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Lukashenko: Russia Coup Leader Prigozhin "Free"; Trump Aide Pleads Not Guilty In Classified Docs Case; Air Force: Russian Jets Harassed Us Drones In Syria. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired July 06, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Where in the world is the leader of the Russian revolt? The president of Belarus tells CNN that Yevgeny Prigozhin is in St. Petersburg, as Russian media reports that officials raided his home, finding gold, guns, money, and wigs. More on that. Next.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: In Florida, Trump aide Walt Nauta pleads not guilty in a federal court today on charges of mishandling classified documents. We will have all the details of his first court appearance. What it could mean for the case against the former president? That's just ahead.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And also today, the FDA expected to decide whether to give its full approval to a drug that slows the progression of Alzheimer's disease. That decision could help millions of people get access. We're going to explain how.

We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: The mercenary who led the first-ever rebellion against Vladimir Putin is back in Russia, at least according to the president of Belarus. The Kremlin though will not comment on the whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin. The Wagner group leader and his private army are known for their brutality in Ukraine. Of course, he's not been seen since June 24 during his brief revolt.

Today, the Belarusian president who helped negotiate the deal to end the uprising gave an update to reporters. CNN's Matthew Chance was there. Matthew?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko invited us here to the Palace of independence, this marble-clad edifice in the center of Minsk. It's one of his presidential offices for a press conference. And what he said was a conversation about all the dramatic events that have been unfolding over the past couple of weeks. CHANCE (voiceover): Of course, the main interest was the whereabouts of Wagner, the Russian mercenary group, and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. So, I got a chance to ask Alexander Lukashenko what update he could give us about that mercenary group that of course staged a military uprising in Russia just last month.

CHANCE: I wonder if you could provide us all with a bit of an update on the whereabouts of the Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. Is he in Belarus or not?

ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, PRESIDENT OF BELARUS (through translator): In terms of Yevgeny Prigozhin, he is in St. Petersburg. Maybe this morning, he would travel to Moscow or elsewhere. But he's not in the territory of Belarus now.

CHANCE: Also, stunning news there from Alexander Lukashenko. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner leader meant to be here. He's not here. His fighters are not here either. He said the deal is still on the table. It's what he insisted but it has not been finally agreed yet.

Meanwhile, in Russia on state television, we've been seeing these extraordinary images of what they say is Yevgeny Prigozhin's house -- or one of his houses is in St. Petersburg where police have raided and they have seized gold bars, cash, passports, some with false names with Yevgeny Prigozhin's photographs and wigs, strangely, which could be obviously used as a disguise. Weapons as well.

And you know, it all implies that Russia is sort of moving to discredit the Wagner leader, possibly ahead of arrest. Although that's not been confirmed yet. I spoke to the Kremlin earlier today and they said at the moment, they're not commenting on it.

But clearly, the deal for Wagner and its leader to be exiled in Belarus is at the least being renegotiated. And that could end very badly indeed for Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Matthew Chance, CNN in Minsk, Belarus.

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SANCHEZ: Matthew, thank you so much for that. Meantime, in Ukraine and Lviv, at least five people are dead, and dozens more injured after Russia launched a missile strike that hit a residential apartment building. Emergency workers are now digging through the rubble. They're searching for survivors. One by one, rescue teams carried out the victims' bodies. An orphanage and a school were also destroyed.

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Keep in mind, Lviv has the largest city in western Ukraine and hundreds of miles from the front lines. Despite today's attacks, CNN has learning Ukrainian military officials said the counter-offensive is going according to plan.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is live not far from the frontlines in eastern Ukraine. And, Ben, military officials are calling this the most devastating attack in Lviv since the war began.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And, of course, keeping in in minded Lviv is very close to the Polish border far away from the front lines. What happened is that at 2:40 in the morning, a caliber missile, this is a missile that travels very fast, has a payload of around a thousand pounds of high explosives, slammed into that building, as you said, causing five fatalities and nearly 40 injuries.

Now, what's interesting is that in the aftermath, it came out that because perhaps of this sense of complacency, 10 bomb shelters had been locked shut in Lviv. Locked shut when people needed the most, Boris

SANCHEZ: And, Ben, amid this intense fight -- and we understand there's been a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia.

WEDEMAN: It's the 47th prisoner exchange since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. We understand that 45 prisoners were exchanged. We don't know too much about the Russians but we did get a chance to speak to some Russian POWs that were recently captured around Bakhmut.

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WEDEMAN (voiceover): No longer on the front lines and Con recounts how he ended up a prisoner of war. Back in Russia, he was behind bars for the third time for drugs. When they put me in prison, I heard they were recruiting, serve six months and they pardon, he tells me. So, he signed up with Storm-Z, a unit made up of convicts attached to the Russian Defense Ministry.

After only two weeks of basic training, he was shipped off to the front lines near Bakhmut. After days of intense shelling, no food, and only rainwater to drink, he heard Ukrainian troops outside his foxhole. He assumed they would execute him.

I thought that was the end, he recalls. I switched my rifle to single- shot mode and thought I'll shoot myself, but I couldn't.

This video shot by soldiers of Ukraine's third Assault Brigade shows the tense moments when Anton and his comrades Slava surrendered. The Ukrainian troops told them unlike Russians, we don't kill prisoners.

We spoke to Anton, Slava, and another soldier in a makeshift jail in eastern Ukraine, concealing their faces and not using their real names. The Third Assault Brigade granted us access to the POWs and two of their soldiers were in the room for the interviews. The POWs will soon be transferred to Ukrainian intelligence. They didn't appear to be under duress and agreed to share their stories.

Slava also serving time for drugs, said conditions in the trenches were grim. Food was scarce. We didn't have medical kits, he says. His commanders took all the painkillers to get high, he recalled. And as a result, issued nonsensical orders. Morale was terrible. Sergei was wounded by a grenade before surrendering to Ukrainian troops. He was a contract soldier, not a convict. He completed his six-month contract in Kherson and went home.

But when he hesitated to sign another contract, a military prosecutor gave him a choice, prison or back to the front. He ended up outside Bakhmut. Under constant Ukrainian fire discipline collapsed, the officers fled. All illusions are shattered. It was very different from what I saw on TV. A parallel reality, says Sergei. I felt fear, pain, and disappointment in my commanders.

A law passed last year in Russia imposed sentences of three to 10 years for soldiers who surrender voluntarily. If he returns home and a prisoner exchange, Anton may end up again back in a Russian prison.

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WEDEMAN (on camera): The problem in the case of Anton and that other convict soldier is that when these exchanges take place, the Russians aren't interested in these men who are essentially the meat in the meat grinder of the war here. They're interested in officers, professional soldiers, pilots. These convict turns -- convicts turned soldiers, Russians apparently couldn't care less about them, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Really eye-opening details in that report. Ben Wedeman, from eastern Ukraine, thank you. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Let's dig a little deeper. CNN Contributor Jill Dougherty joining us now. She was CNN's Moscow bureau chief, now an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. Jill, good to have you on this afternoon.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hi, Jim.

SCIUTTO: You know, those words there from that captured Russian soldiers struck me describing a parallel reality from what he was told the front was like the war was like and what it actually was when he got there. I wonder. This has been a question throughout the war. Are the Russian people more and more getting an accurate sense of how badly it's going on the front line, or not? I mean, is any of that penetrating to the best of our knowledge into the Russian public?

DOUGHERTY: Yes, that's so hard to gauge because, you know, there are some polls where you can't really trust them. People don't want to say exactly what they're thinking. But you have to think that when people come back from the front wounded, or let's say, even dead, their families have to know what is going on.

The only problem is that the government has been you know spinning this into saying, you have sacrificed for the Fatherland -- for the Motherland. There's a really kind of perverse way that they are saying people really should sacrifice. This is what it's all about. This is what modern Russia is. Sacrifice. And I think that you know, does penetrate and affect some people who actually do believe that or maybe have kind of just given up that they can change anything.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Did the failed mutiny of a couple of weeks ago, and the reception that Prigozhin's forces got at least initially, not much resistance as you drove north and some people welcomed him in Rostov- On-Don. Is that relevant and indicative that perhaps there are more Russians than we realized who aren't so enamored of Vladimir Putin?

DOUGHERTY: Well, I -- you know, making lead to Putin is a little difficult sometimes, but they're certainly not satisfied with the war. I mean, I think a lot of Russians would want the war to be over for obvious reasons. But again, you know, Prigozhin tapped into something which I think was effective, which is to say, the people who are deceiving our president, President Putin, the people who are the fat cats you know, the people who run the average -- the regular military are the problem, and they deceive President Putin. This is actually what Prigozhin said. And I think that kind of populist message did carry with some Russians.

Now, where that goes, is I think, the most difficult thing. Where did those feelings go to people blame it on Putin? You know, a lot of them kind of switched when they saw that there was a rebellion by Prigozhin. So, it's still confusing, but I do absolutely believe that there is more internal chaos in Russia right now. And you know what we saw today with Prigozhin is a great example.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you about that. And again, I take everything, as I'm sure you do with a grain of salt, whether it's coming from Lukashenko or the Kremlin, or even Prigogine, as to where he is. But if it is true that he's in St. Petersburg, of course, Vladimir Putin's old stomping grounds, I imagine that's not a particularly safe place for the man who just led a failed rebellion.

DOUGHERTY: True. But let's say -- let's look at what Lukashenko said this morning. And he was using -- I must say, in Russian, he was using this kind of criminal mafia language. And he said I don't think you know that Putin is as then vindictive as to actually, you know, whack him or wiping the house.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DOUGHERTY: That was the way he put it. So, maybe they don't kill him. But we certainly know that actually, a week or two ago, Putin hinted very broadly that the money that the government had given him, which is billions, for a variety of contracts, maybe some of it went astray. And that the government, the Kremlin would look into that and deal with it.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DOUGHERTY: So, I think, you know, it is not hard to people that they could you know arrest him on corruption. You see that video on Russian TV, which is all determined to destroy his reputation --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DOUGHERTY: -- make him look like a criminal which of course he is, and then maybe set it up for him to be arrested and thrown in prison.

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SCIUTTO: Yes. Putin, certainly in the past has shown that he holds grudges against the Skripals, the Litvinenkos of the world, and Navalnys, which you know better than anyone. Jill Dougherty, always good to have you on.

DOUGHERTY: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Brianna.

KEILAR: Not guilty. Donald Trump's personal aide and accused co- conspirator entering his plea in the classified documents case. He's accused of helping his boss hide classified documents. Today's arraignment of Walt Nauta comes after a judge unsealed more of the search warrant affidavit for Mar-a-Lago. And it reveals the prosecutors have surveillance video that shows someone moving dozens of boxes before the FBI search.

CNN's Paul Reid joining us with more on this. First, let's talk about this arraignment today because you have Nauta's defense team asking for a jury trial. I know that's perhaps not surprising, but it's very interesting.

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It is interesting. I think the hope is that a Florida jury pool could yield a group of people. At least one of whom may be sympathetic to Walt Nauta and or the former president. I think, though one surprise here is just how long it's taken him to find a Florida-based attorney to represent him and what is arguably a very procedural matter, right? There's lots of defense attorneys who would be willing to help shepherd you through this.

This was the third time. He was supposed to be arraigned today. It went off successfully but you know, there's this tension between the Special Counsel, Jack Smith, who said he wants a speedy trial here, and former President Trump and his allies who have every incentive to delay this. And these little few weeks here a few weeks there, those add up and further suggest that this may not go to trial before the 2024 presidential election.

KEILAR: It works in Trump's favor --

REID: Yes.

KEILAR: -- when there are delays. We're also learning more about this evidence that was cited in this affidavit to justify the search of Mar-a-Lago. This includes details about that surveillance video that I mentioned. What can you tell us about that?

REID: So, this takes us all the way back to August 2022 before anyone really knew about this investigation. And what is revealed in this affidavit, or at least the parts we can see is just how much investigators knew at this point. They had already gathered surveillance footage that showed Walt Nauta moving these boxes in and out of a storage space watching how many of them left and how few were returned.

They also had at least one photograph also suggesting what was going on inside Mar-a-Lago. So, this helps us understand just how much they knew before they did the search at Mar-a-Lago. But one of the outstanding questions here is about this surveillance footage.

We know between August when they did the search, and then June of this year when they issued this indictment, a lot of witnesses were asked about the surveillance footage. Did investigators get it, or did anyone try to prevent them from receiving it? And there have been questions about whether there will be another indictment, a superseding indictment, and if so, whether there could be any charges related to the surveillance footage because we know it's been so key throughout this investigation.

KEILAR: He is accused of lying --

REID: Yes.

KEILAR: -- to the authorities when they questioned him, Walt Nauta. He's facing some very serious charges. And he's someone who unless Trump is paying for his legal bills does not have the resources that a Donald Trump has. Is there any indication at this point in time sort of what his defense is, if he is inclined to remain very friendly to Trump, or sort of strike out on his own?

REID: It's a great question. I've been told by sources close to Trump that he's gotten a lot better in a post-Michael Cohen world about keeping people who could potentially help in investigations -- help against him, right in the fold. And Walt Nauta is very much in the fold. We saw him last week, right ordering cheese steaks, so former President Trump. We see him at all these campaign events. He's being represented by a lawyer who is paid for by a Trump link political action committee.

At some point, though, Walt Nauta is going to need to make a decision about whether he wants to go all the way through with this, right? Go to trial represented by this lawyer that's being funded by someone else, and possibly receive jail time, or if he wants to be more cooperative and strike a deal.

But as of now, there's no indication that he is going to flip on his boss. But it's a very formidable thing to go up against the Justice Department, the resources you need to do that successfully, that's not something Walt Nauta has without this political action committee. But he's the one who could potentially if convicted have to serve time.

KEILAR: Yes, he certainly could. Paula Reid, thank you for that. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Russian military jets intercepted several U.S. drones flying over Syria. The U.S. accusing those jets of making unsafe maneuvers and harassment. We have details on those encounters.

And defense officials telling CNN that a new military aid package to Ukraine is about to be announced. And it would include a controversial component, cluster munitions. And we're keeping an eye on markets where there's a sell-off underway right now over fears that more Fed rate hikes could be on the way. The Dow down over 360 points.

You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We're back in just moments.

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SCIUTTO: You're going to want to see this new video from the Department of Defense, which shows three Russian fighter jets harassing U.S. drones flying over northern Syria on Wednesday morning. The Air Force says those drones were monitoring ISIS targets. And you can see them circling coming close. And you see it both from a distance but also from the camera mounted on the drone itself.

CNN National Security Reporter Natasha Bertrand has been following the story. And it's remarkable to watch this. And it's not unlike what we saw just a few weeks ago over the Black Sea, which eventually took that drone -- that U.S. drone down. How close does the Pentagon say this came to take this one down?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Jim. So, the Pentagon is saying that this was a very unsafe and unprofessional maneuver by these Russian jets. It was three Russian jets going after these three U.S. drones that were conducting an anti-ISIS mission over Syria. And what the Pentagon says is that no drones were actually taken down in this maneuver, but that they got really, really dangerously close to the drones in a way that could have posed a risk, of course, to people on the ground, and to the drone itself.

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Now, what we are learning is that according to this video that was released by the Pentagon, the Russian jets approach the drones and started releasing parachute flares ostensibly to block their view. And one of those Russian fighter jets then came in front of one of the drones and engaged its afterburner, again, to try to block its view and force the drone to take some kind of evasive maneuver.

Now, these kinds of behavior -- this kind of behavior by Russian jets, it is becoming more common in the region. We saw just a couple of months ago, as you mentioned, that Russian jet take down a drone over the Black Sea. And it's not only against drones that these Russian jets are becoming more aggressive.

According to the top U.S. commander for Air Force operations in the Middle East, these Russian jets have also been harassing American- manned fighter aircraft.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BERTRAND: And what he said is that it was almost like they're trying to dogfight with them in the air, Jim. So, clearly a big concern for U.S. officials here. SCIUTTO: Exactly. I mean, no, of course, the difference is you got a pilot in there, and then the danger is much greater. The danger for escalation. And others have made the point, Russian pilots don't -- or not expected to act on their own, so this would seem to happen with some approval from higher up.

Another topic, if we can, Natasha, and that is this new military aid package for Ukraine. That appears to include these cluster munitions Ukraine has been asking for, for some time. Why now? And why is the U.S. choosing to do this despite criticism for the use of these kinds of munitions?

BERTRAND: Yes, Jim. So, we are expecting an announcement tomorrow from the Biden administration that they will be providing a new military aid package to Ukraine that will include these controversial cluster munitions. And these are controversial because these are munitions that when they are deployed, they scatter bomblets across large areas. And some of those bomblets can actually fail to explode on impact so they lead -- leave duds behind that could pose a risk -- long-term risk to civilians.

And we're told that the Biden administration has changed its tune on this over the last several months because of how the counter-offensive is not going as fast as they had anticipated. And Ukraine is really burning through artillery ammunition. So, these cluster munitions could help fill that gap in ammunition.

And U.S. officials say they could actually have a pretty significant impact on the battlefield. Not necessarily a game changer. But something U.S. officials say could help Ukraine make more progress. Jim,

SCIUTTO: Yes. There's the argument here is that you got all these trenches there. You've got soldiers dug in. It's a way to go after those many thousands -- many tens of thousands of Russian soldiers dug in. Natasha Bertrand, at the Pentagon, thanks so much. Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. We have CNN military analyst, retired Major General "James" Spider Marks with us to go through some of this. He is the head of the geopolitical strategy at Academy Securities. Thanks for being with us.

JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Sure.

KEILAR: We're looking at these controversial cluster munitions here. Just talk to us a little bit about the capability.

MARKS: Yes, this is what we call a Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition. And it's a -- it's a bomb that goes off, but then it spreads these bomblets over a much larger area. And these are improved and that they can go after tanks and armored vehicles as well as personnel. Depends upon what ignites those. The challenge always is that these become very, very dangerous from the human interest capacity. What's going to happen to the civilians after the fighting subsides?

KEILAR: We have a video of that. Let's look at that from Kharkiv --

MARKS: OK.

KEILAR: -- that we were looking at from early on in the war. You can see what happens with civilians.

MARKS: Right.

KEILAR: It's tough. Are you worried about that?

MARKS: Well, of course, you have to worry about that. But what the United States does when we use these DPICMs is we register where we use them. And then after the fighting, we'll mark that area off and we will clear that out. I'm not saying that other nations will do that. That's why there's over 120 nations that say, no, we should not use these types of munitions because of the danger it poses to the civilians.

KEILAR: Yes. We suspect that is not happening on either side in this conflict. Would that be fair to say? Would you expect --

MARKS: Absolutely. Yes, absolutely.

KEILAR: OK. So, Human Rights Watch, by the way, calling for both Russia and Ukraine to stop using them. I want to turn back to these Russian jets that we are seeing harassing U.S. drones over Syria. And some pretty incredible video that we are getting here in these latest -- this latest encounter. Tell us what you're seeing and why this is so alarming to you.

MARKS: Well, this is the Reaper drone that's taking -- this is the Reaper drone right here. This is the SU35, the Russian aircraft. The attack aircraft.

First of all, the imagery is quite phenomenal with the capabilities of the Reaper, not only can they do great intelligence collection, they also can do attack -- very precise attack missions. So, when you see this type of proximity in the air, it's incredibly dangerous not only to the Russian pilot but also to this capability that the United States is using for intelligence collection at the -- (AUDIO GAP)

KEILAR: This is the Russian jet.

MARKS: Yes.

KEILAR: Just a closer look at it if we can.