of helicopters that have been delivered there and also other heavy weapons, artillery, surface to surface Iskander missiles and a huge tank army.

Now we've seen similar build-up also in the Crimea, as Nic was talking about there. So you're seeing this squeezing effect in this part of the Ukraine to the north, just 50 miles from where I'm standing, and much further to the south.

And at the same time, you've got the Ukrainian authorities once again repeating they don't believe an attack on their territory is imminent. . And lampooning briefings coming out of the United States that tomorrow, the 16th of February, might somehow be some kind of D-Day by turning that into a day of national unity, where there will be speeches and flag flying and expressions of solidarity and peace, rather than preparations for war.

No sign of a preparation for war here. And then you had suddenly this signal coming from Vladimir Putin during his press conference with Olaf Scholz, in which he alleged, almost as a throwaway comment, that genocide was ongoing in the Donbas; that is, alleged murder of Russian speaking people there.

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KILEY: That would be a casus belli, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Unbelievable. Thank you so much for that, Sam.

Let's go back to Washington now, where we're now learning the White House has been preparing for a potential Russian invasion for quite some time. CNN learning that national security officials conducted tabletop exercises, actually, to game out how the U.S. would respond if Russia does attack.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live at the White House with this for us.

What are you learning about these exercises?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, these exercises and this effort to game out the scenarios of the Russian invasion and how the Russians would respond, date back to the fall, when U.S. officials began to notice this massive troop build-up by Russia along the Ukrainian border.

Following that, in December, U.S. officials carried out two lengthy tabletop exercises that brought together members from across the administration, everything from the White House to the Treasury Department, State Department, Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies, to discuss everything from how the U.S. would enact sanctions on Russia to talking about the possibility of humanitarian assistance as well as movements of U.S. troops.

The deputy national security adviser John Finer said in a statement, while ultimately the Russians may do something slightly different from what the U.S. gamed out, he said, quote, "The goal is for them," these tabletop exercises, "to be a close enough facsimile to what they end up doing, that the plans are useful in reducing the amount of time we need in order to respond effectively.

"That's really the whole goal."

And it's also clear these movements also led the U.S. to already take some actions now, including exposing these attempts by Russia, this information warfare, that they've been carrying out and, also, exposing these potential plans that they may have for a false -- to save some kind of false flag attack as a pre-condition for their invasion -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Jeremy, it's great to see you. Thank you so much for that.

Joining me now for more on this is William Taylor, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and also with us, CNN global affairs analyst, Susan Glasser, a staff writer with "The New Yorker."

Ambassador, Putin's saying he's ready to discuss -- the terminology he used was "confidence-building measures with U.S. and NATO."

Is that movement in your mind?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: It is, Kate. This is movement. This is what we've been seeking. President Putin has, as we have talked about for weeks, two choices, two options.

He can invade -- and he's clearly ready to do that. He's got everything in place to do that. He can invade or he can negotiate. A negotiation would allow him to express his concerns about these security concerns he's had over some period of time, that he's been trying to get the West to deal with.

So that negotiation sounds like what at least he's talking about. The important thing about these negotiations is, A, they start but, B, they're not going to get anywhere until and unless there's a deescalation and a movement back away from the border of all this military equipment that the Russians have there.

BOLDUAN: Actually, Ambassador, I was going to ask you exactly that.

How can the conversations happen when you have the NATO secretary- general saying just this morning there are signs from Moscow that diplomacy should continue, this gives ground for cautious optimism.

But so far, we have not seen any sign of deescalation on the ground.

What is he signaling here?

TAYLOR: He's stating the obvious fact that no real negotiation can happen while there's a gun to your head. And the organization of these conversations, of these discussions, that these negotiations take some time, not just the negotiations of being organized but also, actually working through all the issues.

So for example, the so-called strategic stability dialogue, that's been going on between the United States and Russia since last summer, could get together again in Geneva and start addressing some of these issues, some of these confidence-building measures about where missiles would be placed.

There are also discussions on confidence-building measures to do with conventional weapons. Those also take some time to organize and to get both sides or all sides -- because you've got Europeans interested in this as well -- to be prepared to sit down.

So this takes some time. And during that time of organizing these negotiations, the Russians have to move their equipment away. And as the secretary-general said, we don't see that yet. We should be looking for that right now.

BOLDUAN: Let me know when we get Susan Glasser back because I think we just lost her connection. But I think we have -- great. Susan popped back up.

Wonderful, Susan, so glad you're back here with us. This also gets to the fundamental issue. We've discussed this in the past, Susan, and always with Russia.

Can you ever trust what Russia is saying?

And if you can't, what does that do to any hope of a diplomatic resolution?

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SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I'm glad you brought that up, Kate. Obviously we're sort of in the middle of the crisis now. There's a flurry of diplomatic activity. But still, as the ambassador said, in the talking-about-talking stage of it, as opposed to the actual negotiation stage, Russia, unfortunately, has a history here of not only not being trusted but actively lying and not being honest, including in 2014, when it actually did already invade Ukraine and claimed not to have done so.

Remember the little green men; those of course were Russian little green men. So it's very hard in the middle of the crisis, when you're dealing with an interlocutor in the form of Vladimir Putin and Russia that's not on the level.

And remember, again, all of Russia's grievances, this is a manufactured crisis that it created here. Russia is a legal guarantor, just as other countries are to the integrity of Ukraine's borders, chose to violate that.

So even if you made an agreement with Russia, there's no guarantee that it would abide by it. But you know, look, there are multiple fronts right now.

And we're all seeing just part of it, right?

We're seeing part of the information war. The U.S. has been unusually aggressive in releasing, almost in real time, its intelligence, clearly designed to box Putin in or head him off from taking actions.

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BOLDUAN: Actually, I wanted to ask you about that. I wanted to ask you about that approach, because it does seem clear that the Biden administration and allies, quite frankly, are taking a different approach in the lead-up to this than the U.S. has in the past toward Russia, putting the intelligence out there so publicly about what they think Russia is intending to do.

What do you think, why do you think that is?

And what do you think it means?

GLASSER: Well, I do think it's something that we haven't really seen before, certainly to this degree.

The United States, from the beginning, has been out there saying we had intelligence starting in December, that there was going to be a build-up, it would over 100,000 troops. This was before that happened. Much of it has now happened. We've seen that invasion force.

They didn't wait for it to show up; they got out in front of it. Just last week, (INAUDIBLE) very sobering briefing from Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, saying, look, our intelligence suggests that there could be a provocation by Russia, some sort of a false flag operation.

We believe an invasion, therefore, could be imminent. That was designed, in part, to limit Putin's options and to possibly head off that operation by exposing it.

So that is a new and, I think, quite aggressive tactic on the part of the United States. Russia has been the one up until now that's generally employed the disinformation warfare with the West.

BOLDUAN: Great to see you both. Thank you very much.

Coming up, a 15-year-old Russian skating star makes her return to the ice, despite a positive drug test. We'll tell you how she did and what happens now.

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BOLDUAN: Developing right now, Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was dominant and also visibly emotional competing this morning at the Beijing Winter Games. The 15 year-old finished in first place but the IOC said no matter the final result, there will be no medal ceremony, all of because her positive drug test and pending appeal.

CNN's Selina Wang was there for the event as she performed this moments ago.

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SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva took to the ice here at Beijing under the cloud of a doping scandal. Outrage is growing that she was allowed to compete, despite testing positive for a banned substance less than two months before the games. But during, before and after her performance, there was loud cheering

and clapping in the competition venue, coming from the Russian delegation and what appeared to be the Russian media on the press side.

She stumbled on her opening jump and appeared to be struggling to hold back tears when she finished. Remember here, we're talking about a 15- year-old girl. She walked off that ice, clutching her stuffed animal but she still managed to finish with the top score.

This is as many experts say she's a victim of Russian-sponsored doping. A full investing is being done on the allegations, including an examination of the adults around her.

This is what the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency said in a tweet, quote, "The doping of children is evil and unforgivable and the doctors, coaches and other support personnel who are found to have provided performance-enhancing drugs to minors should be banned for life.

"And personally, I also think that they should be in prison."

Earlier today, an IOC official said that Valieva had blamed the positive drug test on a mix-up with her grandfather's medication. We have no further detail on that. But these are the facts we do know, which is that the drug she tested positive for, other Olympians have been disqualified for also testing positive for it.

Also, doctors say that the drug she tested positive for, boosts endurance and improves blood flow. All of this as other figure skaters and athletes are saying that, allowing her to compete is making a mockery of clean competition. It is tainting a moment that other skaters have spent so many years preparing for -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much for that reporting.

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BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, major settlement announced with the families of the Sandy Hook massacre. The first time a gunmaker is held liable for a mass shooting. The breaking details next.

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BOLDUAN: We're following breaking news. Gunmaker Remington has reached a $73 million settlement with some of the families of children and adults killed in the horrific massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Show you some live pictures of the press conference that's underway

right now, where they are discussing and announcing the settlement with the families. This is the first time a gunmaker is being held liable for a mass shooting in America. CNN's Erica Hill is live, she's there, joining us now.

What are you hearing from the families about this and what does this settlement mean?