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Some Ukrainian Refugees Returning Home to Help War Effort; Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) Discusses Biden-Xi Jinping's Phone Call Today & Blinken Calling on Congress to Confirm State Department Nominees Who'll Play Role in Ukraine Response; How Vladimir Putin Hides His Fortune With No Paper Trail. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired March 18, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: The number of people fleeing Ukraine is growing every day. The U.N. estimates that there are more than 3.2 million refugees.

Two out three have crossed the border into Poland. And CNN crews are now meeting Ukrainians there who are actually returning to their home country.

CNN's Melissa Bell is at the border of Ukraine and Poland.

Melissa, what are you hearing and seeing there?

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, this is the actual border fence here at the train station of Przemysl station where so many refugees have been pouring into Poland.

It's quieter now because that train has gone back to Lviv. But what we heard earlier on, what we saw earlier was a large line of refugees who were actually heading back.

Of course, we've seen this massive influx over the course of the last few days.

The ones we spoke to and that have headed back to Ukraine were saying, look, we've been watching what's been unfolding in our country. We've been seeing those strikes on Lviv itself over the course of the last few hours and we simply can't stay here.

I'm speaking here not about fighting-aged men but about women and children.

Of course, they represent such a huge proportion of those many millions of refugees pouring across the border because the men have stayed behind to fight.

That gives you an idea of this scale of what is going on here in Poland. More than two million people that have crossed this border in

desperate need of shelter, of food, leaving everything they had behind, carrying often only their small children with them.

And in that scale, amidst those numbers, Pamela, it's really easy to forget the individual tragedies and traumas that they are carrying with them.

[13:35:07]

Have a listen to what one of the refugees had to say when she got off the train from Lviv.

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ALESANDRA OVSIIENKO, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE: It's difficult. And really I don't know what I feel because I have a little baby. I love my family. I had plans, and now I don't have plans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: Two million refugees are now across that border in a country struggling. The UNHCR says Poland is reaching capacity and other countries have to do more to bring these refugees in and give them some shelter.

The problem is, Pamela, that many of them tell us they want to stay close to the border because they believe this is a war that will be won quickly and they just want to go home.

BROWN: Melissa Bell, thank you.

Secretary of State Blinken is calling on Congress to act now to confirm officials who would play a crucial role in the administration's Ukraine response. What is the hold up? We'll ask the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee right after this break.

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BROWN: We are standing by for more details from the White House on today's call between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

It came after the U.S. issued a stern warning for China not to provide aid to Russia.

Joining me now is Democratic Senator Robert Menendez. He's chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Hi, Senator.

First off, what have you learned about this call?

SEN. ROBERT MENENDEZ (D-NJ): Well, I haven't gotten a full read out other than, of course, it was rather extensive call, particularly for someone who is a head of state of a country for which we have a strategic challenge with.

And what I was told yesterday before he had the call, what he intended to say was going to make it very clear in a very firm way that he expects China not to help Russia.

Either get out of the international sanctions that are being levied. And certainly not to support China and be on the wrong side of history in terms of any military assistance to China as it wages an unjustified war against the people of Ukraine

BROWN: Secretary of State Antony Blinken is calling on Senators to quickly affirm State Department nominees who are vital in helping Ukraine battle Russia's onslaught.

Some of these are key positions to help with the refugee crisis going on. And 3.2 million have fled Ukraine. That's the latest numbers.

You say that the delay in confirming these nominees is like helping Putin. So does that mean that you believe the Senators who are blocking these nominations are directly helping Putin?

MENENDEZ: Whether they realize it or not, they certainly are not assisting the Ukrainians. They certainly are not making life more difficult for Putin.

When you have nominees -- for example, the sanctions coordinator for the State Department with one of those nominees that I went to the floor to ask consent to confirm, he passed bipartisan out of the committee.

And don't we want the sanctions coordinator as our strongest weapon against Putin and his economy in this unjust war to be on site working?

Don't you want the assistant secretary of refugees and migration when we've had, as you've pointed out, 3.2 million Ukrainian refugees and probably more to be added to that dynamic?

Don't we want the assistant administrator for Europe, from USAID that could help with the assistance to deal with the migration, the forced migration out of Ukraine?

Don't we want the assistant secretary for nuclear and chemical nonproliferation on the job?

These are all qualified individuals who passed the committee, for the most part, with bipartisan votes, sitting on the Senate floor, being impeded only by Senate Republicans for getting confirmed.

And in doing so, I do believe that, at the end of the day, they are helping Putin, not the Ukrainians. They're not helping Zelenskyy.

Neither are the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against the legislation that gave Ukraine billions of dollars in assistance. BROWN: Some Republican Senators are calling on President Biden to

actually do more to help Ukraine. Some of those Senators voted against the spending bill that included $1.3 million aid for Ukraine.

So how does that square? How do you respond to that?

MENENDEZ: Well, it is the height of hypocrisy.

But worse than that, it's one thing to stand and give a standing ovation to President Zelenskyy and his address, which he certainly deserved.

But what he deserves and the Ukrainian people deserve far more is the full $13.6 billion that was in that bill to help them with assistance as well as humanitarian assistance.

[13:45:00]

What he needs is having those assistant secretaries of state that can push against Russia and its allies in terms of chemical and biological weapons, not to use them.

What he and the Ukrainians need is assistance for the $3.2 million that have had to flee Ukraine and millions more who are displaced inside of Ukraine having the assistant secretary who can direct that effort as well as get international support for it.

So that's what the Ukrainian people need. And it is mind boggling that they stand up and applaud -- President Biden over the last two years with the help of Congress, nearly $2 billion in defense assistance to Ukraine as we should.

BROWN: Right.

MENENDEZ: So it is the height of hypocrisy.

BROWN: I want to ask, you mentioned chemical weapons. Is that the red line for you for more U.S. involvement?

MENENDEZ: Well, look, the dynamics -- I don't create arbitrary red lines. I've learned over 30 years not to do that.

But I will say that the use of chemical weapons or the use of tactical nuclear weapon changes the dynamic of this conflict. And NATO and the United States would have to recalibrate at that time.

BROWN: All right. Senator Bob Menendez, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your perspective.

Vladimir Putin claimed he earned a modest $140,000 salary. But who does this palace fit for a king belong to, then, if that's the case? We're talking 190,000 square feet along the Black Sea. CNN did a little digging.

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BROWN: Vladimir Putin claims he receives just a modest salary to run Russia, about a quarter of what U.S. presidents make.

But make no mistake about it. He is among the wealthiest individuals in the world.

CNN's Drew Griffin looks at how Putin hides his assets.

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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On the shore of the Black Sea, it can only be described as a palace, 190,000 square feet.

From the air, you can see the church, tea house and amphitheater, and, reportedly, an underground hockey rink with a no-fly zone and a no boat zone.

ALEXEI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

GRIFFIN: This, according to an investigation last year by the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's group. They claim that this gilded, luxurious palace, fit for a king, was built for Vladimir Putin.

MARIA PEVPHIKH, HEAD OF INVESTIGATION, ANTI-CORRUPTION FOUNDATION: This palace is very much a symbol and a miniature of Putin's Russia.

That he no longer sees himself as a government employee, as an elected figure. He sees himself as czar, a king of some sort, and that the Russian czar, of course, deserves a palace.

GRIFFIN: CNN can't independently verify Putin's connection to the palace and Putin's spokesman denies the Russian leader owns it or any palace.

Maria Pevphikh, from Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, says they have proof. But their sources and documents all point to the palace as an example of how the oligarchs corruptly enrich Russia's president.

PEVPHIKH: It has been paid by Russian oligarchs, by Russian state- owned companies, money from Russian people, from regular people, that was stolen and diverted into building this horrendous thing on the Black Sea.

GRIFFIN: According to the investigation and a whistleblower who came forward, the money for the palace came from a Russian investment fund company that solicited charity donations from the Russian oligarchs.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: There are these rumors about Putin being the richest man in the world. And he may be. It's very, very hard to try to understand what his wealth is and what where it's held.

GRIFFIN: Rumored to be worth more than $100 billion, officially, Putin claimed an 800-square-foot apartment, a few cars and a modest salary in 2020, valued at about $140,000.

But his official income is irrelevant. Russia watchers say Putin controls Russia by determining who gets money and who doesn't, who gets to run business, who skims profit, and how the wealth is passed.

He doesn't need any assets listed in his name, says Journalist Tom Burgis. It's all his when he asks.

TOM BURGIS, AUTHOR: It's closer to something like a godfather. But, ultimately, they owe everything they have to the boss.

And with the click of a finger, as he has shown in the past, Putin can take everything from an oligarch.

However rich and however influential they may seem, they are ultimately dependent on him.

GRIFFIN: Fight the system, interfere in politics and face his wrath.

Exiled Russian oligarch, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was convicted of tax evasion and fraud, spent 10 years in a Russian prison, he says, for not playing Putin's game.

He claims Putin is paranoid, dangerous, and must be stopped.

MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY, FORMER RUSSIAN OLIGARCH & OIL TYCOON (through translation): All the accounts of all the oligarchs who function as Putin's wallet must be stopped. They must all feel the pain right now. And it must continue until the war ends.

GRIFFIN: Newly imposed sanctions from the West have now made it hard for many of the Russian billionaires to do business outside of Russia. Yachts, bank accounts frozen.

Inside Russia, the economy shows signs of crumbling. But chipping away at Putin's brutal hold on power through economics will take time.

From his actions, observers believe Putin's strategy is far beyond personal riches.

[13:55:05]

DOUGHERTY: He wants to rebuild Russia as a great power. And you almost have to go back to the czarist days to understand that.

GRIFFIN: Just look at the gates of Putin's purported palace. A golden two-headed crowned eagle, a symbol of Russia similar to the two-headed crowned eagle that is at the top the gates of the Winter Palace that belonged to Russia's last czar.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

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BROWN: And that does it for me. You can catch me tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. Our breaking news continues after a quick break.

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