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President Biden Warns Russia of Consequences; Diplomacy Still Has Chance; China Wins Its First Olympic Gold; Truck Driver's Protests Disrupts People's Lives; Israelis Upset of Police Spying on Citizens; Indigenous People Fear Losing Their Land; Macron Finds Points Of Convergence; U.S., Germany Appear Divided On Nord Stream Two; Intercepted Communications Show Russian Doubts; Queen Elizabeth Marks Platinum Jubilee, 70 Years On The Throne; Ireland's St. Patrick's Parade Returns To Dublin. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired February 08, 2022 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead here on CNN Newsroom, high stakes diplomacy on both sides of the Atlantic as four global powers attempt to prevent an all-out war between Russia and Ukraine.

China's snow princess wins her first gold medal of the Olympics. We'll take a look at Eileen Gu's big air competition.

Plus, fears of displacement in Israel's Negev Desert. How a program to plant trees is threatening stability within the community.

UNKNOWN: Live from CNN center, this is CNN Newsroom with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good have you with us. Well, we begin with a diplomatic push to ease tensions along the border between Ukraine and Russia. U.S. President Joe Biden met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington.

Mr. Biden is vowing to end the Nord Stream 2 pipeline deal between Germany and Russia if Russian troops invade Ukraine. And although Mr. Scholz is promising a unified stance with its NATO western allies, he refused to say specifically that Germany would kill the pipeline project.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Ukraine today after talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. He is looking to take the lead on European efforts to mediate the crisis and Russia's president seem to respond positively to some of his suggestions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): A number of his proposals and ideas about which it is too early to speak I consider quite possible in order to lay a foundation for our further steps. Let's see how the meetings for the president will go in Kyiv after his trip to Ukraine. We will call each other again and exchange of views on this matter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Melissa Bell is live this hour in Kyiv, Ukraine. But we begin with our Nathan Hodge in Moscow. So Nathan, more than five hours of talks between president Putin and his French counterpart and a sign there is still room for diplomacy. What is the latest on what came out of this meeting?

NATHAN HODGE, CNN PRODUCER: Well, Rosemary, despite this flurry of high-level diplomacy we are very much where we were yesterday. When the Kremlin told us in advance of the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron that we were not to expect any breakthroughs. And that's very much what happened in the press conference that followed the meeting which lasted over five hours between two men which included along dinner.

Russian President Putin made it very clear that none of his main grievances, the long-standing grievances about which we've been hearing so much lately have not been addressed. He was very -- he was quite scathing when it came to describing the position of NATO. He basically he described NATO as being the aggressor in this case as essentially encircling Russia with its expansion since the end of the Cold War.

He laid blame at the feet of Ukraine, basically saying it was Ukraine's fault that the crisis has escalated. Despite the fact that Russia is a country that has amassed so many troops on the border with Ukraine. And in many ways kicked off this long-running crisis with the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the backing of separatists in the east of the country.

So, clearly, the west and Russia remain very, very far apart. And it's going to be very interesting to see what happens in the coming days. As Putin said at the very end of, sort of his beginning remarks to Macron at the press conference. There is still some room for diplomacy here. And he gave us some sense that he thinks that there still room to talk. Despite these sorts of very long tirades about these long- standing grievances.

He said as Macron prepares to go to Kyiv today that he will wait and see what happens. He will have another phone call to follow on with President Macron and then we'll see how things go further from here. but for the time being the two sides are very far apart, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes, indeed, they are. And melissa, President Macron, as we say will meet with Ukraine's President Zelensky in the coming hours and then talk again with President Putin. What are the expectations there in Kyiv? MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the French hope is that by

coming here and after that long talk with Putin yesterday, President Macron has managed to shift the lines a little bit.

[03:05:01]

Now so far there been this deadlock position where NATO and the United States had made their proposals. Moscow is to give back its formal response, but clearly, there was so much distance between the two positions. It was very difficult to see what room from over there it might be.

What the French president's tactic has been and we heard it lengthen that press conference that was given in Moscow yesterday is to shift the position to a question of European security. Essentially offering Moscow one of the key things that it's been asking for which is the negotiation of security guarantees looking ahead.

Now Emmanuel Macron in that press conference is it pains to say, look, Russia and the west have very different readings over the last 30 years. There are different grievances, there are different incomprehension and misunderstandings. Traumatism to use that word. Now we need to sit again to find new treaties, new security arrangements, new guarantees that can ensure that Europe leads in peace and guarantees and new treaties that are fit for the 21st century.

Now that is one of the key demands that Moscow has been making and I think that is what the room for maneuver that the French are looking for. Now, the French president has just laid it in the Ukrainian capital, as you say later on, he'll meet with the Ukrainian president. And last night he praised him, calling him very calm in the face of what's been going on the last few weeks. Saying, look, anyone who found themselves with 130,000 on their doorstep would have a right to be a little nervous.

President Zelensky has been remarkable for his calm and for the still of his nerves. So, when the two men meet there should be a lot of agreement between them on how to go forward. Both of them determined that the Normandy format talks on the specifics on what's happening on the front line in the east of the country should take priority.

But there is at the beginning of hint of some kind of possibility that dialogue is possible with Vladimir Putin, and as Nathan was just saying the French president is keen that over the course of the next few days the two men should speak again to try and build on that, Rosemary?

CHURCH: All right, Melissa Bell in Kyiv, Nathan Hodge in Moscow, many thanks to you both.

All right. Day four of the Beijing Winter Olympics is kicking into high gear with a gold medal win for Eileen Gu. The freestyle skier who has been dubbed China's snow princess. The 18-year-old clinched gold in Tuesday's big air competition. Gu was born in the U.S. to a Chinese mother and decided to represent team China this year instead of the U.S.

Among those watching her big win from the stand Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai. She was spotted sitting alongside IOC President Thomas Bach.

And CNN's Steven Jiang is standing by in Beijing. But first, let's go to CNN sports Coy Wire who is live outside Beijing. Great to see you. So, Coy, Eileen Gu clinched gold for China in dramatic fashion with that epic jump. You have that and of course all of the Olympic highlights. Take it away.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, you got it, Rosemary. You can imagine the pressure this 18-year-old American born star must've been feeling as she has chosen to compete with her mother's homeland China instead of team USA as you mentioned, Rosemary. And making her Olympics debut.

She has said though, that she has a torrid love affair with fear. And with a gold medal hopes on the line it came down to the final jump. She visualized you can see her going through the motions and then she took that full leap of faith. She landed at 1620. That's four and a half full rotations. She grabbed her ski part way through and she became just the second one to ever pull that off in competition.

The other time happened at these games as well. Winning gold for China, she said afterwards that even if she didn't land that she was going to hopefully send a message and hopefully encourage more girls to break their own boundaries.

Now let's go to alpine skiing. Men Super-G Matthias Mayer of Austria. Trying to make magic happen. He won gold on this event four years ago, Rosemary, in Pyeongchang. And now by the smallest of margins he does it again but just for 100th of a second. That's less than half of the time of a blink of an eye.

Back-to-back Olympic golds from Mayer who is now the first male skier ever to win gold at three consecutive Olympic Games. He went downhill back in Sochi. He took bronze in that event here earlier as well. What a legacy though. His dad Helmut Mayer won silver in the Super-G event at the '88 games.

Also, a great legacy in this event, USA's Ryan Cochran-Siegle taking home silver almost 50 years to the day after his mom won slalom gold at the '72 Sapporo Games.

All right, let's go to men's short program and figure skating. Team USA star Nathan Chen was that favorite looking for his first ever individual gold at the Olympic Games. And he has to outperform two- time defending Olympic champ from Japan, Yuzuru Hanyu.

And Chen reminded everyone in the world why he is nicknamed the quad king. With a score of 113.97 Chen set a new world record. The three- time defending world champ taking a commanding lead ahead of the long program on his quest to win that coveted individual Olympic gold.

Finally, Jakara Anthony she's Australia's six ever winter Olympics gold medalist. Her freestyle moguls win it ended a 12-year drought for the Aussies at the top of the winter games medal stand.

[03:10:05]

I met up with her and I asked her any superstitions that might have helped her pull off these feet? At first, she denied it but then this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKARA ANTHONY, WON AUSTRALIA'S FIRST WINTER GOLD AFTER 2010: I always put my left sock on first.

WIRE: That's a superstition?

ANTHONY: It has turned into one, yes.

WIRE: Because clearly you put the left sock before your race so you would not have won a gold medal.

ANTHONY: Yes, exactly. There you go. It's a superstition now.

WIRE: Where are you going to store this? Where are you going to keep it?

ANTHONY: I don't think it's coming off my neck for a little while to be honest. And then I hear most people keep it in their sock drawers.

WIRE: What? You keep it in your left sock in your sock drawer.

ANTHONY: Exactly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE (on cameras): Jakara just lit everyone up here. She hadn't slept really at all. She said now she gets to fly home today back home to see her family. What a celebration it's going to be.

CHURCH: Well, that is fantastic for her. Really great. Good wrap there. Thanks so much, Coy.

And Steven, what's been the reaction in China to American born Eileen Gu winning gold for the host nation?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Rosemary, the reaction has been nothing short of extraordinary. Within seconds of her winning her name became a top trending topic on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform. Temporarily crashing the servers because too many people were trying to click her name.

The authorities from Beijing where her mom was from immediately sent her a message of congratulations showering her with perfuse praise. But the thing that really sets her apart is actually she is not a product of the state sponsored sports system here. She is refreshingly appealing to the public because of her unique background. Racially mixed fully bilingual and bicultural.

And she has been able to humanize her sport by telling her own stories of talent and hard training and dreams and ambitions. And now of course of triumph with a lot from both country's perspectives. And that's why she is now commanding a very loyal and fast-growing fan base here, not to mention all the endorsements worth millions of dollars.

Now after her victory she was pressed by supporters on several thorny issues including her rumored dual citizenship to which she only said that she is not trying to take advantage of either country but is only trying to use sport as a force for unity.

And she was also asked about if she shares the international communities concern for the well-being of Peng Shuai, who as you mentioned was on the stand watching her compete to which she said simply that she was just really grateful that Peng was happy and healthy and out there doing her own things.

Now as you know Peng gave a rare interview on Sunday denying that she had ever made allegations of sexual assault against a former Chinese leader saying the whole thing was a huge misunderstanding. That obviously seemed unconvincing to a lot of people around the world including Steve Simon, the head of the Women's Tennis Association.

In the latest statement Steve Simon said that interview does not alleviate any of WTA's concerns about Peng and again calling for an independent investigation into her initial claims. Rosemary?

CHURCH: All right, Steven Jiang, Coy Wire, many thanks to you both. I appreciate it.

And we will have much more Olympic coverage live from Beijing. Coming up, on a special edition of world sport that starts in 30 minutes from now.

And still to come, anxiety and frustration across Canada as thousands of truckers protest COVID-19 mandates. Some residents say they feel like they are being held hostage by the demonstrators.

And later, fearing displacement in the Negev Desert. We will hear from Bedouins who believe the government wants them to leave their land even though they have Israeli citizenship. The details in a live report just ahead.

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CHURCH (on camera): The ongoing protest by truck drivers in Canada's capital now well into their second week have pushed the city to its breaking point according to the police chief. And now authorities are taking new measures to try to end the demonstrations, reportedly seizing thousands of liters of fuel from the truckers. And a judge granted a temporary ban on the horn honking that has irritated residence.

For days so-called freedom convoy has disrupted traffic and people's daily lives. And they've clogged up major border crossings like this on going into the United States.

And CNN's Paula Newton is in Ottawa with the latest developments.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The truckers protest here in Canada continues. It is now well into its second week with residents in this city in Ottawa, the capital, saying they are incredibly frustrated with the fact that police have still not been able to really ease the gridlock that has ripped the downtown (Inaudible).

To remind you, this is the truckers protests that started as a protest against vaccine mandates. But it has now expanded to include mask mandates. Any kind of COVID-19 measures. They have been joined by other Canadians that say that they are fed up and frustrated with this pandemic.

Now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who he himself has been an isolation for 10 days after contracting COVID showed up after isolation into parliament on Monday evening during an emergency debate. Now I want you to listen to what he said to the protesters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA: Individuals are trying to blockade our economy, our democracy, and our fellow citizens' daily lives. It has to stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON (on camera): The question is how do you do that? Even the police chief here in Ottawa says he doesn't have an answer, that he needs reinforcements. That they are doing what they can to make sure that this doesn't lead to a confrontation or violence. But this takes time. And right now, there doesn't seem to be anyone negotiating with these protesters really.

This will continue in the days to come. The protesters say they've got food, drink, fuel for months, and with the prime minister saying but he really has no intention of giving in. Canadians fear the stalemate will continue for some time.

Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.

CHURCH: There was a somber moment in Washington as the U.S. honored more than 900 000 American lives lost to the COVID pandemic.

The Washington National Cathedral tolled its funeral bell 900 times on Monday in memory of the dead. Members of Congress also gathered outside of the U.S. Capitol building for a moment of silence.

COVID cases have dropped significantly across the country over the past few weeks. There are now just a third of the peak we saw three weeks ago. But more people are dying each day from Omicron than during the Delta wave last year.

Israeli government ministers are backing calls for an independent commission of inquiry into the police after a new report claims they used Pegasus hacking software against a wide range of public figures. The report from the businesses news web site Calculus that adds to the growing anger over the alleged use of the software.

The latest reporting suggests Israeli police targeted dozens of citizens under no suspicion of any wrongdoing. It alleged police hacked their phones fishing for intelligence without warrants and before any kind of investigation had been opened. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet says if true, the claims are very serious.

[03:20:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAFTALI BENNETT, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The reports allegedly describe a very grave situation that is unacceptable in a democratic state. These cyber tools were designed to fight terrorism and serious crime. Not to be used against citizens. We will see to a transparent, in-depth, and quick inquiry, because all of us, citizens of the state of Israel, government ministers and all establishments deserve answers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (on camera): Israel's public security minister who has overall responsibility for the police is asking the cabinet to approve a government inquiry into the use of the software following the latest allegations.

In southern Israel the Bedouin community have called the Negev Desert home for generations. And they've remained resilient in their fight to retain their land. Just weeks after protests erupted over an Israeli program they believe was an attempt to displace them.

CNN's Hadas Gold is following developments and joins us now from Jerusalem. So, Hadas what is the latest on this conflict over land rights for the Bedouin community?

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, this story is such an interesting microcosm of so many important issues facing the world. But also, Israeli society. Everything from climate change and planting trees to also the politics and the very fragile coalition in Israel. And it goes to show that although conflicts over land rights are nothing new, unlike the Palestinians these Bedouins have Israeli citizenship and they go to show how having a vote can make a big difference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOLD (voice over): This is the Bedouin village of Sawaneen. Mostly unpaved roads. No street signs. Off the grid. A consequence of what Israeli authorities say are unrecognized neighborhoods. One of several dozen in the Negev Desert of southern Israel. In the eyes of the government some of these homes were built illegally.

Last month, a long running program to plant trees across Israel ran headfirst into this village and turned fiercely political. They were met with protests. Some of which turning violent.

"Partly overland," Ali Atrash says it belongs to his family for generations. But acres of which the Israeli say is public land.

ALI ATRASH, SAAWA RESIDENT (through translator): We live from this land, we plant for our sheep. We have olive trees from which we sell olives and oil.

GOLD: Ali believes the government plan is not actually about the environment or the trees. He thinks it's a way to get him and his community to move.

ATRASH (through translator): They want to give us a cage of 300 meters that they can block us inside. We have big families. Each man is married to more than one woman and have an average of five to ten children. So we can't live in a cage.

GOLD: If he could, Ali said he would lead a nomadic life like his ancestors. But that is impossible in modern society which looms over them in the nearby city of Be'er Sheva. Inside the village, sister-in- law Isza Nadya Atrash (Ph) who declined to show their faces because of cultural norms, say every day they fear police coming to demolish their homes. Many built without permits they say are difficult to obtain.

On the day we visited a group of cars of people are known to the villagers gathered on a nearby hilltop. Regardless of who they were their very presence alarms the villagers.

UNKNOWN (through translator): Our lives are full of fear. We never feel secure. Our children are traumatized. They all suffer from fear and anxiety.

GOLD: In Israel, conflict over land rights is nothing new. But unlike most Palestinians to whom many here feel aligned these Bedouins have Israeli citizenship and they vote.

UNKNOWN (through translator): We want to be recognized like any other citizen in the state.

GOLD: The man who largely represents him in the Israeli parliament is Mansour Abbas. He broke a decades' long taboo last year taking in Arab party into government for the first time. It is now vital in keeping the ruling coalition in power. The party flex its muscles last month boycotting votes over the tree planting so the government took a step back, and said any future work in the region will be negotiated carefully with the locals.

For long time environmentalist Alon Tal, a member of parliament for the centrist Blue and White Party it was the right move. But he says ecological projects like this Yatir Forest planted in the 1960s are a benefit to everybody.

ALON TAL, MEMBER, ISRAELI KNESSET: I think that all Israeli citizens especially the Bedouins have a right to preserve the open spaces and have those lands as parks for the future and not if you families control overland in what is often a lawless kind of way.

[03:24:57]

GOLD: Those open spaces can be magnets for environmental damage caused by waste dumping and illegal landfills according to the Israeli land authority. It's a tree planting boost conservation and serves to counter squatting and illegal construction. For Alon Tal, the bigger issue is one of progress.

TAL: As these Bedouin citizens become more modernized, they are moving into communities and cities and towns and we need to provide with an educational opportunity and give them the land resources they need so they can have thriving communities and become part of the Israeli mainstream.

GOLD: But many in the village don't want to change their ways and just want to be left alone.

UNKNOWN (through translator): Our land is our dignity. No human being can live without dignity. We prefer to die than leaving it.

GOLD: For now, the planting has stopped. But for these residents their fight continues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLD (on camera): And Rosemary, so fascinating to see how all of these different threads coming together showing how so much of this world now is so interconnected. And importantly, for politics there is also showing the power of Mansour Abbas' leader of the Arab-Israeli Party. The first Arab-Israeli Party in government flexing his muscle. Pretty much causing the coalition power to come to a stop until these negotiations are underway.

Now we are waiting to see what these negotiations will bring. But for many of these villages what they want is pretty much simple. They just want infrastructure. They just want some roads and some electricity to come to their towns. And mostly to stay on their land. Rosemary?

CHURCH: All right, Hadas Gold joining us there from Jerusalem, many thanks.

World leaders are grieving with the family of a five-year-old Moroccan boy who died after being trapped in a well for four days. Funeral services were held on Monday with hundreds looking to pay their respects after watching rescue efforts. Rayan Oran was pulled to safety on Saturday and rushed to the hospital prior to his death.

Morocco's King Mohammed called the boys' family to share his condolences. The French president, Israeli prime minister, and ruler of Dubai have all publicly mourned the family's loss.

Well, after a lengthy meeting in Moscow France's president heads to Ukraine in an effort to avert a Russian invasion. A closer look at his shuttle diplomacy. That's ahead.

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CHURCH: In just a few hours president -- French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with Ukraine's president in the next phase of his shuttle diplomacy. After more than five hours of talks in Moscow Mr. Macron said he was able to find points of convergence with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

[03:30:01]

Mr. Putin described the talks as substantive and he didn't rule out further diplomacy. Meantime, the U.S. president and Germany's chancellor met at the White House presenting a united front.

But President Biden said if Russia invades there will be no Nord Stream Two gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. Olaf Scholz has refused to commit to canceling the pipeline. The E.U.'s foreign policy chief is holding out hope for a diplomatic resolution to the standoff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEP BORREL, E.U. HIGH REPRESENTATIVE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Certainly we are leaving to my understanding the most dangerous moment for the security in Europe after the end of the cold war. But at the same time we believe that there is still room for diplomacy. There is still room for discussing, for knowing which other concerns of everybody. All sorts of Russian concerns. We know that to avoid the worst.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: So let's turn now to CNN's European affairs commentator, Dominic Thomas in Los Angeles. Thank you so much for joining us.

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR (on camera): Thank you very much, Rosemary.

CHURCH: And Dominic, President Biden warned Vladimir Putin that invading Ukraine will be a gigantic mistake and result in swift and severe consequences including the shutting down of the Nord Stream Two pipeline to Germany. But Germany's chancellor failed to offer the same assurance. How big of a problem is Germany's reliance on Russian gas while efforts are underway to find a diplomatic solution and to offer deterrence to avert war?

THOMAS: Yeah. You are pointing to a kind of dilemma that the Germans find themselves in. Let's not forget that Chancellor Scholz heads a brand-new government that is made up of a coalition of three parties of which one of the major partners are the greens. And that his foreign minister is the foreign leader of that particular party.

There is an unwavering commitment in Germany today to renewable energy. But that is a long term strategy. And in the short term, you're absolutely right, there is a dependence on fossil fuels. And that creates a kind of vulnerability in these negotiations. Because in order for Scholz and his government to achieve those long term objectives of renewing Germany's energies, they need a stable economy and they need to kind of economic growth and they need as they are now to be answerable to that constituents that are expecting that.

So to that extent, President Biden unambiguous statements about the consequences of an invasion in some ways, although we can understand pressure that he wants to apply on Vladimir Putin does put Scholz under a very particular kind of pressure.

And I think it reveals a certain level of a kind of fracture in this united coalition front that they are aiming to present. And potentially weakens their argument on that position vis-a-vis President Putin.

CHURCH: Yeah. And of course, those fractures are exactly what Putin is looking for aren't they? Diplomacy though still appears to be the preferred path by all parties. But after more than five hours of talks between President Putin and French President Macron, Putin said further steps are possible on the diplomatic front.

While at the same time setting or appearing to set a condition that progress would depend on how Macron's meeting with Ukraine's president goes in the coming hours. Putin said after that meeting he will talk again with Macron.

What does that all of this signal to you in terms of where these diplomatic talks are going? And the optics of Putin controlling that news conference and apparently the path forward as well.

THOMAS: Yeah. And also affirming Macron as a key leader in this which is precisely what President Macron wants. In many ways, I think, we are seeing a kind of recalibration of what we might call the global political order. We are way beyond Brexit. Chancellor Merkel is no longer at the helm in Germany. And President Trump is no longer in the White House.

And we know under the Trump presidency multilateralism, as G7, E.U. and NATO were undermined or weakened. So we see a kind of coordination. A re-coordination of these allies taking place here. And it is absolutely clear that Emmanuel Macron sees himself as the key person who has an incontrovertible person in these particular negotiations.

So he's investing a lot of political capital into this. He is up for reelection in April and it is also a good strategy from detracting from some of his own domestic problems.

CHURCH: And meantime, CNN has learned that intercepted communications from Russians involved in leading the deployments on Ukraine's border indicate that some Russian officers have doubts about pulling off a full scale invasion.

[03:35:04]

However we know that their reservations will have little if any impact on what Putin eventually decides to do. But how significant is this doubt within his own military ranks?

THOMAS: I think there are a couple of things. I think, first of all it reveals potential fractures on the Russian side, that those -- by no means any kind of unanimity here as to how to go about in proceeding. But I think it also points to some very serious, kind of risk calculations and that President Putin has to make.

I mean, this entire situation I talked about recalibration, the same applies to President Putin. Who in many ways under the Trump presidency was emboldened and freed up a little bit. And he is finding himself being reign in here and trying to sort of find new ways of dealing with Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan.

There is an awful lot of sort of volatility and insecurity. And I think it is quite clear that between President Putin, sort of posturing on the international stage, and foreign policy, and talks of invasion, there is also his very own domestic agenda where there is very little appetite for international conflict and its tremendous fear as to what sanctions and so on could potentially do to the Russian economy.

So at very best from this uncertainty and from this sort of insecurity, we hope that the diplomatic path moving forward will allow for some kind of optic, you know, possibility here of defusing what has become an extraordinarily volatile situation.

CHURCH: Yeah. It is certainly a very delicate moment in history, isn't it? Dominic Thomas, joining us there, always great to get your analysis. I appreciate it.

THOMAS: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: And still to come here on CNN. The world celebrations marking Queen Elizabeth 70th year as Britain's monarch.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: That 41 gun salute near Buckingham Palace officially marks the start of Queen Elizabeth II's platinum jubilee year. There will be months of celebrations. She is the first British monarch to celebrate 70 years on the throne. She marked the occasion by noting the extraordinary progress she has seen in her seven decades as queen. The 95-year-old says she is confident that the future will offer similar opportunities in the U.K. and throughout the commonwealth.

And last hour, I spoke with royal expert, Sandro Monetti about the queen's life and legacy, and major highlights of her time on the throne. Here's part of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDRO MONETTI, EDITOR IN CHIEF, HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL FILMMAKER MAGAZINE: It has been a momentous reign. From all of it, I probably pick out three as the most significant events. Starting with her coronation in 1953. The first one ever to be televised. And what a turnout. Three million people lined the route to welcome their new queen.

[03:40:12] Then significantly in 1965 she made a royal visit to Berlin. It was 20

years since the end of World War II and that visit really symbolized the settling of relationship, more of a friendship between the nations. Just really showing what a great states woman she was there.

And who can forget 1997, after the death of Princess Diana and in the days and weeks that follows, there was real debate whether the royal family would even continue where the queen stoic stiff upper lip reaction to the loss of the queen of hearts herself, Diana, was seen as not emotional enough by some of her subjects. But now 25 years on, as she celebrates her 70 years on the throne. She is as much loved as she's ever been.

CHURCH (voice over): Yeah, and you mentioned that, because Queen Elizabeth merely overshadowed her own celebration with her announcement that Prince Charles' wife would one day be referred to as Queen Consort. News that was greeted with mixed reaction. How risky is an announcement like that given Camilla's controversial history with the late Princess Diana?

MONETTI: I think she has done a huge favor to Prince Charles and to Camilla. Because if King Charles III had decided to anoint Camilla as queen, there might had been a lot of unhappiness among the subjects. But the fact that the queen said it is OK and even used her jubilee announcement to make that press release really has -- really laid a path for the future stability of the monarchy.

CHURCH: And Queen Elizabeth marked her platinum jubilee by noting the extraordinary progress she has witnessed in her 70 years on the throne and her confidence in the future. And for the first time we are now seeing her prepare a path for Prince Charles with that announcement about Camilla. Is there a sense, she is slowing down and stepping back a little here?

MONETTI: When we look at these pictures, it is a reflective time. But we see the 95-year-old queen looking as frail as she has in sometime. And we think that even she as magnificent as she is cannot go on forever.

And yes there has been an announcement of lots of events coming up in the jubilee year but no one announcement of which of these events the queen will actually attend herself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (on camera): And our thanks to Sandro Monetti, talking to me earlier there.

Well, Ireland is rolling out the green carpet, the country's St. Patrick's Day parade is returning to the streets of Dublin, (inaudible) 17th. The event was canceled for the last two years because of the pandemic. But Ireland has now lifted most of its COVID- 19 restrictions in 2018 about 450,000 people attended the national parade.

And thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church have yourselves a wonderful day. "World Sport" with Patrick Snell is up next. You are watching CNN.

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