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Yellen: Russia's Economy Will Be "Devastated" By Sanctions; U.K. Sanctions Seven Russian Oligarchs Including Chelsea Owner Roman Abramovich; How Chinese Media Is Amplifying Russia's Version Of The War In Ukraine; CIA Director: China's President "Unsettled" By Russian Invasion Of Ukraine; "Black Panther" Director Mistaken For A Bank Robber, Detained By Police. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired March 10, 2022 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:33:47]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: As the attacks against Ukraine continue, the U.S. and its allies are considering more sanctions against Russia.
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JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: The atrocities that they're committing against civilians seem to be intensifying. So it's certainly appropriate for us to be working with our allies to consider further sanctions.
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COOPER: The Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, did not specify what those additional sanctions might be. She did say that the sanctions already in place have caused significant damage to the Russian economy.
In the United Kingdom, more than half a dozen high-profile Russian oligarchs have been sanctioned so far. One of them is billionaire, Roman Abramovich. He's the owner of Britain's famed Chelsea Football Club.
He has said that he'll try to sell the team for the best interest of players and fans. But he can't because now his assets have just been frozen.
And that's having a serious ripple effect on how the team can operate day-to-day.
CNN's Nina dos Santos is here with more on the impact.
What can't the football club do?
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN EUROPE EDITOR: Yes, this is a big shock for 117- year-old club that just had its birthday, Anderson.
For the moment, they can carry on with their fixtures, so the game against Norwich kicked off and that will go ahead.
[14:35:03]
But in the future, they can't sell tickets for the next football season. They also can't participate in the transfer window to buy and sell future players.
For the moment, the merchandise shops have already stopped selling goods as well at the at the Stamford Bridge base, their stadium.
The club is also up for sale. Roman Abramovich, amid intense scrutiny over whether or not he would actually get sanctioned, which eventually as we now know he has, put the club up for sale about a week or so ago.
First, he tried to distance himself from it by stepping down from the board, putting it in trust. But then he put it up for sale.
There were 20 interested parties. But that asset sale has been frozen because the government says they need to be sure that he won't personally benefit.
Of course, this is somebody who they have decided to sanction, they say, because of his proximity to Vladimir Putin.
He doesn't just own Chelsea, by the way. He owns hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of real estate across various parts of the world, hundreds of millions of dollars of yachts, and he owns a big steel company, too -- Anderson?
COOPER: For the club, what does it mean for their future?
DOS SANTOS: It's a very uncertain future at the moment.
As I was saying before, they can potentially apply for a new license if they can show that Roman Abramovich will not benefit from any of the takings or, indeed, from the sale.
For the moment, Chelsea appear to be indicating that once they've got through this game that they're playing at the moment, the management is likely to try and take this up with the government.
You've got to remember that Roman Abramovich is somebody who is quite keen at defending themselves in court.
It may be that it will be worth a few tens of millions of pounds worth of lawsuits to get the U.K. government to reverse their decision.
For the moment, fans very disappointed, though, Anderson, saying they believe this is harsh and will be bad for football and soccer -- Anderson?
COOPER: Nina dos Santos, appreciate it.
Victor and Alisyn, of course, one of the many unexpected ripple effects of the war in Ukraine. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Yes, I mean, the cost of war on everything,
from obviously lives, as we've seen, to sports. And we see more and more every day.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Anderson, thank you.
So, China claims to have a neutral position on the war in Ukraine. But media coverage within the country is actively spreading Putin's propaganda. We have the larger significance of that next.
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[14:42:96]
BLACKWELL: The Chinese officials have tried to claim a neutral position in the war in Ukraine, but Chinese media coverage is clearly taking a side.
A CNN analysis found that China's 1.4 billion people are met with an overwhelming amount of Russian state media stories there when they turn to state-run television and social media sites.
CAMEROTA: China has yet to even call Russia's attack on Ukraine an invasion. But this week, President Xi Jinping said Beijing is willing to mediate the war in a push for peace.
Joining us now is Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group and author of the upcoming book, "The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats and Our Response Will Change the World."
Ian, great to see you.
Let me start by just playing for you how the CIA director this morning assessed President Xi's position on this.
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WILLIAM BURNS, CIA DIRECTOR: The Chinese leadership, first, has invested a lot in partnership with Russia, and I don't expect that to change any time soon.
I do, however, believe that the Chinese leadership, President Xi, in particular, is unsettled by what he is seeing, partly because his own intelligence, doesn't appear to have told to him what was going to happen.
Second, because of the reputational damage that China suffers by association with the ugliness of Russia's aggression in Ukraine.
Third, by the economic consequences.
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CAMEROTA: So, Ian, what do you think? And also, can President Xi be an effective mediator here?
IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP & AUTHOR: Well, first of all, Xi's probably not as unsettled as Putin is by the intelligence on how this is going so far.
To be clear, there's no question that the Chinese president does not want a new Cold War where the Chinese are seen as part of the Russian side. They don't want to be cut off from European and American investment the way the Russians have been and will remain.
But there's no question that President Xi has made his geopolitical bed on this. He is aligned with Putin. He shall remain aligned with Putin.
He doesn't consider this to be an invasion. He is blaming the West for the sanctions. He wants a negotiated settlement.
But he is absolutely -- and you see it from the media. You see it from Chinese media that's embedded with Russian soldiers on the ground in Ukraine.
I mean, it's very clear that if you're a Chinese citizen, you believe that this is Ukraine's fault, and that Putin is not to be blamed.
Now, can you get negotiated settlement? Well, I do believe that China wants to be involved and wants to insert itself in negotiations between the Russians and the Ukrainians going forward.
They see that as a useful position. The fact that they're on one side doesn't stop them from being able to play that role.
[14:45:00]
I mean, the Americans are -- by far, the closest ally of the U.S. in the region, in the Middle East, is Israel -- hasn't stopped the Americans from being honest brokers, as it were, between the Israelis and the Palestinians. You can still facilitate negotiations.
But I can't see any of this happening until Putin's comfortable with it. And Putin's not going to be comfortable with it until he's taken Kyiv, until Zelenskyy's gone.
So this is a little premature at this point.
BLACKWELL: Ian, one more on China here. We just got this.
A top Russian official said today that China has refused to support Russia with aircraft parts as Russia's now looking to source components following some aviation sanctions that have been implemented. Said this on television.
I wonder the strategy behind a Russian official saying that publicly after Putin and Xi signed this 5,000-word statement of a no-limit relationship. There seems to be a bit of daylight here.
BREMMER: Well, the Chinese have never said that they are allies of Russia. They have been careful about that, both during the Beijing Olympics and more recently. So it's not a no-limit relationship.
And you know, I do believe that the Chinese do not want to be seen as breaking American sanctions on Russia insofar as that could lead to those Chinese companies to be it themselves.
Remember that Russia expresses its power internationally largely through their natural resources, stuff they take out of the ground and can sell, and through their military.
The Chinese, it's through their economic and technological integration with the rest of the world.
So, even though the Chinese are angry that they see the United States as trying to contain them in Asia in the same way the Russians feel the Americans and NATO are trying to in Europe, they don't actually think that a Cold War is in their mutual interest.
The Russians think they're already in a Cold War. Chinese don't want that.
And they will be careful in how closely they align economically and how much they're willing to do publicly for the Russians as a consequence of that.
I think the question's a good one.
CAMEROTA: Ian, as you know, the U.S. and NATO have drawn this line in the sand between providing Ukraine with Stinger and Javelin missiles, which they're willing to do, but not provide them with aircraft, fighter jets, basically.
Do we know if Putin draws that same distinction? Is that a line in Putin's head as well?
BREMMER: It's not. But also, I think that there's a misinterpretation on the jets. There was a lot of willingness inside the White House to support providing the Ukrainians with these MIG fighters.
And the reason they came down, ultimately, against, was not because it was seen as too much of an escalation that could lead to World War III, but rather there was an assessment that those MIGs would never fly in Ukrainian territory.
That the Russian government, the Russian military would be able to destroy them. And if you were flying them from a NATO country, that's the equivalent of a no-fly zone.
But you're right that the Russians see all of this as acts of war. They see the economic sanctions as economic war.
They see the willingness to provide the weapons that are being provided as an ability to kill more Russians. And the Russians will respond against NATO countries.
We're going to see cyberattacks from Russia against critical infrastructure of NATO countries. I have no doubt in my mind. And I wouldn't be surprised with much more disinformation attacks.
Maybe even terrorism. The way the Soviets did against the Mujaheddin in Pakistan back when Reagan was actually supporting them to fight against the Soviets who were losing the war at that point.
The Russians and Putin's government sees it exactly the same way.
CAMEROTA: OK. On that unsettling note, Ian Bremmer, thank you. Great to talk to you as always.
[14:48:51]
BLACKWELL: So, the Oscar-nominated director of the movie "Black Panther," Ryan Coogler, is now speaking after being mistaken for a bank robber and detained by police. That's next.
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CAMEROTA: This is just into CNN. The House January 6th committee met with former Trump national security adviser, Michael Flynn. this afternoon. This is according to a source familiar with it.
BLACKWELL: Flynn recently lost a court battle that would have blocked the panel's interview attempts and kept key records under wraps.
He threatened to plead the Fifth if he did appear before the committee. No word yet on any details from this interview.
CAMEROTA: So Ryan Coogler is one of America's most-successful filmmakers. He's best known as the director of "Black Panther."
But in January, he was handcuffed at a Bank of America in Atlanta.
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RYAN COOGLER, FILMMAKER: I understand (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I understand (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
I don't know who made what call, who did what, but I had guns drawn.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Police detained Coogler after a teller mistook him for a bank robber.
CNN's Chloe Melas is with us.
What happened?
CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Yes, such an unfortunate story. And Ryan Coogler and Bank of America have spoken out.
In early January, Ryan Coogler goes to a Bank of America bank down in Atlanta and he goes to withdraw a little over $10,000 in cash. [14:54:59]
He wrote a note on the back of the withdrawal slip along with his Bank of America card and his California state I.D., saying that I would like this money to be counted discreetly because it's a lot of money.
But this kind of tipped off and raised the red flags of the bank teller who then alerted her superior and then the police were called.
So Ryan Coogler, his friends who were outside in their cars, they were all detained.
Coogler was put in handcuffs, but they quickly realized who he was, that there was no crime being committed. They apologized and they let him go.
This is what Ryan Coogler says. He says, "The situation never should have happened. However, Bank of America worked with me and addressed it to my satisfaction, and we have moved on."
Bank of America telling CNN, "We deeply regret this incident occurred. It never should have happened. And we have apologized to Mr. Coogler."
He was in Georgia at the time of this incident working on production of "Black Panther," the sequel to his 2018 blockbuster.
But, again, it's just a terrible situation. And so many people are outraged by this.
And, yes, OK, maybe the teller didn't recognize who he is, although he's one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood because he had a mask on because of the pandemic.
A terrible situation but it looks like, for now, Ryan Coogler wants to move on.
BLACKWELL: You shouldn't have to be somebody, right, for this not to happen.
MELAS: Right.
BLACKWELL: All right, Chloe Melas, thank you.
MELAS: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: The brutality of Putin's war is now on full display. There are so many victims. In Mariupol alone. So residents are having to dig trenches for mass graves for their neighbors and loved ones. We're live in Ukraine ahead.
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