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Deputy Prime Minister: Mariupol Humanitarian Corridor Did Not Work as Planned; Johnny Depp Back on the Stand in Defamation Case Against Ex-Wife; Michelle Obama's Brother Sues Milwaukee School Over Kid's Expulsion; "Navalny" Premieres Sunday at 9P ET. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired April 20, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And do you think that's a lie too?

MAKSYM BORODIN, MARIUPOL CITY COUNCIL DEPUTY: As I know a little of people who Russian's says that they go out from Mariupol to the point where the Ukrainian buses are stayed. The Russians don't let on direct Ukrainian buses go into the Mariupol. So, they need to meet in the direct point. But we don't know for now if these people with six or seven buses which from Russian routes go out from Mariupol if they really go to Ukraine and the point of meeting. We don't know this. And maybe tomorrow Ukraine side always try to resume to do all we can to get our people from Mariupol. But Russians stops any attempts.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Listen, we know that these promises from the Russians to respect these corridors, they're unreliable. But let's focus now on Azovstal. This is steel plant where there are up to 1,000 civilians who are there trying to avoid the shelling. There are injured members of the military. One description is that those who have not been treated, they are rotting from these open wounds there. How do you get these people out if you can't go through these corridors and there is no help coming in from the West to evacuate them?

BORODIN: I don't know how Ukraine only -- we don't cancel this situation by ourselves. We need help of all the countries. All the people seeing this situation in Ukraine for a long time, for two months. And yes, we get help, but this help we need yesterday, not tomorrow and not after week. All these arms we need now, and all these democratic platitudes people are dying in Mariupol and other cities every day. Russia strikes with missiles to any city of Ukraine so there are no peaceful place in Ukraine now. So, we need all the help West can get to us. Now, not in weeks, because it's too late. And we lost more people. Not only on Azovstal. On Azovstal, our men is very brave people but I don't know how we can

help them without jet planes, without special ammunition, without modern ammunition. Not old ammunition which we get from our allies. We need modern ammunition.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I mean President Biden keeps announcing more weapons sent, but it's very hard to get it to Mariupol. If somehow these people that we see in this video are able tomorrow morning to get on those buses and make it to Zaporizhzhia, which is apparently the destination. Are they safe in Zaporizhzhia?

BORODIN: Yes, these people will be safe in Zaporizhzhia, but I don't believe that Russian's let our military to go into the buses. I don't think they let civilian people from the other side to get out. And we don't know even if the civilian people from Azovstal go out and believe the Russians, some parts of the relatives of our militarist, of our police officer and their children and do you believe that the Russian gets there and these children not go to Russia. Who knows.

BLACKWELL: Food is running low in that steel plant. The assessment there is that they have days, some say hours. And we know that there is this desire, this desperate need to get out of that building. Maksym Borodin, Mariupol City Council Deputy, thank you so much.

Johnny Depp back on the stand today for day two of testimony in a $50 million defamation case against his ex-wife. We've got the latest from the courtroom, ahead.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Johnny Depp is back on the stand in a Virginia courtroom. It's the actor's second day of testimony in a $50 million defamation case against his ex-wife, Amber Heard.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is in Los Angeles. So, Stephanie, he testified to a about the abuse he says he experienced in the marriage. Tell us more.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. He alleges that Amber Heard abused him physically and emotionally. And in one of the most riveting moments of his testimony today, he talks about this time during a fight in 2015 in Australia while he was filming "Pirates of the Caribbean," I think the fifth one, where he talks about Amber Heard throwing a vodka bottle at him and how it damaged his hand, he alleges. Take a listen to how he recounted this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:40:00]

JOHNNY DEPP, ACTOR: She threw the large bottle and it made contact and shattered everywhere, and then I looked down and realized that the tip of my finger had been severed. And I was looking directly at my bones. I don't know what a nervous breakdown feels like, but that's probably the closest that I've ever been.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: It was a pretty gnarly picture too that they showed in court of his finger after that accident. It's important to point out that Heard has denied this allegation. We should also point out that Johnny Depp filed this lawsuit because of a 2018 op-ed she wrote in "The Washington Post" where she spoke about surviving domestic abuse. She never named Depp but he said it cost him lucrative work in that case. She has also filed a $100 million countersuit that is ongoing.

He is still on the stand today. He's still talking about his relationship with his mom and how she was abusive and how he reacted, Alisyn and Victor, by just removing himself from the situation. And he said he went back to doing the exact same thing with Amber Heard, hiding in bathrooms or bedrooms to stay away from her onslaught of hits, as he calls it.

CAMEROTA: Just awful details on both sides, apparently. Stephanie Elam, thank you.

So former first lady Michelle Obama's brother is suing an elite Milwaukee private school. Craig Robinson and his wife, Kelly, said their kids were expelled last year in an act of retaliation for their complaints about racial bias.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Omar Jimenez is in Milwaukee. I understand you just spoke with the couple. What did they tell you?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Victor and Alisyn, just got done talking to them and two things really stick out. One, they say they were shocked when they got this letter that all of a sudden said their children can no longer go to this school. But also, they felt they couldn't just walk away from this. Especially as they say they were hearing from other parents who had had similar experiences to them.

And the basics of it is, is the Robinsons say they'd been providing feedback to the school over some practices they felt were concerning, especially during the virtual school learning environment that we saw over the past few years. And they felt that this move by the school was retaliation for some of that feedback. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG ROBINSON, MICHELLE OBAMA'S BROTHER: The first thing we noticed was a repeated use of racial and ethnic stereotypes in actual classroom assignments. There was a real -- there was a disregard for the students who were not in the classroom, so all the virtual learners. You could tell that the situation wasn't set up properly. And then there was -- it was just an insensitivity to socioeconomic status.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Now, as you can imagine, the school released a statement in response saying in part: We can tell you that USM, University School of Milwaukee's enrollment decisions had nothing to do with complaints of inequity or discrimination and we intend to vigorously defend the school against any claim to the contrary.

Now the termination letter that the Robinsons got last year alleged that the Robinsons were not showing respect to the teachers and administrators throughout this process. The Robinsons, however, told me that statement that the school put out was astonishing, yet revealing, because they say the school still doesn't get it.

Bottom line, they say they didn't want to walk away from this, they didn't want to kick it under the rug so they did something. They filed a civil suit that is still -- that process is still ongoing at this point. And they also feel that the substance of what they're suing for, they're not alone in what they're alleging -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, I know you will be following this one, Omar Jimenez, for us in Milwaukee. Thank you very much.

Next, we take a look at the incredible true story of the man who took on Vladimir Putin and lived to expose the truth of his regime.

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Russian opposition leader and fierce Putin critic, Alexey Navalny has been in jail for more than a year.

BLACKWELL: The story of how he got there after surviving an alleged murder attempt and then tracking down his own would-be assassins is told in the new CNN film "Navalny."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXEY NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: You know that we used to called it Moscow 4. You know what is Moscow 4?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, what is that?

NAVALNY: Well, email of the very top bass guy from intelligence was hacked several times and his first password was Moscow 1 and they hacked him. So second his password was Moscow 2. And they hacked him as well. And so, the third time he had password Moscow 3. And just guess what was his fourth password? So, Moscow 4 is the explanation of the stupidity of the system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:50:00]

BLACKWELL: Joining us now is Maria Pevshikh. She is head of investigations at the Anti-Corruption Foundation, which was founded by Alexey Navalny. She's also an executive producer of the film "Navalny." I'm really looking forward to watching more than just the clips we've seen thus far. But what can Navalny's story tell us about Vladimir Putin, the Russian regime, as we watch this war that they started?

MARIA PEVSHIKH, HEAD OF INVESTIGATIONS, ANTI-CORRUPTION FOUNDATION: Well, I think it's a pretty good prequel. It explains a lot, actually. It gives -- this film gives a lot of context and it kind of explains how we ended up at this point in time and where Putin is invading countries and killing people and kind of gives away with it.

CAMEROTA: And you've been keeping the Anti-Corruption Foundation running since Navalny was arrested. And so, why is it important to keep this work going? How hard is it?

PEVSHIKH: Well, it's not only me, of course, it's me and dozens of other people who work with us. It's a matter of principle for us in a way. Just continue our work despite the fact that Alexey is in prison. Because this is exactly what Putin wanted to happen. Because he wanted to imprison Navalny and destroy his work, and stop our investigations, of our political work, stop everything. And for us, it's a matter of principle to show him -- to show Vladimir Putin and whoever is responsible for this that this is not going to work. That we're going to continue our work and we're going to work harder and more than we did before. And we intend to keep going as long it is a takes.

BLACKWELL: Again, you are the head of investigations at this foundation. So, what have you uncovered recently?

PEVSHIKH: Well, one of the -- this month we've done two. There was an investigation that we did about Putin's yacht, Scheherazade. It's parked somewhere in Italy and it has no owner. I think it is 11th or 12th made this concept Europe and the world and realize he wants to say. Now investigation with proof that it belongs to Vladimir Putin. And last week we published an investigation about Valery Gergiev, a Russian conductor, a classical musician who is very famous. He's a frequent guest at the places like the Metropolitan Opera, the France Opera, the Garden Opera and he is not only a famous musician but also a very prominent supporter of Putin and Putin's war. So, we did a big investigation into how Valery Gergiev gets paid for publicly whitewashing Putin abroad.

CAMEROTA: And so, we're back to Navalny. He was recently sentenced to more time in prison. And so, what do you think the future holds for him? Will he be able to get out of this prison?

PEVSHIKH: I think that his numbers mean nothing. He can be sentenced to nine years to 99 years to 900 years. It is virtually meaningless. Navalny's case is purely political. Vladimir Putin decided to throw him into jail indefinitely. So as many people say, Navalny's sentence is essentially is a life sentence. The question is whose life it's going to be? I'm pretty sure that Navalny is going to stay in prison probably until Putin leaves the office, until Putin is removed from power. So, our job, our mission is to make sure that this day comes as quickly as possible and Alexey is out of prison as soon as possible.

BLACKWELL: You know, of course we expect to learn in this documentary what Navalny's vision is for Russia. What he imagined the future will be. Do you expect that that Russia will ever come to fruition? PEVSHIKH: Absolutely. That's the plan. That's what we are working for,

for many years. And putting is a great stranger. If we did something for a decade that we didn't believe in and we didn't believe that it was possible. I am convince that the so-called beautiful Russia in the future -- this is how Alexey refers to it -- it is indeed possible, it is achievable and obtainable, and yes, it's going to take a lot of effort and a lot of work to make sure that it materializing but there are so many people, so many Russians who are willing to do this work. Who are willing to risk their life, their careers, their everything just to make sure that Russia one day becomes a free and democratic country.

CAMEROTA: Well, we cannot wait to see the film. It looks so compelling. Maria Pevshikh, thank you very much for helping preview it with us. And this new CNN film "Navalny" it's going to appear Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. And we'll be right back.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Prince Harry is sharing new details about his surprise visit alongside his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, to the U.K. last week. Here's what he told the today show about his meeting with the Queen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRINCE HARRY: It was great. It was just so nice to see her. You know, she always grateful. She's always got a great sense of humor with me and I'm making sure that she's, you know, protected and got the right people around her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Prince Harry added that he has a special relationship with the Queen and said she tells him things that she does not discuss with other people. Harry and Meghan stopped -- now I have your attention. Harry and Meghan stopped by the U.K. on the way to the Invictus games in the Hague.

[16:00:02]

The visit came two years after the couple announced they would give up their royal titles.

BLACKWELL: We have a little secret there. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.