Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Russian Skater Competes After Failed Drug Test; Russian Invasion Threat. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired February 15, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:35]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Alisyn Camerota. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell. It's good to be with you.

We are beginning with an apparent cyberattack on Ukraine's Defense Ministry Web site and the country's largest commercial banks. Now, at the moment, they are coming back online, but it's unclear who's responsible for these attacks.

Now, this comes as Russia is sending conflicting signals of a possible invasion of Ukraine. Now, Russia said today it's pulling back some troops from the Ukraine border. And, at a press conference, President Vladimir Putin said that he does not want war.

CAMEROTA: NATO's secretary-general says there are no signs of Russian de-escalation on the ground, despite the Kremlin's claims. New satellite images show dozens of Russian helicopters positioned in the past few days at a previously unused air base in Crimea.

And CNN has learned that some Russian units have moved into combat positions.

President Biden will address the growing crisis next hour.

Let's bring in CNN's Erin Burnett. She is live for us in Lviv, Ukraine. That's west of the capital.

So, Erin, let's start with this apparent cyberattack that hit the Web site of Ukraine's Defense Ministry and one of its largest commercial banks on Tuesday. Do we have any idea who was behind it.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Right.

So here's what we know right now. We know that it sort of appears to be there was an attack and it came back online, went back offline now, as Victor said, preparing to come back online. But for two of the banks in this country, including the largest bank, as well as the Ministry of Defense, and the Web site of the armed forces.

So, Ministry of Defense, armed forces, you can read into that what you will. Ukrainian government is not yet technically pointing the finger, although there were attacks of a similar style in January that the Ukrainian government did say came from both Belarus and from Russia.

Basically, these attacks are just a powerful denial of service, right, where someone just floods the Web sites with so many requests that they crash. They're not incredibly sophisticated attacks. But they do say that it was a powerful attack of that style.

And, as you both know, everyone has said, right, a cyberattack would be a precursor to a war. Again, this sort of an attack did happen about a month ago. So, obviously, that is not what you would necessarily read into this at this point. But given the tensions, given 100,000 troops on the border, anything like this happens, and all eyes are on what Putin is trying to do, and it continues to be destabilizing.

BLACKWELL: Yes, especially considering what we're hearing from a source, Erin, that tells CNN that a Russian attack on Ukraine this week is more likely than not.

Now, President Zelensky has, as you know, urged calm there. How concerned are they behind the scenes?

BURNETT: So there's this continued juxtaposition that you both know, where there's sort of a calm life going on, and fatigue and some stress and exhaustion underneath the surface.

So it's like you see these two paths in individual people. Today, I went to a shooting range with a group of men in their 30s and 40s. These are people who are shooting enthusiasts, right? So they do this anyway. But they have been ramping up their training in recent weeks. And they are prepared. They say that Putin doesn't know what he would be running into, that they are prepared for street fighting.

Now, they don't see -- they don't believe that it's going to come to that. But they are prepared for that. And so you have them doing that in the morning. And where we are, a lot of people work in information technology. So a lot of their clients and companies they work for in America, say they get up in the morning, they're going to the shooting club, they're practicing, they're preparing for any kind of street tactical warfare, and then they're going to work.

And that is the juxtaposition that we're talking about and that we're seeing on the ground. So, it is real. But there is also a belief that a lot of people believe he won't actually invade.

CAMEROTA: It's so fascinating to have you there on the ground to bring us that perspective.

So, Russia, as you know, announced that some of its troops would return to their home bases after completing these recent drills. Of course, there's skepticism about that claim. So do we know the truth? What's Ukraine saying?

BURNETT: Well, I mean, as you point out, knowing the truth is so difficult.

But Putin has always kept the door open, as you both know, saying, well, I'm going to remove some troops when they're done their regular drills, the exercises that they're doing, sort of giving him the opportunity to pull back troops without doing it because of international pressure or because he's giving in.

That's the way he's tried to position it. So, now they're saying that there have been some troops in the south and the west as part of Russian military exercises that they are pulling back. That's what they're saying. They're saying that they're trucks and tanks and they're going back to their regular bases.

[14:05:06]

But they're not saying, guys, exactly where they're leaving from. They're not exactly saying what bases they're going to. And, as you point out, both the foreign minister -- defense minister here in Ukraine, the secretary-general of NATO has seen absolutely no evidence of any de-escalation at all, in fact, as Victor shows those satellite images, perhaps the contrary.

So, again, it's two very different stories as we await President Biden's address.

CAMEROTA: OK, Erin Burnett, again, great to have you there. Thank you for all the insight. And we will check back with you.

Meanwhile, President Biden will address the crisis in Ukraine with a speech to the nation in the next hour.

So let's bring in CNN's Kaitlan Collins. She's at the White House for us. We also have CNN's Nic Robertson. He's in Moscow.

So, Kaitlan, what do we think the president plans to say?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the White House says it's not going to be some major update, no new policy change, but basically a status update from the president on where he sees things and where he thinks they stand.

Of course, as Erin was noting, there's been some confusion today and a healthy amount of skepticism over whether or not Russia is being accurate and telling the truth here when they talk about pulling back some of these troops and sending them back to where they came from.

And so Jen Psaki, the press secretary, did confirm that President Biden is going to speak at about 3:30 this afternoon. She says that it will not be -- it will just be an update on events related to Ukraine, not new policy. She says he will speak about the situation the ground, the steps the U.S. has taken, the actions the U.S. is prepared to take, and what's at stake, of course, not just for the globe, but also here at home.

And so this is going to be one of the first times we have heard from President Biden in a few days since a lot has happened. Of course, we have seen, as the Pentagon has said, Russia in recent days had only continued to build up their forces and also strengthen their capability, move forces around.

But, also, the president has had a series of phone calls with world leaders, starting on Saturday with Putin and with President Zelensky of Ukraine. And then he spoke to the British prime minister yesterday. He spoke to the French president today.

So there's a lot there for the president to update the world on, update the United States on, on what he believes is essentially the status of this situation, because, just yesterday, we had been hearing from sources that they believed that attack was more likely than not and, if one did happen, it would more likely be significant than insignificant.

And so whether or not that is still the case, or if they have seen evidence of de-escalating here on Russia's behalf, those are the big questions for President Biden when he speaks in just a few moments.

BLACKWELL: And, Nic, now to you in Moscow.

What should we make of these comments today from President Putin that he prefers diplomacy and these claims that they're moving troops away from the Ukraine border?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, I think when we speak about the troops, one of the other things that the army said today here was that they still have the massive military operations ongoing.

So they're making it very clear, while there's some reduction by those units that have finished their training, there's still a massive amount of operations going on. And we had pushback from the Kremlin spokesman today, saying, look, these are Russian troops on Russian sovereign territory, essentially, don't go telling us to de-escalate and stop what we're doing on our own territory. Our territory. Our troops. We have a sovereign right to do that.

So that's a little bit of context around the troops. I think it's quite interesting what President Putin has said today and the way he has positioned himself on what he sees as this track of diplomacy. And he said, look, while there are some issues that have had this response from the United States and from NATO, that we can have a discussion around the issues of perhaps missile controls, of troop deployments, we can come to some understanding there, that's not my big issue.

My big issue, he said, remains Ukraine not being able to become a member of NATO and NATO going back to 1997 levels. And he said, look, if we're going to continue with these negotiations, it is going to be on those issues. I'm happy to talk, he said, about those other smaller issues. But if we discuss, it's going to be on those main central issues. And he knows that the answer on that has already been no. So we're really, in a way, with President Putin circling back to a position he was articulating or his officials were articulating four weeks ago. It doesn't take us a whole lot further forward, other than they're saying, we're ready to talk a bit.

BLACKWELL: All right, we will get into that now.

Nic Robertson, Kaitlan Collins, thank you both.

Let's get into it with Evelyn Farkas, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense of Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, and Colonel Cedric Leighton, a CNN military analyst and retired Air Force colonel.

Welcome to you both.

Evelyn, let me start with you. And I want to start with this cyberattack, this apparent cyberattack of the Defense Ministry, one of the largest banks in Ukraine. It's apparently flooded -- the style that floods a Web site with phony traffic to disrupt access to it, called the distributed denial of service.

Is this style of attack that one would expect from Russia or Russian entities as a precursor to some type of invasion?

[14:10:06]

EVELYN FARKAS, FORMER DEFENSE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Yes, Victor, this is exactly the style of attack that Russia would take.

They probably wouldn't stop here. I mean, what they want to do is, this is kind of a warning shot. After this, if they are going to launch some kind of attack, they will try to disrupt communications among different components of the Ukrainian government, and certainly among military units.

I certainly hope that our government is responding in kind. I mean, we should be launching, frankly, these denial of operation cyberattacks against the Russian banks in a proportionate fashion, hitting back at them. I'm pretty sure that, by now, we have attributed the attacks to them. And we can do that to help out our Ukrainian partners.

CAMEROTA: And so, Colonel, what do you think? If that's the opening salvo that we just saw in terms of these cyberattacks from Russia, is that what the U.S. is doing? Is it time for the economic sanctions to start being leveled that we have heard so many threats about?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Alisyn, I think we have to be a little bit careful here.

Of course, it's most likely that this attack came from Russia or from Belarus or their proxies. And there are plenty of those in the cyber world. I think that what you're looking at is the possibility of this being a precursor like you...

CAMEROTA: Yes. BLACKWELL: All right. Of course, we need to fix that technical issue

with the colonel.

Evelyn, let's come back to you.

You wrote something in your latest "New York Times" piece that really gets to what Alisyn was discussing with the colonel

You wrote that: "To stop Putin, we must learn the lessons of Crimea, stand up to Russian aggression. The cost of failing to do that would be catastrophic. Don't wait until he invades further to do something now. Isolate Putin now."

What should that look like?

FARKAS: Yes, I mean, so, first of all, the reason I said that is because here's this leader who has got all of us worked up because he's put a gun not just to the head of the Ukrainian government, but, frankly, to the international order.

And if he moves away -- I mean, what we would like, of course, is for him to de-escalate, and not to launch another attack against Ukraine. But even if he moves away, we can't let him get away with this, not to mention, of course, the fact that he continues to occupy 20 percent of the territory of another neighboring country, the Republic of Georgia, and he's still sitting in Crimea, claiming, illegally, that it belongs to Russia.

And there's this other war that's ongoing in another part of Ukraine, so we can't let Russia get away with this. Frankly, what I wrote in that piece is that Russia is a rogue state, like Iran, like North Korea. And it's high time that the entire global community started treating Russia that way, not as like something to be dealt with, have a crisis and then move on as soon as it seems to be off the front pages or kind of died down.

We need to have a sustained effort, so that the Russian government stops with its aggressive foreign policy.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Colonel Leighton, before we lost you, I think you were sort of urging caution, because we don't know yet who was behind the cyberattack.

So, what -- how does the U.S., how does Ukraine, how does NATO respond now that there has been this cyberattack?

LEIGHTON: Well, I think, if we attribute it to the Russians, then we can certainly respond to it.

And I think Evelyn is right in this part, where what you have to do is, you have to fight fire with fire, in essence, but be proportional about it and, of course, have a sustained strategy that goes after the Russians, because, like Evelyn has said, they are used to behaving badly.

And when these things happen, you want to be right about them. But we do know that, when it comes to bad actors in the world today, Russia certainly tops the list in many categories. And I think we can definitely have a strategy that allows us to go in that direction and minimizes the kinds of things we're seeing now with Ukraine.

BLACKWELL: Colonel, let me stay with you.

What's the significance, considering 130,000-plus Russian troops on the border of Ukraine, of relocating some of them? Do you see that as any indication of de-escalation, or is this what would be expected when you have so many deployed?

LEIGHTON: Victor, I think it's a feint. At least, there's the possibility that it's a feint.

And what I mean by that is, they're moving them into locations that are close enough to the border that they can turn them around if they need to use them again or feel they need to use them again. So that -- the way that you're doing this is calculated bits of news that tell us, OK, oh, they're beginning to cooperate, there are some things that are happening that may make this crisis go away.

[14:15:06]

But the fact of the matter is, the crisis is not going away, because the bulk of the troops is still sitting on the Ukrainian border.

CAMEROTA: OK, Evelyn Farkas, Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you both.

LEIGHTON: You bet.

BLACKWELL: The Russian teen skater accused of doping was back on the Olympic ice and is now on top after the first round. She's reportedly blaming this controversy on a mixup with her grandfather's medication. We will explain this.

And Novak Djokovic says he's willing to miss the next two Grand Slam events because of the vaccine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:20:04]

BLACKWELL: The Russian figure skater at the center of an Olympics doping scandal is in first place after the women's short program in Beijing today; 15-year-old Kamila Valieva was shaky by her standards and visibly emotional after finishing her routine.

And IOC official says that the teenager blamed her positive drug test on a mixup with her grandfather's heart medication.

CAMEROTA: No matter who wins after Thursday's free skate, there will not be a medal ceremony until a full investigation is completed.

Let's talk about this with six-time Olympic medalist in alpine skiing Bode Miller and CNN contributor Patrick McEnroe. He coached the U.S. men's tennis team at the Olympics in 2004. Patrick, the idea that she tested positive for this heart drug from

maybe sharing a glass of water with her grandfather, which is what her lawyer has, I think, tried to say, insults the intelligence, I think, of everyone listening. How should the IOC respond to this?

PATRICK MCENROE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, we keep -- we hear these stories, Alisyn, it just is never-ending, I mean, the stories that athletes come up with from all different sports over the years about how they tested positive.

Now, of course, it's so hard to attack a 15-year-old. None of us should do that. We're not doing that. But, clearly, the people around her need to be held accountable. The IOC for many years has not taken full responsibility for things like this, pushing it to WADA or to the CAS.

And it's time for them to step up and do something. And what they did do, in not having the athletes be able to accept their medals during these Olympic Games, was just horrendous. And it's just terrible. You heard from some of the athletes, Mariah Bell, one of the American figure skaters who came in 11th place after the short program, saying she's been clean, she's 25 years old. She's been doing it the right way.

And I think for the athletes that have been doing it the right way, this is like a punch in the gut.

BLACKWELL: Now, Valieva, Bode, is skating under the Russian Olympic Committee because of a campaign of doping in Russia.

There's an IOC official who says he doesn't believe that this is part of that campaign. But I want you to listen to what Dick Pound, a member of the IOC, says should be next potentially for Russian athletes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD POUND, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Maybe it's time for a time-out for Russia in the Olympics. You simply say, sorry, you will not be invited to the next Games. You will not be able to host any Olympic sport events and so forth.

That will get their attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: You agree with that?

BODE MILLER, FORMER U.S. OLYMPIC ATHLETE: Well, I mean, yes, I think that's what -- at least from the public perception, that's what should have and did happen after 2014 in Sochi.

But I think, at least from my side, when I saw the ROC march into the stadium for Opening Ceremonies, and Vladimir Putin stood up and applauded them, to me, that was Russia competing in the Olympics. And I think that the main problem is that, as you said, accountability is not uniform across the system.

Athletes, when they're when they're caught doping, they're sanctioned or there's a penalty, and they serve that. It is what it is. There's a protocol to get there. And I think that's where we're all sort of struggling right now.

And A sample positive test is not a complete test. You have to test the B sample, and everyone's saying, oh, they stalled it. It wasn't stalled. They just didn't fast-track it. And it's part of the process that is probably broken, but it is what it is. In my mind, after Sochi, they should have done what he's threatening to do now. But that's where the IOC has not been equitable across the board.

You wouldn't do that with an athlete. You wouldn't say, yes, you're sanctioned for four Olympics. But if you change your name, it's all good. You can come back and compete. I mean, to me, that's really fundamentally flawed.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

And you know who else thinks it's flawed, Patrick? Sha'Carri Richardson. So, as you know, she has a question for the IOC. Here's what she tweeted: "Can we get a solid answer on the difference of her situation and mine? My mother died, and I can't run, and was also favored to place in the top three. The only difference I see is that I'm a black young lady."

And what she means is that Valieva took a well-known performance- enhancing drug or whatever -- was tested positive, I should say, for a performance-enhancing drug, and she's allowed to compete, whereas Sha'Carri tested positive for the opposite of a performance-enhancing drug, for marijuana, and she wasn't allowed to.

And so what is the answer for that double standard?

MCENROE: Well, there is no answer. And good for her for speaking up -- or for tweeting up, I should say, and putting her feelings out there.

There's no answer to that, other than the one that she gave. So, good for her. As you said, she took a drug that was going to dehance her performance. So she has every right to say that and every right to believe exactly what she believes, the double standards here, the hypocrisy that's here.

[14:25:12]

And the reason that the IOC is continuing to let these things slide is all about money. That's all it's about. And does it have to be that way? Does it have to be just about that? It's a whole issue with China, the human rights violations. Why do they go to China? Why do they allow Russia to continue to compete in the Olympic Games? All about money. That's the bottom line.

Until that ends, or told that is controlled in a manner that is different from what has been the last eight years, it will not change. BLACKWELL: Patrick, let me stick with you for this.

When -- Novak Djokovic, of course, was deported from Australia before the Australian open because he was unvaccinated. And I want you to listen to what he says about his future for the next two Grand Slams.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOVAK DJOKOVIC, PROFESSIONAL TENNIS PLAYER: And I understand that not being vaccinated today, I'm unable to travel to most of the tournaments at the moment. And...

AMOL RAJAN, BBC: And that's a price you're willing to pay?

DJOKOVIC: That is the price that I'm willing to pay.

RAJAN: Ultimately, are you prepared to forego the chance to be the greatest player that ever picked up a racket, statistically, because you feel so strongly about this jab?

DJOKOVIC: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: I mean, how is that response resonating in the sport?

MCENROE: Well, Victor, it's ironic, isn't it, that we're dealing with people putting stuff in their body, and now we're dealing with someone, Novak Djokovic, who doesn't want to put this vaccine into his body?

This, to me, is sad. I mean, in some ways, I admire Djokovic for sticking to his guns, because this is -- his legacy is at stake here, the fact that he didn't play in the Australian open, that he may not play. He's been the dominant player in men's tennis for the last five years. And he had to sit back and watch Rafael Nadal, who's one of the all-time greats as well, who, by the way, is vaccinated, like all the other professional tennis players, win an epic five-set match at the Australian Open to get one major ahead of Novak.

The real question to me Victor is, why? Why is Novak so against taking this particular vaccine? I know he says, hey, I'm an athlete. Well, so is Bode Miller. I was an athlete, not at these guys' levels, back in the day.

Of course, we're -- we pay attention to what we put in our body. But this is a global pandemic.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

MCENROE: What in the world could prevent you from wanting to take this pandemic -- to protect people around you and the world at large?

It's a mystery to me still to this day.

BLACKWELL: A mystery to a lot of people. Patrick McEnroe, Bode Miller, thank you.

CAMEROTA: So, the Trump Organization's longtime accounting firm cut ties with the former president and says they can no longer stand by a decade's worth of financial statements that they prepared, basically.

What this means for the future of the Trump family business next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)