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Ukraine Claims More Progress In Kherson; Kyiv Suburbs Begin Cleanup; Canada Providing Lethal Military Aid To Ukraine; March For Our Lives Rallies; January 6 Hearings Resume Monday; U.S. Gas Prices Reach $5; Moscow Opens McDonald's Substitute; Nigerians Call For Return Of Looted Benin Bronzes. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired June 12, 2022 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, rebuilding in Kyiv: we're live in the Ukrainian capital with the look at efforts to recover while fighting rages in the east.
Goodbye, golden arches; hello, burger and two fries?
Russia unveils its new rebranded McDonald's in Russia and it is not the first company to do this.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Hundreds of protests across the nation, as demonstrators demand stricter gun laws. CNN correspondents fanned out across the country to cover the push for gun reform.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: We start in Ukraine, where officials are claiming progress in the south, as Russian shelling rains down on the east. Ukraine has been pushing forward with this counteroffensive in the Kherson region. And president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says another area has been cleared of Russian troops. Here he is.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The Ukrainian military gradually liberates the territory of the Kherson region. Today, the village of Tavriisk was added to the list of returned settlements to our state. There are some successes in the Zaporizhzhya region as well. Fierce
street fights continue in Sievierodonetsk.
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BRUNHUBER: Russian artillery is playing a big role in the fighting in the east. The Ukrainian governor says heavy weapons are dismantling buildings and entire neighborhoods in Sievierodonetsk.
Russia now controls most of the city but the governor says Ukrainian troops are still fighting, regrouping and battling the invaders street by street.
We're also getting a grim picture from occupied Mariupol. The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office says it confirmed the deaths of 2 dozen more children after months of Russian shelling.
They say more than 280 minors have been killed since the war began and close to 500 wounded. For more, Salma Abdelaziz joins us from Kyiv.
Bring us up on the latest.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ukrainian forces have been able to take back a tiny village in the Kherson region. They're clawing back some territory in Zaporizhzhya.
But the tide is in Russia's favor. They're, inch by inch, meter by meter, with artillery, that is superior to Ukrainian forces, who are running out of artillery, they are gaining ground, particularly in that all important region in the Donbas and the flashpoint city of Sievierodonetsk.
Ukrainian forces have had to pull back in recent days. They are in fortified positions, they are outmanned, they are outgunned. There is also civilians still trapped inside, an estimated 10,000.
There is one flashpoint area, a steel plant in particular, where hundreds of civilians are believed to be sheltering in the basement of that building. It was being shelled. There are negotiations to try to pull them out. Local officials saying there is no way to pull out civilians who want to leave now.
Even in the next town over from Sievierodonetsk, already people leaving their homes, fleeing in anticipation of further Russian advances. So this right now is a fight for survival in the Donbas for Ukrainian forces and one they appear to be losing. They're desperate for Western weapons that can't come soon enough. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: So while fighting rages elsewhere in the country, the situation is very different where you are in Kyiv, where there they're trying to rebuild.
ABDELAZIZ: Right, so, Kim, of course, Kyiv was a flashpoint at the beginning of this conflict when it looked like Russian forces would try to encircle the city. They did, of course, withdraw, eventually. The city's population of 4 million went down to just 1 million people
during that period; 2 million of them have returned and they have come back to a city where they want to rebuild. They want to recover. Take a look at the efforts.
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ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): This was once someone's home, a place where children played and families gathered. Now this group of volunteers is working hard to restore what was lost.
ANDRIY KOPYLENKO, CO-FOUNDER, DISTRICT 1 ORGANIZATION: I feel that we are really gathering --
ABDELAZIZ: You're unified.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- unified, yes, we are together. And we know that it is our home and all Ukrainians understand that we need to rebuild.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Hundreds signed up to join more than a dozen cleanup operations across Kyiv suburbs, launched by charity group District 1.
DMYTRO NIKITYUK, VOLUNTEER: We are all different, like we have different age, different interests. But we work here together as one.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Colorado native Karl Voll is among those helping out.
KARL VOLL, VOLUNTEER: The building we're in now has been bombed by the Russians. And this has to be covered by the homeowners themselves. So by all these people helping, it is helping to jumpstart that process for them.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): This tiny village of Myla became a front line overnight when Russian forces barreling toward Kyiv fired wildly on apartment blocks in their path. The rounds set the building's roof ablaze and destroyed the upper floors. Civilians were killed, even as they fled.
Resident Maria Popova (ph) witnessed the horror.
"We hid in the basement, we were very scared," she says. "We sat and watched our houses burn."
ABDELAZIZ: Russian troops have withdrawn but the devastation they have left behind is incredible. Homes here were shattered in an instant. But rebuilding life, that will take much longer.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): And those recovery efforts are up to communities.
KOPYLENKO: Army has job soldiers working. And we're working.
ABDELAZIZ: So they have a job on the front lines; you have a job here, too.
KOPYLENKO: Yes, yes.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Popova (ph), 77 years old, was the first to return to the building. Her apartment was largely spared.
"I believe in our army," she tells me. "And there is no place like home. When you are at home, the walls calm you down."
With war never far, just living in Ukraine feels like an act of defiance.
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ABDELAZIZ: Many here are trying to resume normal life. And that's much easier in central Kyiv, which is largely untouched, of course. It's the suburbs on the outskirts of the capital, places that witnessed horrific atrocities, like Bucha and Irpin.
These are places where recovery efforts are much more difficult. It is not just about the decimation; it is about making people feel safe and secure again. One volunteer told me, we have to accept the reality we live beside Russia that could attack at any time. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: A fascinating portrait of the city that you painted there. Thank you for your reporting, Salma Abdelaziz.
Asia's premier security conference is wrapping up in Singapore. On Saturday Ukraine's president said the future rules of the world are being decided right now on the battlefields of his country. Canada's minister of national defense is at that conference and joined us last hour.
Listen to what she said about the military aid her country is sending to Ukraine. Here she is.
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ANITA ANAND, CANADIAN MINISTER OF NATIONAL DEFENSE: We have sent anti-tank weapons, sniper rifles, hand grenades. And we've also sent N-777 howitzers and heavy weaponry.
We will continue to support Ukraine with what it asks for, including 20,000 pieces of ammunition. This is exactly what Ukraine is asking for. I'm very in close touch with Mr. Reznikov and Canada will continue to provide what Ukraine needs.
One prime example is cameras for drones. We have sent multiple cameras being used in battle on the front lines. And we'll continue to respond accordingly as Ukraine presents its needs to us.
BRUNHUBER: Ukrainians have said that they are short specifically on artillery rounds. South Korean media have been reporting that Canada is in talks with South Korea to buy some 100,000 artillery rounds, which you would then provide to Ukraine.
Can you confirm this?
ANAND: I can confirm that, with the $500 million allocated in the last federal budget, Canada will continue to source the military aid that Ukraine needs. We are in talks with a number of suppliers to do just that.
And again, the purpose is to ensure that Canada is supporting Ukraine in its fight for territorial integrity and sovereignty. And as I said, we just announced 20,000 rounds and we are sending that to Ukraine as we speak.
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ANAND: And another contribution that Canada is making is assisting other countries in transporting their aid to Ukraine. We have, with our CC-130s, transported over 2 million pounds of military aid to Ukraine's front lines.
BRUNHUBER: President Zelenskyy also told your conference that the international community should help Taiwan resist China's aggression and China countered strongly, saying that it will fight to the very end to stop Taiwanese independence.
Is President Zelenskyy right?
Does China have to be confronted before it acts otherwise the international community will be repeating the mistake by not challenging Russia before its invasion of Ukraine?
That is his argument.
ANAND: We believe in an Indo-Pacific region that is based on peace, prosperity, stability and collaboration and cooperation. Those were the principles that I enunciated in my remarks this morning at the Shangri-La Dialogue. And we'll continue to cooperate with our partners and allies in this region.
The importance of collaboration cannot be overstated. This is an era where the world order, as we have seen with Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, is under threat.
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BRUNHUBER: And if you would like to safely and securely help people in Ukraine who may need shelter, food and water, go to cnn.com/impact. You can find several ways to help there.
Fast food giant McDonald's may have left Russia. But Russians aren't ready to leave McDonald's. More than a dozen are being reopened in Moscow under new owners and a new name.
This is the same location McDonald's first opened in Moscow in 1990. But gone are the golden arches and other McDonald's trademarks, which are some of the most recognizable corporate symbols in the world.
The logo of the rebranded business will look like this. It is said to represent a burger and fries and the new name is "Tasty, and that's it." McDonald's closed more than 800 stores across Russia to protest the invasion of Ukraine.
Later this hour we'll speak with a business analyst about why McDonald's and hundreds of other Western enterprises decided to pull out of the Russian market.
Calls for gun reform are still echoing across the United States this morning. In hundreds of cities across the U.S. Saturday, thousands rallied to demand that lawmakers take action on gun violence and mass shootings.
The movement's name underscores its urgency, March for Our Lives. Demonstrators gathered in Washington, where significant gun reform has stalled for years in Congress. Right now lawmakers are said to be working on a bipartisan package raising optimism for a compromise.
The public pressure is growing after the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, and a racist slaughter inside a Buffalo grocery store. A son of a victim in Buffalo said it is time to unite and stop gun violence.
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GARNELL WHITFIELD, RUTH WHITFIELD'S SON: We are here to stand with those who are bold enough to demand sensible gun legislation that will help to reduce the gun violence in our communities, that will stop the slaughter of our most precious commodity, people, human beings, sisters, brothers, fathers, grandparents, friends and, in my case, my 86-year-old mother.
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BRUNHUBER: March for Our Lives was started after the high school massacre in Parkland, Florida, in 2018. The survivor who co-founded the movement is slamming congressional inaction.
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DAVID HOGG, CO-FOUNDER, MARCH FOR OUR LIVES: Here's the reality: if our government can't do anything to stop 19 kids from being killed and slaughtered in their own school and decapitated, it's time to change who is in government.
As we gather here today, the next shooter is already plotting his attack, while the federal government pretends it can do nothing to stop it. Since the shooting in Texas, the Senate has done only one thing: they have gone on recess.
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BRUNHUBER: Our correspondents are fanned out across the country to cover these urgent demands for tougher gun laws. Let's begin with Polo Sandoval in New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On Saturday, a group of demonstrators adding their voice to the growing chorus, calling for meaningful gun reform at the federal level.
What we saw on Saturday was demonstrators coming together in Brooklyn and then, as NYPD was leading the way or clearing the way, marching over the iconic Brooklyn Bridge and eventually coming together in Lower Manhattan, as it continued to call on U.S. lawmakers to take similar steps, very similar to what we have seen at the state level, which is -- as recent as a few days ago.
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SANDOVAL: New York state lawmakers actually not only introducing but even enacting some of that meaningful gun reform that New Yorkers want to see at the federal level -- Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.
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NADIA ROMERO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At this same spot outside this amphitheater, this is where a vigil was held the day after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that killed 17 people, students and staff members on Valentine's Day, more than four years ago, in 2018.
Then just a month later, the first March for Our Lives. Here we are yet again.
I spoke with one Parkland shooting survivor, who said she thought there would have been more change over the past couple of years, that lawmakers would have done more. Take a listen.
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SARI KAUFMAN, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING SURVIVOR: It is frustrating. In 2018, I never expected to come back here to do another march. I expected our lawmakers to do their jobs.
So for me to be back here, it is emotional and upsetting. But I'm hoping this time they will do something. And I do believe, you know, they continue to have inaction, more and more kids will die.
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ROMERO: I spoke with another woman, Debbie Hixon. Her husband was the athletic director, Chris Hixon, who charged the gunman, trying to protect his students.
She says he would be so proud of his former students, many of them who are in college right now, continuing their activism. She said he would hope that that activism would turn to action by Congress -- Nadia Romero, CNN, Parkland, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: Important congressional hearings are set to resume on Monday into the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Coming up, we'll hear from a former Republican congressman about what he hopes the hearings will accomplish.
Plus, this was the scene at a pride event in Idaho Saturday. Suspected white nationalists under arrest. We'll tell you what police are saying and get details from a witness after the break. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: More than 2 dozen men bearing insignias of an extremist group were arrested near a pride event in Idaho Saturday. Police in Coeur d'Alene say they arrested 31 people on misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to riot.
Authorities believe they belonged to the group Patriot Front, widely considered to be a white nationalist organization. Police said the men were wearing protective gear, carried military-style written plans and seemed prepared to riot.
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CHIEF LEE WHITE, COEUR D'ALENE POLICE DEPARTMENT: In my opinion, I would gladly arrest 31 individuals who were coming to riot in our city for a misdemeanor rather than have them participate in some sort of seriously disruptive event, which is exactly what they were planning in downtown area.
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BRUNHUBER: Local tipsters saw the men piling into a U-Haul box truck and reported them. The editor in chief for the news website News2Share was on the scene and described for CNN's Pamela Brown what he saw. Here he is.
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FORD FISCHER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, NEWS2SHARE: There were a lot of different groups that came out, many of them armed to counter protest this pride event.
This was the sixth annual pride event. Locals and many from out of town were coming to protest. Patriot Front hadn't coordinated with the other groups.
It took the fortunate by surprise that this U-Haul showed up. Police got a continue before arresting them. The continue was there were about 20 people, they look like a small Army. When they were apprehended it turned out there were 31 of them. At the press conference the police chief said they would rather arrest 31 of them for a misdemeanor conspiracy charge then to let them do damage and then arrest them afterwards.
They felt they were preventing a tragedy. Two other arrests happened today. But 31 specifically Patriot Front.
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BRUNHUBER: The men will appear in court Monday and authorities say more charges may be coming. The FBI is assisting the investigation.
So for viewers in the United States, we'll have more on this story coming up on "NEW DAY."
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BRUNHUBER: After getting off to a dramatic primetime start last week, the January 6th committee will resume a series of high profile hearings on Monday. Members say evidence will show that then president Donald Trump had a seven-point plan to overturn the 2020 election, even though he was told repeatedly he had legitimately lost.
The panel also intends to prove that Trump directly incited the attack on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the election certification from taking place. There is shocking new video released from that day. The Justice Department released footage shot by a 22 year-old Texas man who took part in the insurrection.
A warning there is strong profanity in the video but it is the reality of the vicious mob that police were facing that day. Listen to this.
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NOLAN COOKE, JANUARY 6 CAPITOL RIOTER: Get them. Get them.
Get these motherfuckers.
We're coming through. We're coming through.
We love our country men.
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BRUNHUBER: That young man, Nolan Cooke, has now been sentenced to a year and a day in prison. We get more on the upcoming hearings from CNN's Katelyn Polantz.
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KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Each day, the House Select Committee is going to be drilling in to different aspects of their findings of Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. So on Thursday night, in this first public hearing, vice chairwoman
Liz Cheney was speaking about a sophisticated seven-part plan, her words, about Donald Trump, as he was trying to push back against the election results.
We actually believe the hearings will track each of those seven parts in the coming days. So this week that starts Monday.
On Monday that's when the committee plans to put forward what they found about this disinformation campaign, where Trump himself wanted to convince the American public the election was stolen from him, at a time where the committee says top advisers around him and even campaign officials, campaign lawyers, were very aware he had lost and were sending the message he wasn't going to make a difference.
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POLANTZ: Joe Biden would be the next president.
On Wednesday, that's whenever the committee will turn to the halls of justice, the Justice Department. That's when they will be talking to top officials from the end of the Trump presidency, who were pushing back against Trump as he wanted to fire the acting attorney general, put in place his own person.
And those officials said, no, there will be mass resignations if you do this, if you try to use the Justice Department to support this false election fraud idea.
Then on Thursday, that's whenever the conversation and the committee will turn to the vice president's office, the office of Mike Pence, who Trump and the White House and advisers around Trump, lawyers around Trump, were all trying to put pressure on Pence to block the vote in Congress.
And we do believe there is the possibility that there will be top officials from around Pence, who were pushing back against Trump in the White House, who will be testifying that day.
And then after that, the committee is promising that they're going to turn to the White House itself, that they are going to be able to give us a perspective, minute by minute, of what was happening as Donald Trump was refusing to say -- to call off the rioters as he was watching the violence unfold that day.
So we don't exactly know who will be testifying every single day of the hearings, as they begin this week and then go into the end of June.
But we do know that we will be looking for new information and especially the sort of things that were already teased on Thursday, like these depositions from top people, Ivanka Trump, Bill Barr, Jared Kushner, what they had to say already to the committee behind closed doors.
We do expect to see more of that. And these committee hearings are going to continue to be blockbuster -- Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: Earlier, Pam Brown spoke with former Republican congressman Charlie Dent to get his impressions of the first hearing on Thursday. Listen to this.
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CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What stood out to me is that the committee is trying to demonstrate the American people that this attack was planned and premeditated and that people in the White House, including the president, may have been part of this conspiracy. I think that's what they're after.
They want to show that this was not just some spontaneous eruption on the day of the attack. And I think they're doing that pretty effectively thus far.
Their big challenge, of course, is getting much of the American public, you know, who have heard -- they feel like they've heard it all already. And so the committee has a challenge to make sure that they bring forth new information that's different than what we've heard up to this point.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Liz Cheney, as you well know, Republican, may well sacrifice her own political career for the stand that she is taking.
What did you make of her presentation?
And do you think that she could have changed any minds in terms of how people in her own party view what happened that day?
DENT: I actually thought that Liz Cheney was superb in her presentation and I thought the committee was smart to put her out front and prosecute the case publicly.
I think it's important that she and Adam Kinzinger do this prosecution and do it in a way that where they're using the words of other Republicans, Trump supporters, who saw what happened and also said that the election was over and that Trump lost, and who were also very dismayed and disheartened and, frankly, you know, offended by what happened on that day in the former president's conduct.
So I think that Liz, I have to give her a grade A for her -- for what she's done so far. I hope she keeps it up. And I hope that the committee then provides some of the evidence to support some of the charges that she made on Thursday night.
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BRUNHUBER: So if you want to watch the committee's future hearings, here is a schedule. All the listings are for the Eastern time zone, as you can see. They'll be back at it Monday morning. And just keep in mind the schedule is in flux and subject to change. Gasoline prices are higher than ever in the U.S. as the national
average hit a new record. After the break, we'll have a report from Los Angeles on the impact of the soaring cost of filling your tank.
But it is not just the price of gas. Almost everything people need to live their lives is getting more expensive, according to a recent government report. We'll have that story and more after the break. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
For American consumers, it's feeling a lot like 1981 again and that is not a good thing. Record gasoline prices are seeing the steepest increase in over 40 years. The national average for regular unleaded is now $5 a gallon, an all time record.
More than 20 states shown in red there are at $5 or more. President Joe Biden is blaming Russia's war on Ukraine. Here he is.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Putin's price hike is hitting America hard. Gas prices at the pump, energy and food prices account for half of the monthly price increases since May.
Inflation outside of energy and food, what the economists call core inflation, moderated the last two months. Not enough but it moderated. It's come down. And we need it to come down much more quickly.
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BRUNHUBER: CNN's Paul Vercammen reports drivers on the U.S. West Coast have it even worse.
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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in California, residents feeling the record gas prices right in the pits of their stomachs and the folds of their wallets. About $6.43 average per gallon, so this gas station behind me at $6.09 considered a bargain.
People here telling us stories about how hard they're being hit. They're changing some of their summer travel plans. We talked to a 72- year-old woman, a career counselor, her husband retired and they are now recalibrating how to take those 100-200 mile day trips.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're curtailing a lot of what we're doing, not taking any even short trips, like going up north. We love to go up there or down south to San Diego.
ALEXIS GOMEZ, OWNER, PARLANI PARTY RENTALS: It's crazy. It went literally went up a dollar I think within a week, went from $5.39 to $6.09 now, I think it is what it is. And we only filled it with a quarter tank and it will probably last us for the rest of the day. If not, we'll have to fill up later on again today.
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VERCAMMEN: So Alexis Gomez and his father have a party rental company and it is indeed the season of graduations and weddings and a lot of different events that require those party rentals.
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VERCAMMEN: They say they can't help but pass on the costs to other consumers, a ripple effect here in California, as the state reckons with astronomical gas prices. Somewhere out there the governor floated an idea that Californians could receive a $400 rebate for a car, up to two cars per family.
Right now we're not hearing any more about that. But the people at this gas station will tell you, they'll take anything, including that rebate -- reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen. Now back to you.
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BRUNHUBER: Now it is not just the cost of gasoline. Prices are up for groceries and all sorts of other products people need.
A new government inflation report shows the steepest inflation spike since 1981, a triple whammy for consumers, with massive price hikes in food, shelter and energy, sectors that make up the majority of household expenses.
Blue chip stocks fell Friday by more than 800 points after the report was released. Nevertheless, President Joe Biden says the economy is in a position of strength. Here is CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Biden insists that fighting inflation remains his top economic priority, as American families continue to feel the pain of high prices at the gas pump and grocery stores.
The Biden administration had hoped prices would soon begin moderating but the consumer price index released Friday showed that inflation rose at a rate of 8.6 percent the past year, the fastest pace since 1981. One of the areas that has seen significant growth in prices is gas.
Gas has now hit $5 a gallon here in the United States. And the president had a message for Americans who are seeing that sticker shock at the gas pump.
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BIDEN: It is outrageous what the war in Ukraine is causing. We're trying very hard to make sure that we can -- we've significantly increased the number of barrels of oil that are being pumped out of the reserve we have.
We've got 240,000 barrels as well coming from other nations. We'll keep pushing on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: While the president is trying to address those economic concerns of Americans, he also made a stop in the state of New Mexico, which has seen historic wildfires across the state.
The president received a briefing on the wildfire response and met with state and local officials to hear the latest updates on what they need and also how they are responding to these fires.
The president pledged that the federal government would provide covering 100 percent of the cost of response to the fires, as the state continues to recover -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, traveling with the president in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Still ahead, the golden arches are gone as McDonald's gets a rebrand in Russia. We'll explain what the move signals for the future of other Western brands that left Russia behind. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: An iconic American brand is getting a Russian makeover. Have a look here.
This morning, Moscow reopened some of the former McDonald's restaurants that were closed to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Last month, the fast food giant announced it was pulling out of Russia for good, more than 30 years after it first opened in Moscow.
The franchise was sold to new owners, who swapped the trademarked golden arches for a new logo and a new name which is, depending how you translate it, "Tasty, that's it," or maybe "Delicious, period." McDonald's isn't the only Western brand leaving Russia. Scores of
other companies have announced plans to exit the market in the wake of Russia's war on Ukraine.
Now while McDonald's might be the most high profile rebranding so far, it appears unlikely to be the last. Moscow has already announced plans to restart production of a plant that belonged to Western carmaker Renault.
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Joining me now from Greece is Peter Gabrielsson, a professor of international marketing at the University of Vaasa in Finland.
Thank you for being with us. This Russian rebrand of McDonald's is far from unique.
How common has it been since the war started?
PETER GABRIELSSON, UNIVERSITY OF VAASA: I mean, this is something that some companies are now doing. So they are leaving Russia. They are then rebranding them with new names. So this is common.
But this is a historic moment, because McDonald's, now leaving Russia. And, in a way the walls are coming up again between the Western and eastern parts of the world. SO quite a historic moment, I would say.
BRUNHUBER: A really symbolic moment as well as you say there.
How easy is it for the companies to sort of maintain continuity, just, you know, to use a trivial example, this new "Tasty, that's it" or whatever it is, they can't sell Big Macs because the sauce is proprietary.
How hard is it to make that transition from a Western franchise to a Russian-owned franchise?
GABRIELSSON: Well, of course, it is a very big transition. You think about McDonald's, which has a strong brand recognition, its brand is based on strong brands. It has very strong artifacts. And it has the behavior.
So for a new company to update all this, it's very difficult. They don't have the values in place, they don't have -- they have a new logo as we heard. And also the whole behavior and the process of serving the customer, they need to be very sure that they are happy with what is happening.
BRUNHUBER: But looking beyond McDonald's necessarily, yes, you're losing a known brand.
But could you also sort of count on Russian propaganda that will encourage people to, you know, patriotically support these new Russian-owned franchises?
GABRIELSSON: Well, that could be very likely to happen, that extra Russia government and propaganda supporting the new brands. And McDonald's, of course, we know that the buyer of the operations has operated as a licensee earlier.
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GABRIELSSON: So they have some experience about the processes and culture what McDonald's has put in place. So in that sense they're not starting completely from zero.
BRUNHUBER: Making that transition, I imagine it is easier with a restaurant, let's say, where you can rely on food grown within the country.
What about other companies that need more complex parts or rely on links with the West to properly function?
I mentioned Renault there, the Russian -- the first iterations of that Russian car, I think, didn't have car bags and things like that.
How hard is that to make that transition there?
GABRIELSSON: Well, it is -- that is much more difficult. They are dependent on parts and components coming from Western (INAUDIBLE) because now there are problems to Russia and that makes the whole process much more difficult. More complex also, the production. And it makes it more difficult to do a transition, for sure.
BRUNHUBER: I'm wondering, are the links truly severed here?
Or do you think there are maybe tacit agreements by which the Western companies will sort of revert back to their original companies, if and when the war ends?
GABRIELSSON: Well, yes. There has been, let's say, some rumors there are buyback options in these agreements, like the Renault-related factory, which the purchase price was one ruble. And there is the buyback option. And then also there has been rumors of a McDonald's deal that would be a buyback option. So in that sense, it is not that clear.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, so I mean, is that just a way basically for the Western companies to kind of circumvent the sanctions and not really lose out, sort of doing the symbolic, you know, big gesture but not really sort of losing in the end?
GABRIELSSON: Well, there seems to be something like that. I must say that the -- so, you know, legally they are kind of leaving the business but they had announced, like McDonald's, they're leaving for good.
How for good is it if you have a buyback option in?
BRUNHUBER: Exactly. I guess we'll see in the fullness of time. An interesting story for sure. Thank you for helping us analyze it, Peter Gabrielsson, appreciate it.
GABRIELSSON: Thank you.
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BRUNHUBER: Nations around the world are being pressured to return looted African artifacts to their rightful home. We'll have a look at Nigeria's push to bring back precious relics after the break. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Countries around the world are feeling pressure to return stolen African artifacts to their rightful owners. Belgium's King Philippe just traveled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, bringing back a looted traditional mask of the Suku people.
But Belgium still has thousands of Congolese artifacts and this isn't an isolated phenomenon. Nigeria is currently fighting for ownership of precious relics from the kingdom of Benin taken in the late 1900s. CNN's Zain Asher explains.
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ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The faces of an African civilization now centuries old, immortalized in elegant bronze plaques. Their traditions personified in ancient brass figurines, their artistry carved into ivory tusks.
PEJU LAYIWOLA, ART HISTORY PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS: These are documents of our history. You see the broad range of object types, telling about the glory of the kingdom, telling about what transpired at the time and how very developed the technology was and how very developed the culture was.
Peju Layiwola says she is a direct descendant of the monarch of the Benin kingdom in what is now Nigeria. It was here where thousands of these precious relics were forged hundreds of years ago, a vast collection of artifacts, considered some of Africa's greatest treasures.
But they're also some of Africa's rarest because very few of these carvings remain within Nigeria.
Historians say that thousands were stolen during a gruesome and vicious battle here in the late 1800s.
LAYIWOLA: They killed a lot of people. It was ultra violent. They wanted to exterminate the culture.
ASHER: In 1897, a handful of British officials were murdered during a trade mission that was clearly provocative. In retaliation, the British launched an attack on a scale the city had never seen.
It was brutal. They killed civilians, burned everything in their path and looted thousands -- and I mean thousands -- of precious objects known as the Benin Bronzes. These spoils of war were eventually sold and housed in foreign museums around the world.
ASHER (voice-over): Many foreign museums across Europe and the United States have been under intense pressure to return these stolen objects to Nigeria.
LAYIWOLA: It is a moral issue. It is a way of correcting the wrong that happened. It doesn't erase the trauma of the past but it makes it easier to narrate that incident without, you know, thinking about all of the pain that went with it.
ASHER (voice-over): Here in Lagos, the National Museum director, Abba Tijani, recently helped renegotiate the repatriation of two Benin bronzes previously displayed at Cambridge and Aberdeen Universities in the U.K.
ABBA TIJANI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF LAGOS: Most of the colleagues look at these objects as objects of aesthetics quality. But we look at them as they are living art, which they associate themselves to on a daily basis.
ASHER (voice-over): But many museums are still hesitant to return the prized objects.
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ASHER (voice-over): The British Museum houses the largest collection of Benin bronzes in the world. And although it has been involved in lengthy discussions about their possible repatriation, it is still yet to return a single one. Tijani believes there is room for compromise.
TIJANI: We're not saying that we want to have them displayed all in Nigeria. We want these objects to still continue to be our ambassadors in those countries but under our terms.
ASHER (voice-over): Despite progress, thousands of Benin bronze remain on display outside of Nigeria, unclear when or if these priceless works will return to their rightful home -- Zain Asher, CNN, Lagos.
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BRUNHUBER: And before we go, some Ukrainians are using 3D technology to preserve their cultural heritage during the war. A group called Backup Ukraine is using volunteers to scan cultural landmarks and artifacts using an app.
The software creates 3D images which organizers say can be used to reconstruct the objects if they end up being damaged. Ukraine says hundreds of its cultural sites have been hit since Russia's war began. That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. For viewers
in North America, "NEW DAY" is next. For the rest of the world, stay with us for culinary journeys.
