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Blinken Says, Revolt Shows Cracks in Putin's Rule; Revolt in Russia Ends But Danger Not Over; Supreme Court Allows Louisiana Congressional Map to be Redrawn to Add Another Majority-Black Distrct. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired June 26, 2023 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the Kremlin says he agreed to escape exile in Belarus.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Russians cheered in the street as Wagner mercenaries made their move into their Russia, new details about the mood inside of country after the failed rebellion.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Video emerges of Russia's embattled defense minister. This is the first time we've seen him since the revolt, this as Ukraine says its troops are gaining new ground. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: Secretary of State Tony Blinken, he points to cracks in Putin's grip on power, but is the world looking at an entirely new reality in Russia for Vladimir Putin this morning after the chaos over the weekend? Released today, a video of Putin you see there, but we don't know when or where this video was shot and Putin makes no mention of the rebellion.

Also unclear, the fate of the man who launched the insurrection, the Kremlin claims a deal was struck to drop criminal charges against Yevgeny Prigozhin, requiring him to leave the country and live in exile in Belarus. But Prigozhin has not confirmed the deal and has not been seen since Saturday night.

CNN's Nic Robertson joins us from London tracking all of this, this morning. Nic, we are seeing Putin. We are not hearing from him. What can people read into that?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. I think this is typical of the Kremlin. Putin wants to be somewhat distanced from all the trouble that's happened over the weekend, that he wants to project an image that he is still there, that he is still in control. He has delegated, it appears, his prime minister today to speak about a challenge to the internal stability of the country, but moving forward, it's about the unity, it's about doing it together, it's about being united and, of course, casting up the question, was any of this at the behest of the western enemy's of Russia.

So, Putin is, if you will, speaking from behind the scenes but is not sort of putting his face directly out there with a speech, because it was a negative image of what happened over the weekend, and it is damaging for him, and he doesn't want to be associated with that, which is part of the reason why he has pushed Prigozhin toward Belarus, and the attentions of Lukashenko, the president there.

BOLDUAN: And, Nic, the circumstances surrounding kind of the abrupt turnaround of Prigozhin and his troops and the kind of the mystery that continues at this hour of where Prigozhin is, is really fascinating. What do you read here? What do you see here?

ROBERTSON: Hubris and miscalculation on timing, hubris on Prigozhin's part. Because the narrative that he had that the war wasn't being fought well and that people were dying unnecessary had big support on the streets. We saw that when he left Rostov-on-Don. People were shaking his hand and thanking him and cheering his troops. So, there was a popular level of support for that.

And over the past few months, Prigozhin had begun to feel that he was winning the support of some of Russia's generals. He had cited Surovikin, who is in charge in the war in Ukraine for a while. He's been the only general in Russia's military worth a star. He had appointed a deputy defense ministry who'd quit the Kremlin and joined Prigozhin's ranks. So, he was feeling on something of a high with the military as well maybe conflated these two.

I spoke to a contact in Moscow who said, look, he went too soon and the system was not ready. So, when Surovikin and, more importantly, Kadyrov, who had also spoken positively about Wagner, came out and criticized him on Saturday, he knew he didn't have that big military support and he had no option. He had to turn around. And he said he was saving blood of Russians, but he was saving his own neck, he cut a deal.

BOLDUAN: So interesting. Nic, thank you. John?

BERMAN: All right. Kate, new this morning, Russia says that its defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, visited with Russian troops on the ground in Ukraine following the failed revolt. There had been no pictures of him since the revolt either. Now, there is this video of him.

CNN Chief International Security Editor Nick Paton Walsh is in Kyiv this morning. Nick, the Ukrainian government has to be looking at the mayhem across the border, very much inside Russia, and asking itself, how, when and where can they exploit this. What are you seeing?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, without a doubt, this shows that the Russian chain of command is certainly chaos, certainly not speaking with one voice, and given the fact we have not seen Vladimir Putin essentially publicly live displaying his continued control of the Russian government despite this coup that nearly enough didn't get there, but could have potentially compromised his control of power.

[10:05:06]

Kyiv is certainly looking, I'm sure, for weaknesses here. Now, we have seen over the weekend suggestions from Ukrainian officials that they are pushing forward in the south, in the east, around Bakhmut, a city which the Wagner fighters fought for intensely over the winter and brought that sort of symbolic victory forward as a calling card, a reason why they claimed success and greater efficiency in the war than the Russian military. But, ultimately, we have not seen a significant change in the battlefield yet.

We do know that Russian state media said 3,000 Chechen fighters loyal to the Russian government left their positions and went to Moscow to defend it from this onward-moving Wagner column that never in fact got there, but it appears they may have left areas in the Donetsk region on the frontline, some of them from a town called Mar'inka.

And so there are certainly areas where there could be Russian weakness ahead. There's a claim from Ukraine that it's taken another town in the south called Rivnopil', that is suggesting incremental gains. But, ultimately, I think Ukraine may be waiting to see exactly where Russian movements of its military end, what impact the longer term departure and possible discontent of Russian Wagner fighters on the frontlines results in, and indeed, too, whether or not this sort of utter chaos, frankly, in the Kremlin has stopped, or if we're going to see more signs of confusion of Putin not having his hands as thoroughly on the levers of power as he'd like. The defense chiefs, too, under question at this time as well.

So, a lot still moving and maybe Ukraine is waiting to see where those cards finally fall before it throws its chips down and launch its greater, larger moves. John?

BERMAN: Look, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he does not think we have seen the final act of this crisis. Nick Paton Walsh in Kyiv, great to see you, Nick. Thank you so much. Sarah?

SIDNER: With us now to share her expertise, Georgetown University Adjunct Professor and CNN Contributor Jill Dougherty. I know you have been studying Russian for most of your life. You speak it, you've lived there, so you have some really deep knowledge about what it's like there. This is the first real crack in Putin's grasp on power.

It's kind of interesting to note that we did not see major resistance as the mercenaries are marching into Russia. What do you make of that?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, I think that was really significant, because if Putin really wanted to squash them, he could. He could have, because, obviously, he has the forces. But why didn't the forces take action? So, that means either they couldn't, they were incapable in some fashion, or maybe they supported Prigozhin. That's a possibility. Or maybe Putin didn't want the fighting outside of Moscow. Let's say they got very, very, which they did, close to Moscow. Can you imagine a firefight outside of Moscow with Russians shooting at each other? It did happen in the south. But if it happened in Moscow, it would be embarrassing and doesn't cover it, but it would look like a disaster. So, I think maybe those three factors would (INAUDIBLE). SIDNER: So, Putin is a trained KGB operative who came to power.

Prigozhin is a former convict who was once Putin's chef who came to power with this mercenary group. Can you explain the dynamic between these two men?

DOUGHERTY: Well, in the beginning, everything basically in Russia comes down to money, sometimes money and power. So, Prigozhin was able to parlay this chef business into getting contracts for providing food for schools, for the military and other important organizations. So, he began to make a lot of money. And then, of course, he now has affiliates and work in Africa and all over, as CNN has been reporting, making a lot of money. And then he puts together the troll factory, helps Putin there, remember, in St. Petersburg, interfering in the 2016 election. And then, finally, he has his Wagnerites, who go into Ukraine to basically rescue the Russian military who were incapable of really taking towns like Bakhmut until Wagner came in.

So, I think you'd have to say that Putin has used Prigozhin for things that he wanted to kind of sub-rosa things that he didn't want to be associated with, giving him deniability. And Prigozhin has made a lot of money, and I think maybe feeling his oats at this point or yesterday or the day before he did, that he had actually more power than he ended up having.

[10:10:00]

SIDNER: I mean, is he being paid by Russia? I mean, is that where he's getting his money? Because it begs the question, what happens to him now? We've heard so many things about people falling out of windows and being poisoned, and will his money dry up? I mean, what's going to happen, do you think, going forward?

DOUGHERTY: Yes, that's a great question. I think, let's say, the operations in Africa would have to say, does he continue to have his good, lucrative businesses in Africa? That's a question. Yes, he was getting money for his military from the government. That presumably is going to dry up, because, theoretically, his forces are going to move into the regular military.

But what happens to him? I mean, I do think it is entirely possible that he could be killed anytime, whether now wherever he is, or in Belarus. But I think that Putin kind of has to watch his back too, Sara, because not necessarily that people will kill him at this point, but I think the elites, the power elites, the security services are looking at Putin and saying, what is going on here? Is this guy weaker than we thought? Should we be in the same boat with him? And I think that's really damaging for Putin.

SIDNER: You bring that up, and I think it's a really good point. Because even if Putin's reign ends, who is to say that another dictator won't take over in his place? Is there any sense of what would happen?

DOUGHERTY: Yes, that's the question. Okay. So, technically, if Putin is out of the picture immediately, let's say he dies, the prime minister takes over. The prime minister is a bureaucrat. He's no political power. So, you can pretty much forget about him for a while. Then I think you have internal fighting, to put it mildly, among the people who would love to be in charge or who will hitch their star to the next guy who's going to be in charge. I think it's going to be very unstable, and I think the people who

want power are pretty ruthless. So, we're in for a tough ride.

SIDNER: All right. Jill Dougherty, always, always, lovely to see you and to hear your expertise on the matter, I appreciate you. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right. We have big news coming in with regard to voting rights in America. The Supreme Court is allowing a redrawing of Louisiana's congressional district, telling Louisiana the math needs to be redone. Why it's a decision that could truly impact the balance of power in Congress. We have a live report coming up.

Plus, the governor of Georgia speaking out after this happened this weekend, anti-Semitic demonstrations, shouting obscenities, displaying swastikas outside two synagogues. We'll have an update on this.

And four suspected tornadoes ripped through Indiana yesterday. At least one person was killed. The storms left homes and businesses in shambles. The video is terrifying. We're also looking at where the severe weather is now this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:00]

BOLDUAN: And breaking news into CNN. The Supreme Court is allowing Louisiana to redraw its congressional map, a very real and immediate result from the justices' surprise opinion against Alabama just a few weeks ago.

CNN's Manu Raju, Jessica Schneider joining us now. So, Jessica, walk us through what just came down.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, this is actually the Supreme Court sending this dispute over Louisiana's congressional maps back down to the lower courts. What's likely to happen in the lower courts is that the court should order these maps to be withdrawn.

And this is significant because this is yet another voting map that's been disputed by black voters as being a violation of the Voting Rights Act and the Supreme Court acting to change the way these maps are drawn. Because, remember, earlier this month, the Supreme Court ordered Alabama congressional maps to be withdrawn.

So, now, their rule that a lower court must retake up a case about a Louisiana map that was similarly disputed as violating the Voting Rights Act because, in particular, these Louisiana maps, they currently only have one out of six voting districts, congressional districts, that are majority black. And the argument here is that black voters make up 33 percent of the. state's population, so there should be more voting districts that are majority black. So, Kate, when the lower court looks at this case, they'll likely order the maps to be redrawn in accordance with the Supreme Court's decisions. What you're looking at right now are old maps that were drawn by Republicans. Presumably, both of these maps will be thrown out despite the fact that they were used in the 2022 election and then redrawn in better accordance with the Supreme Court's decision in that Alabama case.

The Supreme Court specifically saying here the reason they're sending it back to the lower courts to redraw these maps, so they won't look anything like what you're looking at now, is to get ready for the 2024 election.

So, what we're seeing is this cascade of opinions resulting from the Supreme Court upholding Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and really allowing minorities, other people who feel that they've been unfairly disadvantaged when it comes to voting because of congressional maps. It's allowing them more of a chance to take these fights to court and get these maps eventually redrawn, as we're seeing now here in Louisiana and previously in Alabama.

[10:20:07]

Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes, this fight over the Louisiana maps had been on hold until they could figure out what was going to be decided in Alabama, very real and quick, as you say, a cascade of opinions coming from the Supreme Court. And we'll have a very real and potentially quick cascade impact on Capitol Hill, which is where Manu Raju is standing by for us.

So, Manu, this decision means a new black majority -- a majority black district will very likely be drawn in Louisiana, as well as, as we've been talking about for the past couple of weeks in Alabama. What does that mean on Capitol Hill?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it could mean more Democratic seats. We do expect in the aftermath of that Alabama seat that that will very likely could be filled, a Democrat could fill in the aftermath of that Alabama ruling, adding one more Democrat to the delegation in Alabama. Here in Louisiana, that is the expectation as well. Currently, there's one Democrat in that House delegation. We expect that as a result of this ruling, it could lead to another Democrat.

And this is significant over in the overall fight for control of the House. Remember, this is a very narrowly divided House, between the Republicans who have control and Democrats who are in the minority. Democrats need to pick up five seats, net five seats, in order to get back to the House majority in 2024. If it does turn out that these two seats can now go to the Democratic column, that, of course, narrows the majority even further.

Now, that doesn't mean that it's certain to flip to the Democrats come 2024. There are other cases and other states involving redistricting issues that actually do favor the GOP, like in North Carolina. And there's also a big question about New York, which was significant for flipping the Republican control of the House in the last election. What will they do if they redraw the maps in New York? So, of these questions, Kate, as you know, so significant to ultimately determining who controls the power in Washington and the power in the House. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Absolutely, and something that everyone needs to watch very closely now. Jessica, thank you. Manu, thank you, guys, so much. John?

BERMAN: Closing arguments are underway in the trial of the former school resource officer who stayed outside during the deadly mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Scot Peterson was on duty they day 17 people were killed and 17 others injured. Prosecutors say he failed to confront the gunman. He is charged with 11 counts, including felony child neglect and culpable negligence.

State leaders in Georgia are condemning anti-Semitic demonstrations outside two synagogues. Video obtained by CNN shows a small group outside a synagogue in Marietta over the weekend. They held up Nazi flags and signs. Another protest took place in Macon. Georgia's governor and other leaders expressed concern over the incidents. The Anti-Defamation league says anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. reached an all-time high last year.

Right now, 90 million people across the United States are under severe weather threats. Authorities say at least two people were killed when tornadoes and severe storms hit southern Indiana and several southern states. One person was killed in Indiana, another in Georgia.

Video shows a funnel cloud tearing through buildings. You can see it just spinning out the debris there. That was near Indianapolis. The local fire chief says at least 75 homes were damaged. Sara?

SIDNER: Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, has revealed she's recovering from breast cancer surgery. What she is saying about her diagnosis, coming up.

Plus, Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the chaos that unfolded in Russia has exposed cracks in Putin's regime. Why he says we have not seen the end of Russia's crisis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

BERMAN: Very shortly, we expect to hear from President Biden. This will be his first public appearance since the remarkable 48 hours inside Russia, the biggest challenge to Vladimir Putin's decades in power. We will bring that to you live when it happens.

So, while Biden, the president has maintained a strategic silence, we have heard telling comments from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. CNN's Kylie Atwood is at the State Department this morning. Blinken says, we have not seen the last act of this crisis, Kylie.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. What he did say is that the events over the weekend show cracks in President Putin's rule. But he said it's too soon to tell where this is going, John. Essentially, even though it appears that this challenge to Putin's rule, this attempted insurrection came and went incredibly closely, he was saying that the United States really doesn't have full picture of what happened or what could happen. He called this a moving picture. He said he believes that we haven't seen the final act yet.

And that is really significant because U.S. officials are really tracking what happens next here. But they were wary over the weekend to give any sort of assessment as this was all unfolding. And the secretary of state on Sunday, when he was the first U.S. official to go on the record and respond to everything that we were seeing, said very clearly this is an internal matter for Russia, trying to disassociate the United States from being involved in any way, shape or form.

Listen to what he told Dana Bash on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: These are decisions for the Russian people, and this entire chapter is an internal matter.