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Russian President Breaks Silence after Wagner Coup Attempt, No Mentions of Prigozhin's name; CNN Obtains an Audio Recording of Donald Trump on Classified Documents; Incumbent Greek PM Wins for a Second Term; Chinese Premier Predicts 5 Percent Economic Growth This Year; Armenian Christians Challenge Controversial Land Deal for an offer to Hotel developers; Spanish People Cool Down in a Fountain despite Heat Wave. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired June 27, 2023 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. You are watching "CNN Newsroom" and I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, Putin breaks his silence. The Russian strongman delivering a fiery speech just days after facing the biggest threat to his power in more than two decades.
But the man behind the insurrection in Russia is not staying silent either. Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin claiming his troops have the public support moved towards Moscow.
And CNN obtains audio of Donald Trump talking about highly classified documents still in his possession after he left office.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Thanks for joining us. Well, Russian President Vladimir Putin is speaking out publicly for the first time since the end of a short- lived insurrection which rattled his grip on power and threw the country into uncertainty.
In a nationwide address, Putin lashed out at those who organized the uprising by Wagner group fighters but did not mention leader Yevgeny Prigozhin by name.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): An armed rebellion would have been suppressed in any case. The organizers of the rebellion, despite the loss of adequacy, could not fail to understand this. They understood everything, including that they resorted to criminal acts to divide and weaken the country, which is now confronting a colossal external threat, unprecedented pressure from the outside.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Video showed Putin meeting with top officials Monday in a show of normality after the upheaval of the weekend. On Saturday, an armed march toward Moscow by Wagner Group fighters caused chaos before a Minsk-broken deal brought the brief uprising to an end.
The man behind the insurrection, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, also spoke out Monday. He was last seen in public on Saturday and his whereabouts are still unknown. Prigozhin said the march was not a move to oust Putin but instead a protest.
And CNN's Clare Sebastian is following developments for us. She joins us live from London. Good morning to you again Clare. So what all did the two speeches of Putin and pro-Goshen reveal?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah Rosemary, this was a much- billed speech by President Putin that didn't really live up to its promises. He thanked the Russian people for staying united, but I don't think that does anything to reassure people that have been rattled, shaken by events of the weekend in a way that they haven't been over the 23 years of Putin's rule over Russia. So that's one thing.
I think what we did learn is that Putin now very clearly sees Prigozhin as an enemy. The fact that he didn't speak his name in itself a sign of that. He tends not to speak the names of his enemies. People like Alexei Navalny, you never hear that name come out of Putin's mouth, but he was very clear that he said those who organized the rebellion had betrayed their country and lied to their people.
He was much less critical of the Wagner fighters themselves, offering them essentially a free choice, carte blanche, to do whatever they want in terms of joining the MOD, the Russian regular army, going back to their families, he said, or going to Belarus, which of course raises big questions since we know that the Kremlin says Yevgeny Prigozhin is being sent to Belarus.
Does this mean we're going to get some kind of Wagner 2.0 in Belarus? We await to hear further comments today from the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko which may shed light on that.
Interestingly it doesn't seem like Prigozhin has reserved as much vitriol for Putin as Putin has for Prigozhin. Prigozhin said that the march was nothing to do with trying to overthrow the government. He also didn't mention Putin. He said this was just about the protest and trying to avoid the destruction of the private military company Wagner. So that was that.
I think the key thing in terms of the Kremlin's messaging is that we're getting an increased sense of inconsistency. And that is compounding the sense of chaos in the country. As I said, the Kremlin had billed Putin's speech according to state media, quoting the Kremlin's spokesperson before the speech as something that would determine the fate of Russia. [03:05:06]
When that did not materialize, the Kremlin walked that back, accused those reporting it of reporting fake news. So I think the messaging around this really shows. The sort of narrative is slipping away from Putin to some degree. Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Clare Sebastian joining us live from London.
NATO Secretary General says the events that unfolded in Russia over the weekend show Vladimir Putin made a big strategic mistake by launching the war on Ukraine. His comments coming during a visit to Lithuania's capital where he met with the country's president. Jens Stoltenberg also said NATO Allies should not make the mistake of underestimating Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: It is hard to predict exactly what will now happen in the next days and weeks, but we should not make the mistakes that we are underestimating the Russians. So we need to continue to provide support to Ukraine, and that's exactly what NATO and NATO Allies are doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: U.S. President Joe Biden insists Washington and its allies had nothing to do with the Wagner Group rebellion. He says he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by phone on Sunday and they would talk again soon.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow is investigating whether Western intelligence services were involved in the revolt. Mr. Biden offered a flat denial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: We gave Putin no excuse to blame this on the West or to blame this on NATO. We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it. This was part of a struggle within the Russian system. It's still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going. The ultimate outcome of all this remains to be seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Joining me now to discuss all the latest developments is Julia Ioffe, founding partner and Washington correspondent with "Puck." Thank you so much for joining us.
JULIA IOFFE, FOUNDING PARTNER AND WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: So how badly damaged is Vladimir Putin's leadership by this challenge to his authority, particularly after seeing his performance during that five minute address Monday? And do you think he can survive this?
IOFFE: Well, I think in the medium and long term, Putin is certainly damaged by this. But in the short term, which is generally how Putin tends to move, right, he will put out one fire after another and kick the can to mix metaphors, kick the can down the road as much as he can and hope he kind of muddles through somehow.
And in this case, I mean, Prigozhin lost. He went with a column of 25,000 heavily armored men. Very loyal to him, very set on this goal, and they blinked. And now Wagner is being somewhat dissolved. Prigozhin is exiled to Belarus, and Putin is still in charge. That's what all the speeches yesterday, the you know, video of the cabinet meeting, it was all to show that things are back to normal, that Putin, that basically no one can touch him.
Again, this is all gonna be empiric and ephemeral, but for now I think he remains in charge. Again, it showed the brittleness of the regime, but he clearly won this contest.
CHURCH: Right. And Yevgeny Prigozhin now says he didn't try to topple Putin, but was instead protesting the treatment of his Wagner fighters. He called this a march for justice, not a coup, during his 11-minute video rant. And while Prigozhin has disappeared for now, if he takes up the option of exile in Belarus. Do you think his life is in danger here? Will he be hunted down?
IOFFE: I think his life is absolutely in danger. What Putin has shown over the last 23 years is that he does not take betrayal lightly and he never forgives it. He remembers it, he nurses that grudge and he eventually acts on it. This is to him the worst kind of crime is when you betray his loyalty years often before acting on something like that. So I think his life is definitely in danger.
CHURCH: Why do you think Putin didn't arrest Prigozhin when he was in Russia, marching toward Moscow? Given Prigozhin will now of course be a constant reminder of Putin's failings whilst ever he's out there putting out these videos.
IOFFE: Well, I think what we saw in Rostov, first of all, showed that he has quite a base of his own and that a lot of people view him and Wagner as kind of folk heroes because of what they've done on the battlefield in Ukraine.
[03:10:08]
And second, I think in some ways, as perverse as it seems, Putin was showing this kind of czar-like magnanimity. And I think that's why you didn't see him get engaged until today, I'm sorry, until yesterday. Why you saw him kind of not, trying not to get his hands dirty and acting at a remove, letting other people handle this? It's a way of showing that he's above this, he's bigger than this. And if this man wants to go live in exile, he'll grant him that kind of benevolent request. I think it's a bit of theater as well.
CHURCH: What do you think the Russian people make of all this? And of course, how much should we read into the cheering and supportive crowd surrounding Prigozhin at the start of his march to Moscow? Is that representative of how many Russians feel about him particularly?
IOFFE: Well, the cheering came at the end of his march, when he was pulling out of Rostov. It's hard to tell what Russian people think. I think people, in part, could have been cheering him again, because this idea that, you know, they're fighting for the motherland, they could be cheering for him because he is an alternative to Putin and he's bringing any kind of change, not, you know, not really thinking ahead to what kind of change that might be if somebody like Prigozhin, who was a hard-line nationalist and kind of fascist war to be in charge.
And it also depends on where in the country you're talking about. So maybe in the South, closer to the war, people feel more, I don't know, more closer to him.
In places like the Capitol, people were clearly scared of him. People in the Capitol tend to, a lot of them have their lives tied up with Putin and the regime he created. It's why you didn't see any of them join, at least publicly, Prigozhin's coup. They all sat around and waited to see who would ultimately win. And I think there was a real sense of relief when Prigozhin blinked and turned around, because they understand who Prigozhin is, and that change might be to be not that kind of change (inaudible).
CHURCH: Julia Ioffe, thank you so much for joining us. I Appreciate it.
IOFFE: Thank you.
CHURCH: Ukraine is using the chaos in Russia to its advantage, claiming big gains over Russian troops on Monday. In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian fighters had advanced in all directions on the southern and eastern front lines.
CNN's Ben Wedeman has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A brief revolt in Russia complicating the fight on the front line in Ukraine.
Now as Prigozhin halts his uprising and relocates to Belarus as part of an agreement to avoid Russian bloodshed, Wagner's future on the battlefield is uncertain.
YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN, HEAD OF WAGNER PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANY (through translator): The purpose of the march was to prevent the destruction of the Wagner PMC and the prosecution of those who made a huge number of mistakes in the course of the special military operation due to their unprofessional actions. The society demanded this. All the soldiers who saw us supported us.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Eager to accelerate the halting start of their counteroffensive, the Ukrainian military claimed a spate of advances over the weekend. The Russian defense ministry has yet to comment on the Ukrainian
claims. In the southeast, Ukrainian troops claimed to liberate the village of Rivnopil. Ukrainian armed forces said they cleared a strategic Russian position on the western bank of the Siversky Donetsk-Donbass Canal.
And in the long-embattled town of Bakhmut, Ukrainian troops said they made gains on territory that Wagner fighters fought mercilessly to claim for months.
The battle in Bakhmut unfolded in close quarters among the trenches. Some fighting even taking place at point-blank range, a Ukrainian commander said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the front lines of Donetsk to praise the efforts of the troops to advance.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Ukraine is proud of each and every one of you. You are tough, strong, are real Ukrainians. Everyone in the country understands that you are with us. Those who are not on the front line, everyone knows you are doing the most difficult work right now.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Despite these small territorial gains, the front lines remain largely unchanged. While Ukraine has claimed some tactical success, it remains to be seen whether it's enough to turn the tide of war.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Eastern Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[03:15:05]
CHURCH: Coming up on "CNN Newsroom," Donald Trump says he didn't keep classified documents in his Florida home after he left office, but recently obtained audio appears to contradict that. We'll hear it after the break.
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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. CNN has obtained a key piece of evidence in the federal indictment against former U.S. President Donald Trump. In an audio recording from 2021, after he had left office, Trump seems to indicate he is holding top secret Pentagon documents about plans to attack Iran. Documents he acknowledged he did not declassify. Take a listen.
[03:19:54]
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: These are bad, sick people.
UNKNOWN: That was your coup, you know, against you.
TRUMP: Well, it started right at the beginning.
UNKNOWN: Like when Millie's talking about, oh, you were going to try to do a coup. They were trying to do that before you even were sworn in.
UNKNOWN: That's right.
UNKNOWN: Trying to overthrow your election.
TRUMP: Well, with Millie, let me see that. I'll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn't it amazing? I have a big pile of papers. This thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this. This is off the record, but they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him. We looked at something. This was him. This wasn't done by me. This was him. All sorts of stuff. Pages long. Wait a minute, let's see here.
UNKNOWN: Oh, my gosh.
UNKNOWN: Yeah.
TRUMP: I just found, isn't that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like highly confidential --
UNKNOWN: Yeah.
TRUMP: -- secret information. There's a secret information. Look at this. You attack and --
UNKNOWN: Hillary would print that out all the time, you know.
TRUMP: She'd send it --
UNKNOWN: Her private emails.
TRUMP: No. She'd send it to Anthony Weiner.
UNKNOWN: Yeah.
TRUMP: The pervert.
UNKNOWN: Please print.
TRUMP: By the way, isn't that incredible?
UNKNOWN: Yeah.
TRUMP: I was just saying, because we were talking about it. And he said, he wanted to attack Iran and what? These are the papers.
UNKNOWN: You did.
TRUMP: This was done by the military given to me. I think we can probably, right?
UNKNOWN: I don't know. We'll have to see. Yeah, we'll have to try to --
TRUMP: Declassify it.
UNKNOWN: -- figure out a, yeah.
TRUMP: See, as president, I could have declassified.
UNKNOWN: Yeah.
TRUMP: No, I can't, you know. But this is still a secret.
UNKNOWN: Yeah, now we have a problem.
TRUMP: Isn't that interesting?
UNKNOWN: Yeah.
TRUMP: It's so cool. I mean, it's so, look, her and I. And you probably almost didn't believe me, but now you believe me.
UNKNOWN: No, I believe you.
TRUMP: It's incredible, right?
UNKNOWN: No, it's never been a forest.
TRUMP: Bring some cokes in, please.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
CHURCH: The recording we just heard seems to contradict claims he made on Fox News last week when he said he did not keep any secret documents in his Mar-a-Lago resort after he left office. Earlier this month, Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 charges related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents.
In Greece, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was sworn in for a second term following a resounding victory in Sunday's elections. His ruling party won more than 40 percent of the votes, defeating leftist Syriza by a huge margin.
CNN's Elinda Labropolou has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELINDA LABROPOLOU, JOURNALIST: Greece's center-right New Democracy Party has won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections that will see Kyriakos Mitsotakis voted in as prime minister for a second time.
Mr. Mitsotakis is the person who has seen Greece through the end of the financial crisis. He has weathered COVID-19 crisis and also an energy crisis as a result of the war in Ukraine. He's seen as a safe pair of hands to deliver further growth. And this is very much what the Greek people seem to have voted on the economy and very much the impact in their own pockets. Mr. Mitsotakis has pledged to deliver growth in Greece, stable growth
of 3 percent throughout the next decade, and he has also said that he will make big changes in education and in health.
A number of other parties have also entered parliament for the first time. A number of far-right parties have actually entered parliament for the first time in Greece. It's going to be a voice, a strong voice perhaps, an opposition voice in the parliament but Mr. Mitsotakis seems to have a strong enough mandate to be able to see his pledges through.
Elinda Labropoulou, CNN, Athens, Greece.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Still ahead, China's premier is predicting a profitable second half of his country's economy. We are live in Hong Kong with the details.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:25:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well, we are expecting to hear from the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, in the day ahead about the short-lived Russian revolt.
Russian President Vladimir Putin broke his silence on Monday, but did not mention the leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, by name. Instead, he criticized the organizers of the rebellion for betraying their country. And he said Wagner group fighters could go with Prigozhin to Belarus or join the Russian military.
Prigozhin spoke earlier on Monday. He said his goal was never to replace Putin, but to prevent the breakup of the Wagner Group. He says he stopped the march on Moscow to avoid more bloodshed. Relative calm has returned to the streets of the Russian capital after Mr. Putin enacted emergency measures over the weekend.
But an air of uncertainty still looms over the country. And the European union's top diplomat says the Russian president has been damaged.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEP BORRELL, E.U. FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: And the monster that Putin created with the banger, the monster is biting him now. The monster is acting against his creator. The political system is showing the facilities and the military power is cracking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Prigozhin's exact whereabouts are still unknown and many experts believe he won't be safe in Belarus. CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance reports from Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the last time we saw the Wagner leader departing the Russian city. He'd essentially taken over at the weekend. Amid cheers from supporters.
Now Yevgeny Prigozhin is speaking out for the first time since agreeing to call off the armed rebellion that shook the Kremlin to its core. In an 11-minute recording, Prigozhin denies aiming to challenge the Russian president.
PRIGOZHIN (through translator): The purpose of the march was to prevent the destruction of the Wagner and the prosecution of those who made a huge number of mistakes in the course of the special military operation due to their unprofessional actions. Society demanded this. All the soldiers who saw us supported us.
[03:30:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE (voice-over): But on Russian state television, damage control is already in full swing after a weekend of mayhem.
Prigozhin's armed rebellion has failed, the presenter says. Russians stood in a united front for President Putin, she declares. But few doubt how weakened events of the past few days have left Russia's leader.
But now, for the first time since the rebellion ended, Vladimir Putin has addressed the nation too. In a short speech condemning the rebellion as treachery, something Putin has in the past said he would not forgive.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): They wanted Russian soldiers to kill each other, to kill military personnel and civilians, so that, in the end, Russia would lose and our society would split, choke in bloody civil strife.
CHANCE (voice-over): What will become of Yevgeny Prigozhin now, whether he will be prosecuted or not, remains unclear. Although he did appear to confirm for the first time that he may indeed take a Kremlin offer to head to Belarus and resume Wagner's operations from there.
That may no longer be on the table for a once loyal Putin ally who appears to have made a dangerous enemy in the Kremlin.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: The weekend rebellion is taking a toll on the Russian economy. The ruble briefly hit its lowest level in nearly 15 months on Monday, trading about 87 to the U.S. dollar before pairing back some of its losses. Russians scrambled to swap their cash for dollars over the weekend, pushing up the exchange rate. The Russian currency has been surprisingly resilient for most of the year, thanks to the central bank's aggressive rate hikes.
And China's Premier is bullish about his country's economic outlook. He is predicting growth of about 5 percent for this year. That would be a big improvement over last year's 3 percent economic growth, which fell well short of Beijing's target. Beijing is also warning other countries against reducing their dependency on China. The Chinese premier told delegates at the World Economic Forum he would like to see more communication and cooperation with Beijing's partners.
So let's go live to CNN's Anna Coren. She joins us from Hong Kong. Good to see you, Anna. So what more are you learning about this and of course any other significant economic headlines coming out of the summit?
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, as you say, the Chinese premier is sounding very optimistic about his country's economy while addressing the World Economic Forum Summit in Tianjin today, announcing China's economic growth was projected to reach an annual target of around 5 percent.
Now, it comes as the world's second largest economy is struggling to make the post-COVID recovery that markets were anticipating after it reopened at the end of last year, after virtually cutting itself off from the world for almost three years with its harsh zero-COVID policies.
Li Qiang said growth in the second quarter of this year will be higher than the first and that China will roll out more effective policies to expand domestic demand and open markets. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LI QIANG, CHINESE PREMIER (through translator): For the whole year, we are expected to achieve the target of about 5 percent economic growth set at the beginning of this year. Recently, some international organizations and institutions have also raised their forecasts for China's economic growth this year, showing their confidence in China's development prospects.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: But Rosemary, not everyone is showing confidence. There's a long list of major banks and credit rating agencies that have cut forecasts for economic growth this year. Just yesterday, S&P Global reduced growth forecasts from 5.5 to 5.2 percent, joining Goldman Sachs, UBS, and JPMorgan, among others, in reducing estimates. And the property sector remains a drag on the economy as developers struggle to complete pre-sold projects. And the local government debt burden into focus.
Industrial output and retail sales remain sluggish and youth unemployment, Rosemary, is at a record 20.8 percent. Now many young people they are disillusioned and anxious about China's economic uncertainty and they've resorted to prayer. They're flooding the Buddhist and Taoist temples to pray for divine intervention in securing jobs and it's feared that the youth unemployment rate could further rise as the record 11.6 million college students graduate this summer.
Rosemary, analysts believe that China will need to roll out more stimulus this year to achieve growth targets, but it is unknown what form that stimulus will take. Rosemary.
[03:35:06]
CHURCH: All right. Anna Coren, joining us live from Hong Kong. Many thanks for that report.
Well, still to come. A controversial land deal has pitted Armenians in Jerusalem against their religious leader. How one contract threatens more than 1600 years of history when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Sudan's paramilitary forces said Sunday they have captured the headquarters of a militarized police unit working with the -- in the capital Khartoum. The Rapid Support Forces also claimed to have seized dozens of armored vehicles and an ammunition storage facility and to have killed or captured hundreds of military soldiers.
Meanwhile Doctors Without Borders says a Khartoum hospital has treated 150 war-wounded patients in the past two days. Most of the injured are civilians, including children and the elderly. Sudan's health ministry said earlier this month that at least 3,000 people have died, as 6,000 have been wounded since fighting broke out between the rival military factions on April 15.
UNICEF says more than 100,000 children who have fled the violence in Sudan now face new challenges in neighboring Chad, including the risk of disease and delayed access to humanitarian aid.
[03:40:00
As of June 23rd, more than 140,000 Sudanese refugees and 34,000 Chadian returnees have crossed the border into Chad. 90 percent of them are women and children, and thousands more are expected to arrive as violence escalates in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
Well, residents of Jerusalem's Armenian quarter are fighting to keep their community intact amid a real estate deal potentially offering our precious land to hotel developers. Some fear it could mark the beginning of the end for Armenians in the old city.
CNN's Hadas Gold spoke with one man who is not giving up on the fight to keep his home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the hushed ornate St. James Cathedral in the Armenian quarter, one of Jerusalem's most famous photographers, Garo Nalbandian, is at work, documenting precious community artifacts.
GARO NALBANDIAN, PHOTOGRAPHER: Sometimes I have some pieces, I fall in love.
GOLD (voice-over): He's also one of only a few hundred Armenians still living in the old city, now sounding the alarm over a recent deal that will see at least 20 percent of the Armenian quarter handed over to developers for a 99-year lease with reported plans to build a luxury hotel. A deal many Armenians here say threatens their more than 1,600- year presence in the old city.
And though they face pressures from others, like Jewish settlers in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this deal was struck by their very own religious leaders, the Armenian Patriarchate.
Gharos, centuries-old home, is part of the land transfer, he says.
NALBANDIAN: I'm having nightmares every night. Where am I going to live with my family, with my children? If we lose this, it's been, we're losing all the Armenians people here.
GOLD (voice-over): Gharos says church leaders are avoiding them and refuse to show the contract or maps.
NALBANDIAN: It's not important who bought it. I'm not blaming who bought it. I'm blaming why they sell it. Anybody can buy, has money. But this is not patriarchy property. It's property for all Armenians, all Armenians in the world.
GOLD (voice-over): With his wife and granddaughter looking on, he gets emotional over what he calls betrayal.
NALBANDIAN: I don't understand them. They don't have a feeling. What I will tell you, those are not Armenians.
GOLD (voice-over): The uproar over the sale and the lack of clarity have resulted in regular protest outside the Armenian patriarch's Nurhan Manojian's office.
A group of volunteer lawyers from Armenia and the United States arrived for a week-long fact-finding mission and to suggest remedies.
UNKNOWN: We consider the envisioned prospects unacceptable.
GOLD (voice-over): A defrocked Armenian priest and former real estate manager for the patriarchate, Father Baret Yeretsian told CNN via text message the deal was signed by the patriarch with Xana Capital in 2021 with the intention of providing for the future financial security of the patriarchate.
Photos from what Yeretsian says was the night the contract was signed shows the patriarch shaking hands with developer Xana Capital chairman Danny Rothman, who did not respond to CNN's request for comment. But earlier this year, Yeritsian says he was asked to leave by the
patriarch, needing police protection as he was chased by protesters. He said he now feels like a scapegoat and was only following orders.
The patriarch declined our request for an interview, but we managed to catch his deputy.
(on-camera): Can you help explain what's been sold in the Armenian quarter and why the community --
ARCHBISHOP SEVAN GHARIBIAN, DEAN AND CHAIRMAN OF ST. JAMES MONASTERY: Nothing sold.
GOLD (on-camera): Nothing's been sold?
GHARIBIAN: No, nothing sold. They are saying sold, but nothing sold.
GOLD (on-camera): So why --
GHARIBIAN: They have rented it to the other company. That is all. But about 99 years they are talking. But we are doing our best to cancel it if we can.
GOLD (voice-over): The Archbishop also defending the patriarch's silence towards the community, saying they're working behind the scenes.
GHARIBIAN: We don't answer to any, every question, every talking. Let them talk. Later we will see who is right doing.
GOLD (voice-over): Garo Nalbandian is not convinced. He says they will have to physically carry him out of his home, fighting till the end.
Hadas Gold, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: The wildfire smoke that blanketed much of the U.S. East Coast a few weeks ago has now made it to Europe. Crossing the Atlantic via the jet stream, which means it's now in the upper levels of the atmosphere and should have limited impact on air quality.
And this was Montreal on Sunday as dozens of forest fires still rage in Quebec province alone.
[03:45:04]
One pollution monitor says Montreal now has the worst air quality of any major city in the world. Data shows this is the worst Canadian wildfire season on record, and authorities are warning people to avoid outdoor activities and wear face masks.
Well it is so hot in Spain. A protocol is in place in some parts of the country banning some work outdoors. But for many families, the scorching days are a chance to have some fun while cooling down. Splash fountains have become a popular spot as temperatures hit 40 to 42 degrees Celsius, forecasters say the heat wave impacting parts of Madrid and other cities is expected to last through Wednesday. And while the kids may be having a good time, some parents say it is taking a toll on their daily routines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELVIRA MARTINEZ, MOTHER (through translator): It's oppressive. We can't sleep well. The children don't want to be at home because of the heat. We have to come out here. Thank goodness we have this place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Experts say heat waves in June in Spain have been increasing over the past decade.
Well humans' thirst for groundwater has sucked so much liquid from subsurface reserves that it's affecting the Earth's tilt. A new study says the extraction of groundwater over more than a decade has tipped the planet's axis by nearly two inches or about four centimeters per year. One of the scientists behind the study says the Earth's rotational pole actually does change a lot, but climate-related causes, especially the redistribution of groundwater, have the largest impact.
Well just ahead, after facing the first serious threat to his leadership, we will look back at the long journey Vladimir Putin took to seize power in Russia.
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CHURCH: More in our top story now. Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the nation on Monday a little more than 48 hours after an armed revolt by the Wagner group got to within 200 kilometers of Moscow. Putin may have agreed to the deal that ended the rebellion, but by Monday, he was showing flashes of anger.
He accused the rebellion organizers of betraying their country. Journalist and author David Remnick spoke with CNN earlier and gave his take on Putin's speech.
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DAVID REMNICK, EDITOR, THE NEW YORKER: He's incensed. He's furious. He's been unmasked like the Wizard of Oz when the curtain is stripped back. You know, for years we've been talking about, or certain people have been talking about, Vladimir Putin as the grand chess master of strategy, who plays the weak hand strong on the world stage like no other, et cetera, et cetera. Cue the, all the cliches.
Now what's happened is that this personalist regime of Putin's in which everything is dependent on him and relationships to him, beginning with Prigozhin, by the way. who is a creation of Vladimir Putin, we're beginning to see the fissures at the highest moment of tension in Putin's regime.
Now, Vladimir Putin is at war on three fronts. He invaded Ukraine unnecessarily, so he's facing the Ukrainian army, a very determined army. He's facing NATO forces, and now to some degree, he's finding opponents at home. And I don't mean the liberals that he's jailed or "The Wall Street Journal" correspondent Evan Gerskovich should not be forgotten, jailed. I mean people in his own circle. And he knows that he's been exposed 23 years into his reign. And suddenly, speculation is rife in Moscow. And people know about this.
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CHURCH: Vladimir Putin has been in power for almost a quarter of a century now. CNN's Randy Kaye shows us how he rose to the top of the Kremlin and cemented his iron grip on Russia.
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RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He is the ultimate alpha male, or at least he'd like the world to believe that. Vladimir Putin always presenting himself as the picture of strength, often shirtless, captured hunting, or taking a submarine down deep in the Black Sea.
Putin was born in October 1952 in what is now St. Petersburg. In 1975, he joined the KGB as an intelligence officer. In 1999, then-President Boris Yeltsin appointed Putin prime minister. In 2000, Putin was elected president of Russia. At the time, even President George Bush was impressed, though it didn't last.
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I found to be very straightforward and trustworthy.
KAYE (voice-over): Putin was reelected in 2004. By 2008, he'd reached the term limit under Russia's constitution. So he got creative and switched jobs with then Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. So Medvedev was elected president of Russia and named Putin as prime minister, a move that raised questions about how much power Medvedev really had.
In office, Medvedev changed the constitution, extending presidential terms from four years to six years, before Putin was re-elected president again in 2012.
PUTIN (translated): We have demonstrated that nobody can impose anything on us.
KAYE (voice-over): Putin has ruled Russia for more than two decades, and his power is undeniable. He escalated the war in Chechnya, invaded Ukraine, and his government allegedly interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, though he's denied that.
He also allegedly had a hand in disposing of his critics, like former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died weeks after drinking a cup of poison-laced tea. Litvinenko blamed Putin. The Kremlin denied his involvement.
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Still, Putin won his last election in 2018 with more than 76 percent of the vote. His critics have slammed the election as unfair, citing tight control over the media and election monitors.
Some critics have suggested Putin has used his reign not to better the lives of the Russian people, but to enrich himself through theft and corruption.
Bill Browder, who once invested heavily in Russia, is now one of Vladimir Putin's toughest critics.
BILL BROWDER, ONE OF PUTIN'S CRITICS: Estimate his net worth. 200 billion.
KAYE (voice-over): Exact details about Putin's wealth are hard to come by. These photos from inside one of Putin's lavish homes were shared with CNN by an independent Russian journalist who left the country.
ROMAN BADANIN, INDEPENDENT RUSSIAN JOURNALIST: And this man loves gold maniacally. And he loves his rich life very much.
KAYE (voice-over): Putin also likes to keep his private life private.
But news of his longtime mistress, with whom he reportedly has children, has made headlines. These are pictures of Putin with Alina Kubeva, a former Olympic gymnast who is about 30 years younger than Putin. She and Putin met more than a decade ago, but are rarely seen together.
PUTIN: Russia has a long and rich experience.
KAYE (voice-over): Despite his grip on power now suddenly in question, Putin is expected to rule at least until 2024, when at age 71 he will end his fourth presidential term. However, he signed legislation in 2021 that would allow him to run for two more terms, which could mean he may be in office until 2036.
Randi Kaye, CNN.
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CHURCH: And thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Rosemary Church. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Max Foster, next.
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