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CNN International: Putin To Address Russian Federal Assembly; Biden Visits Poland After Surprise Trip To Ukraine; Chinese Diplomat Urges Peace During European Trip; EPA: No Water Quality Concerns; Residents Report Ailments; 13 People Hospitalized After Blast At Metal Factory; Former U.S. President Receiving End-Of-Life Care At His Home; Major Storm To Impact Millions Of Americans This Week; Magnitude 6.3 Earthquake Strikes Turkey, Killing 3. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired February 21, 2023 - 04:00   ET

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

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[04:00:33]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Bianca Nobilo.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster, joining you live from London. Just ahead on CNN Newsroom.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know what Russians are capable of. We have seen all kinds of war crimes and associates in Ukraine

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Russian forces trying, and so far failing to make real headway in the opening stages of a new offensive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not only up against Ukraine in all this, but also against NATO and especially the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The railroad company really just controlled the narrative early on and took advantage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What folks are really concerned about is what happens later, what happens down the road, what happens three years from now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Several buildings have collapsed, several people have been confirmed killed, hundreds injured, some of them in critical condition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from London, this is CNN Newsroom with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.

FOSTER: It's Tuesday, February 21st, 9:00 here here in London, 12:00 noon in Moscow where Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to deliver a speech to the nation's top political and military leaders on the state what he calls Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.

NOBILO: Mr. Putin is expected to lay out his vision for what's next, as well as an assessment of Russia's relations with the west. It comes just one day after U.S. President Joe Biden's surprise visit to Kyiv.

FOSTER: CNN's Fred Pleitgen is covering the event live for us from Moscow. This is happening, obviously on the same days President Biden speaking to alternative realities of what's going on in the world.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think it's a pretty good assessment there, Max. And I do think that it's going to be a pretty fundamental speech that Vladimir Putin is going to hold here. We can already see the folks there inside that auditorium getting ready. That is the Prime Minister of Russia, Mishustin, that you see there next to the head of the Duma, Mr. Volodin, who are obviously everybody from Russian political prominence is there from both houses of Parliament.

Now, it was quite interesting because earlier today, the press secretary for Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, he came out and he laid out some of the things that are going to be part of Vladimir Putin's speech. And as you guys already mentioned, he said that there is going to be a reasoning on why what Russia calls its special military operation in Ukraine was inevitable, why this is something that Russia had to do.

But he also said that Vladimir Putin would layout the way forward and how Russia will move forward and then Peskov said, and we definitely will move forward in all of this. So, essentially, what we're looking to hear, waiting to hear, is what Vladimir Putin believes the next couple of months this year is going to bring for Russia on the battlefield.

One of the things that we do not expect Vladimir to do is to indicate that Russia is in any way, shape or form backing down. Something that I've heard from folks who are in Russian politics over the past couple of days in the run up to all of this, is they say that right now, Russia actually believes that it's still in a fairly strong position.

Russia believes that it can wear out not only the Ukrainians, but that it can also wear out the west and Western support. And of course, one of the things that was very important in all that was the visit by President Biden to Kyiv yesterday. And, you know, the kremlin actually didn't say anything about that yesterday.

They didn't comment on President Biden's visit to Ukraine. There was a lot of commentary on state media about it. However, this morning, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, he said that, yes, they were very closely watching President Biden's visit and that it could indeed be factored in to Vladimir Putin's speech, that Vladimir Putin was aware of that visit as well.

So we're going to see whether or not any of that is going to be the case. There certainly are some commentators who believe that if it does factor in, that it will make Vladimir Putin's speech even harsher. Because, of course, one of the narratives that the Kremlin has been putting out there, Russian media has been putting out there as well is that they essentially now view this not as a war or a conflict of war, really, of Russia against Ukraine, but they view it as a conflict of Russia against the west, and specifically Russia against the United States as the leader of the Western world.

And so that's certainly something that we could hear in Vladimir Putin's speech today. Certainly, though, we do not expect him to announce that Russia might back down in any way, shape or form, guys.

FOSTER: I don't think anyone expected it to last this long, did they? Within Russia, it was only meant to last matter of days or weeks. Is this an address to the nation to try to keep them on side behind Putin in this effort in Ukraine?

[04:05:09]

PLEITGEN: Well, I think it absolutely is, but I also think that we do have to look at some of the opinion polls here in Russia as well. And one of the things that we did yesterday is we actually spoke to the leading pollster herein Russia, the head of Levada, and that pollster said that the support for the special military operation is strong and remains strong.

And they also believe that it's not going to wane in the next couple of months. So, clearly, the message that the Kremlin has been trying to send is something that's being received by people and is being heard by people. Vladimir Putin's approval ratings themselves, of course, have been very high ever since the war started, and really they've waned a little bit in between.

And there have been some military defeats, but recently they've sort of stopped on a very high level, and it's certainly something that seems to be holding. So right now, Vladimir Putin has the full support both in his role as president of the Russian Federation and also as far as the special military operation in Ukraine is concerned as well.

And so, therefore, yes, of course, the Kremlin definitely believes that people need to remain on side. However, also, Vladimir Putin very much has the people on side so far, guys.

FOSTER: Fred in Moscow, thank you. You can see President Putin has just taken to the stage there for what will be a long speech, if we go by previous experience, and we'll bring you all the highlights. We'll speak to Fred a little later on in the show for his latest summation of what's happened there.

U.S. President Joe Biden is in Poland, meanwhile, where he's beginning a two-day visit after a highly secretive trip to Ukraine. In the coming hours, Mr. Biden will be meeting with the Polish president before speaking at Warsaw's Royal Castle as he marks nearly a year since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

NOBILO: Air raid sirens could be heard in Kyiv as Mr. Biden walked alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the U.S. President's surprise stop in Ukraine. This was an unprecedented presidential visit to an active war zone where there was no significant U.S. military presence. The sirens a reminder of the dangers amid the ongoing war, but a risk White House officials say the President wanted to take.

CNN correspondents are tracking all of the developments for us. Kevin Liptak is standing by in Warsaw. And Clare Sebastian is with us here in London. Kevin, let's start with you. Obviously, President Biden made this trip to Ukraine to reaffirm his commitment to his ally and to say that America will be with the Ukrainians for as long as it takes.

What do you think the message will be from Mr. Biden in Poland? We know that relations between the two countries are getting warmer. This is his second trip, I think, in less than a year.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, the President was here 11 months ago in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine. And it is actually interesting, there are some parallels between that visit and this visit. He's speaking at the same venue later today, the Warsaw Castle.

And you'll remember, Bianca, when the President spoke there 11 months ago, he adlibbed a line at the end of his speech that Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power, essentially calling for regime change in Moscow. Of course, Vladimir Putin very much remains in power. And you have that fascinating split screen today with the two men laying out very different visions of the world and specifically for Ukraine.

And what President Biden will do, I think, is try and reaffirm that this Western alliance remains united. That is really kind of his overarching goal of this trip to Europe this week, is to reassure Ukrainians that the United States has their back and will continue to have their back going forward.

But what you hear from American officials is that this war is entering quite complex, complicated, new phase. And even in the last several days, you start to hear American officials warn about China potentially providing lethal aid to Russia. So what President Biden wants to do is tell the Ukrainians, tell the Europeans, tell the polls, tell the Americans that he remains very committed to this going forward.

That comes as polls in the United States show that there is some softening support for -- continued support for Ukraine. So it does remain an open question of how sustained that support will be. But certainly, President Biden really hoping to demonstrate with this visit that he remains committed to the cause.

And so he will sit down before that speech with the Polish president. As you said, the relationship has been warming between the two men in the two years that President Biden has been in office. He'll meet tomorrow with other leaders from NATO allies on the eastern flank, really trying to reinforce the message that the United States is committed to the region and committed to the fight in Ukraine. FOSTER: OK, Kevin, thank you. Clare, in terms of the perspective of Moscow on what we saw yesterday in Ukraine, doesn't necessarily speak against their narrative, because they frame this as a war with the west. And Biden being in Ukraine actually speaks to the Putin narrative, doesn't it?

[04:10:02]

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It absolutely bolsters that rhetoric. I think it was interesting, Max, yesterday, that didn't see -- they didn't give it too much oxygen. There wasn't a lot of talk from the Kremlin or even, you know, some of the higher ranking officials that quite often speak out about this.

We did hear, though, from the former President Dmitry Medvedev, who is known for being very strident, belligerent even in his commentary. He made a lot of the idea that Russia was warned couple of hours before for deconfliction purposes, according to the U.S. He said Biden, having received security guarantees in advance, finally went to Kyiv.

And he went on to accuse the west of profiting from the war in Ukraine, which I think most economists will tell you the opposite is true. It was interesting that we did also get some criticism from some of the influential military bloggers that we often hear from. One calling this a demonstrative humiliation of Russia, and another noting, ironically, that Biden made it to Kyiv before Putin did.

So there is obviously still concern in some quarters about how this operation is going for Russia. And certainly, the optics of that event really show the goals backfiring, Ukraine moving closer to the west when, you know, a year ago, Putin made a speech saying that he wanted, essentially, Ukraine to become part of Russia.

FOSTER: Clare, thank you.

Well, Kevin was just talking about this, but Ukraine's President is adding his voice to the chorus of Western leaders wanting China not to provide lethal weapons to Russia. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says if they do, there's a risk of World War III.

NOBILO: It comes as China's top foreign policy adviser is due in Moscow today. He's been telling European leaders the idea of Beijing as a mediator working to achieve an early ceasefire and lasting peace, or so they say in Ukraine.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout is following developments from Hong Kong. Kristie, we had this tantalizing statement, I think it was on Saturday, that President Xi Jinping might be introducing a so-called peace plan shortly, and they want European leaders to get behind it. Where is China at the moment on the conflict? It seems as if they 'regearing up to greater involvement.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Bianca, China likes to have it both ways. On one hand, it likes to position itself as an international peacemaker, a responsible world power. But on the other hand, it has continued to maintain this close relationship with Russia, including continuing to buy Russian energy, thus softening the blow for Russia for the Western sanctions.

Now, Wang Yi, China's top diplomat, is on route to Moscow. Just last week, we heard from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the agenda of this visit. They said that this is an opportunity for both sides to exchange views on the relationship and also to discuss international hotspot issues, which is code for the war in Ukraine.

This visit also comes at a time of deepening tension between China and the United States over the Chinese balloon and, of course, over the war in Ukraine. Last weekend, we heard from the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who warned Wang Yi about consequences if China was to go ahead and provide material support for Russia.

And on Monday, China fired back. Listen to this.

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WANG WENBIN, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON: It is the U.S., not China, that is providing a steady stream of weapons on the battlefield. The United States is in no position to make demands of China. We will never accept the U.S. pointing fingers at central Russian relations or even coercing us. China's approach to the Ukraine issue boils down to one aim, which is to urge peace and promote talks.

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LU STOUT: So when Wang Yi touches down in Moscow, which according to Russian news agency task is due to take place Tuesday afternoon local time, that will be another opportunity for China and for Russia to demonstrate what's been called a no limits partnership. Back to you.

NOBILO: Kristie Lu Stout live for us in Hong Kong, thank you.

LU STOUT: You bet.

NOBILO: Today, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is heading back to East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying hazardous material derailed more than two weeks ago now.

FOSTER: He'll meet with the residents and state officials. During his visit, his agency says there are no air or water quality concerns in the town, but residents disagree and say more needs to be done.

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BEN RATNER, EAST PALESTINE RESIDENT: So city water, we are trying to just not mitigate our contact with it. We're not bathing, we're showering. You know, we are washing like fruit and food with bottled water. But there's also several hundred people around here that have wells.

There's at least 100 wells south of here that those could have been contaminated and they need to be tested. And the logs for that testing is backing up. So that's kind of taking a lot longer than anticipated. The railroad company really just controlled the narrative early on and took advantage of all the organizations involved that's supposed to be helping us get it cleaned up.

And they put their plan in action before the superfund letter came out from the Ohio EPA that's supposed to state how this is going to be cleaned up. They were already running trains before that letter even came out. So it's kind of hard to understand how it was cleaned up properly.

[04:15:00]

I do want to remind everybody that this accident happened on the 3rd of February. We're just now getting, you know, regular briefings. We're just now getting the federal government involved. The state is still not declaring it a disaster.

So I think all those steps, they're not necessarily taking it seriously enough still. But it is a good step to have the health clinic and 5,000 people in this community, surrounding areas as well, probably should have three or four of those clinics set up eventually.

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FOSTER: Meanwhile, elsewhere in Ohio, at least 13 people were taken to local hospitals after an explosion at a metal factory sparked a huge fire. According to one medical center, two victims are in critical condition.

NOBILO: Officials say the bulk of the fire is now contained and crews are working on putting out the hotspots.

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CAPTAIN BRIAN DIROCCO, OAKWOOD VILLAGE FIRE DEPARTMENT: It was a big explosion from the people here in the plant. We do not know the cause yet. That's still going to have to be under investigation here with ourselves. And we have the state fire marshal on scene as well.

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NOBILO: Witnesses say the blast shook nearby buildings, scattered debris and damaged vehicles.

FOSTER: Admirers of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter are visiting his hometown to honor him.

NOBILO: That's after we learned that Carter is now receiving hospice or end-of-life care in the comfort of his own home. CNN's Glory Pazmino has this report from Plains, Georgia, the town that Carter put on the map.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And all day here in Plains, Georgia, the birthplace of President Jimmy Carter. We have heard from people who traveled from outside the area right here to Plains to see the birthplace of Jimmy Carter and to pay their respects.

They are reflecting back on his legacy, the time that he served as president, thinking of the differences that he made, the life that he led, and the influence that he had over this tiny little town here in Georgia. So much of this small town is associated with him.

And there were people here who we spoke to who wanted to see it and wanted to experience it and wanted to come here as they reflect on the legacy of Jimmy Carter. I spoke to someone earlier today who said that even though he did not grow up during the time of President Carter, he heard from him frequently from his parents and his grandparents.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thing that strikes me about Jimmy Carter so much, and especially when I knew it, and especially when I had the other day he's been teaching Sunday school, see, for four years. That's consistency. And when we talk about consistency, we talk about leadership. And when we talk about leadership, we talk about impact.

So values, impact, consistency and humility, you know, that speaks volumes about someone's life. And I think it's values that current America needs to lean more towards in order to ship the country in the right direction.

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PAZMINO: Now, the place behind me is, of course, where President Carter launched his political career, first running for the Senate and then running for governor here in Georgia, eventually running for the White House at a time when he was a relatively unknown political figure in the country, but going on to win the White House, only serving one term.

And at the time, many considered him to have been a failed president because he was not able to be reelected. However, he went on to define what post-presidential years are supposed to look like, staying extremely active in acts of a charity and launching the Carter Center, which was responsible for overseeing Democratic elections around the world, helping to cure disease, helping to build housing for the homeless, among several other causes.

The life and legacy of President Carter will be something that we will be discussing over the next several days as he enters this period of hospice care in his home, a decision that his family said was made jointly with his medical team. The president, 98 years old, a survivor cancer twice over, now receiving end-of-life care, surrounded by those who are closest to him and his family here in Plains, Georgia.

Gloria Pazmino, CNN.

NOBILO: Just ahead, two weeks after being hit by a devastating earthquake, Turkey and Syria are reeling from another one. We'll have the latest in a live report from Turkey.

FOSTER: Plus, new developments in the manslaughter case involving actor Alec Baldwin. We'll tell you about a surprising decision made by prosecutors.

NOBILO: And winter is far from over in the U.S., where millions are bracing for a coast-to-coast storm. BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And a potent system setting up across the U.S. bringing in the threat of severe weather and heavy snowfall. We'll have the timing and snowfall totals here in just a few minutes.

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[04:23:38]

FOSTER: Happening now, Russian President Vladimir Putin, addressing lawmakers just two days before the first anniversary of what he calls the special military operation in Ukraine. We'll bring you more of this as it comes through, but very much talking about the world order, how he sees it standing today.

And also we've got this contrast, haven't we, with Biden's speech in Poland later today, which will address similar issues but from a very different perspective.

NOBILO: Exactly. It really seems like they're dividing into bipolar views of particularly the conflict, but also the wider world. And tens of millions of Americans are under winter weather alerts across the western United States.

FOSTER: A powerful storm bearing down on the region and then moving into the midwest. California could suffer power outages today. High winds hit the rockies and Minneapolis. Minnesota is going to get slammed and multiple rounds of snow that could wind up making history.

NOBILO: The system is moving from coast to coast. With more, let's bring in meteorologist Britley Ritz. Britley?

RITZ: From the traverse mountains in Southern California all the way to the cascade, so we have winter storm warnings in effect. That area, highlighted in pink extends all the way through the rockies. Now just issued blizzard warnings for parts of the Northern plains where winds are expected to reach over 50 miles per hour at times, causing white out conditions for several hours.

That first round already starting across the northwest, expect it to come in waves. We will expect winds with this gusting over 50 miles per hour, hence the high wind warnings that will likely get extended all the way up into parts of the Northern plains and Upper Midwest.

[04:25:16]

There's that first round moving in Tuesday. Places like Minneapolis can pick up 4 inches to 6 inches. That again being the first round. The second round Wednesday into Thursday, where the heaviest snowfall is expected to fall across the Upper Midwest. These areas picking up 12 inches to 20 inches with the second wave.

When it's all said and done, some of us across the Northern plains and Upper Midwest, areas highlighted in darker pink, that's 18 inches to 24 inches of snowfall. Isolated higher amounts are possible where it's just a little bit warmer. Now we're talking about the threat of significant icing or we'll have widespread power outages and nearly no travel expected with these conditions with over a half an inch of ice expected across northern Illinois just south and west of Chicago.

On top of it all, the warmer end of things. Now we're dealing with flooding all the way from Illinois back down through the southern Mississippi Valley, or 2 inches to 4 inches of rain expected all the way through the rest of this week. Areas highlighted in yellow from Chicago, north of Columbia, Missouri, where we are expected to deal with the heaviest rainfall.

And not only that, but where conditions are a little more vulnerable, or where highlighted in yellow here across parts of Missouri back into Oklahoma. This is where we could be dealing with not only the flooding rain threat, but also damaging winds as well as the threat for a brief tornado. Max, Bianca?

NOBILO: Meteorologist Britley Ritz, thank you.

Two weeks after a powerful earthquake killed tens of thousands of people in Turkey and Syria, a magnitude 6.3 aftershock has further devastated the region. In Turkey's Hatay province, rescues recovered a lifeless body on Tuesday morning, one of at least three people killed after Monday's aftershock. Nearly 300 others were injured, according to the health minister.

FOSTER: This was the scene in Turkey on Monday night, the aftershock caught on video by a dashcam. You can see the city plunging into darkness. Everything starts shaking and you can only imagine what's going through people's minds when they've been through what they have.

Let's go to Nada Bashir in southern Turkey. What was it like and how are things looking today, Nada?

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, just as you said, Max, there is a sense of shock. The people here of southeast Turkey have already been through so much, have already lost so much, and of course, this was the strongest aftershock that they have felt since that earthquake two weeks ago. And there is still a real sense of fear here.

We're currently in Adana, which is about 120 miles away from the epicenter, which is in the neighborhood of Defne in Hatay. As you said, they're one of the hardest-hit provinces by that earthquake two weeks ago. And even from this distance, we were able to feel the tremor here, a very significant shake.

We were staying at a hotel, and now I could say a lot of the families in this hotel are still afraid. They slept in the lobby, bringing their blankets out and all their belongings in case they had to make a swift exit. And this is something that people in southeast Turkey will be going through for the next few weeks, closer to the epicenter.

There have been feelings of those tremors, those aftershocks, since that significant earthquake two weeks ago. And you can imagine the emotional trauma people are going through having to relive this. And we have already, of course, heard reports from the authorities down in Hatay province and in the surrounding areas that some buildings have now collapsed.

Our team on the ground there with our correspondent Jomana Karadsheh were actually outside one of those search and rescue operations just last night, where three people were trapped in a building. Now, the Disaster and Emergency Management Agency here in Turkey has confirmed that a further three people have now died after that aftershock bringing the death toll to six.

And there is that sense of fear. Many people now too afraid to head back home. And our team on the ground spoke to them. They said they were absolutely terrified, they wouldn't be going home. And now many of them are now sleeping on the streets. Max, Bianca?

FOSTER: OK, Nada, thank you for joining us from Adana in Turkey.

NOBILO: And we're keeping an eye on Russian President Vladimir Putin's speech to lawmakers. We'll head live to Moscow after a short break.

FOSTER: And later, fleeing Russia over the war in Ukraine. We'll hear from one man who explains why he and others made the difficult decision to leave their country.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was afraid for my family. All the people that were there, they were against the war. That was the reason why they left Russia.

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