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CNN International: Lukashenko: Prigozhin in Russia, not Belarus; Russian Jets Intercept U.S. Drones over Syria; Meta Officially Launches Twitter Rival; Bowers: Spoke with FBI in Election 2020 Probe; Rare Access to Russian Prisoners of War in Ukrainian Jail. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 06, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

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MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to CNN "Newsroom". I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead, the leader of Belarus says Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is in Russia not Belarus, as he speaks to CNN after he helped broker a deal in the wake of a Russia mutiny.

This is Russian state media claim police seized gold weapons and weeks from Prigozhin's St. Petersburg residents, those details in the moment. And Meta launches Threads it's highly anticipated answer to Twitter. So what can we expect from a newer social media contender?

The Kremlin is refusing to comment on the whereabouts of Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. Earlier while Speaking to CNN, the President of Belarus said Prigozhin is in Russia. The Wagner boss led his mercenary fighters in a brief rebellion against Russian military leaders nearly two weeks ago now. And he reportedly agreed to excel in Belarus but according to that country's President, Prigozhin is not there now.

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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I wonder if you could provide us all with a bit of an update on the whereabouts of the Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, is he in Belarus or not?

ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT: In terms of Yevgeny Prigozhin. He is in St. Petersburg, or maybe this morning he would travel to Moscow or elsewhere. But he's not on the territory of Belarus now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Matthew joins us for Minsk, Belarus with details on that. It was an extraordinary answer, because it raises more questions than the answers.

CHANCE: Yes, I mean, well, the answer was pretty straightforward. It just contradicted the previous statements that Alexander Lukashenko had made, that Yevgeny Prigozhin was here. And of course, it all stems from the deal, which he is said to have brokered last month to bring to an end the Wagner uprising in Russia, in which Wagner fighters and the Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin were offered, essentially exile here in Belarus.

And that's one of the reasons they called off their military uprising, their so called march for justice, as they called it, on Moscow. And so this throws into doubt now, whether that deal is still valid, whether it's being sort of forcibly renegotiated by the Kremlin that certainly seems to be what the indications are the fact that Alexander Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus, would put so much distance between himself Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner group.

He denied that there were any military facilities being prepared here for Wagner to arrive, even though there have been satellite photographs that have been published in the past few days, showing that military facilities that had tents put up there possibly in preparation for a Wagner arrival.

And so it all implies that the plan to bring Wagner here to bring Yevgeny Prigozhin here, that's no longer the plan. And we might be looking at another scenario for the Wagner leader.

FOSTER: Matthew in Minsk. Thank you for joining us. Russia appears to be stepping up that apparent propaganda campaign against the Wagner Chief following his failed mutiny. State TV ad video of what it says was a police raid of Yevgeny Prigozhin's office and residence in St. Petersburg.

The footage described by Kremlin media scandalous allegedly shows a stash of gold, money, and wigs. Nada has been poring over that video. We can't be entirely reliant on the video because it didn't come from us. But it is interesting.

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: It is interesting. This has been aired on state media. But we know of course from experts and other human rights advocates. This is a trend we have seen the criminal in the past using criminal cases or alleged criminal cases in order to discredit challenges of the Kremlin.

We know of course that Yevgeny Prigozhin has been a vocal critic of the Kremlin with regards to its activities in Ukraine. Crucially, of course, not in terms of the invasion, but in terms of the support the equipment being provided for Russia back fighters on the ground and the front line in Ukraine.

Now, of course, this was an interesting video, it showed a police raid or purportedly showed a police raid of Yevgeny Prigozhin in St. Petersburg residents. And as you mentioned there was described as finding a stash of gold, of wigs, money, weapons, as well as several passports belonging to Yevgeny Prigozhin, but using different aliases.

And we know of course, that Wagner has a significant presence across the globe in different parts of the world, particularly in Africa as well. And there has been a significant involvement by Yevgeny Prigozhin across different conflicts. And this is certainly an interesting development. We have the anchors on State TV, describing this as a scandalous video. They also refer to suspicious packages perhaps alluding to potentially drugs and we know that other segments that have been aired on State TV have really been focusing on Yevgeny Prigozhin's criminal past as well. So there was really an effort there by State TV to portray this image of the Yevgeny Prigozhin.

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This is interesting time and given the fact that we and I'm learning from Alexander Lukashenko the Belarusian President that Yevgeny Prigozhin is not in fact in Belarus but in St Petersburg according to Lukashenko. We have heard from the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov speaking earlier to a -- journalists during a regular call.

He refused to give any details of Yevgeny Prigozhin's location. He didn't confirm whether or not the Kremlin was aware of his location. But interestingly, he did confirm that President Putin will be speaking to the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko later today.

FOSTER: Be interesting to hear that call. Nada thank you. The Ukrainian city far from the frontlines of the war has become the latest target of a deadly missile attack. Lviv has announced two days of mourning in memory of four victims.

Officials say were killed on Thursday after Russian missiles struck an apartment building and other houses city authorities call it the most devastating attack on civilians in the region. Since the war began. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is promising a "tangible" response. CNN's Ben Wedeman joins us live from Eastern Ukraine, Ben?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes Max, this happened at about 2:30 in the morning, local time, hitting a residential building. And if you see the pictures shows massive devastation, what was used was a caliber missile, a Russian missile, a hypersonic missile with a payload of 500 to 600 kilograms of high explosives.

These fly so fast, they're very difficult to be taken down by the air defenses. Now, what's significant is that this is in the far west of the country, an area where if you go around Lviv, sometimes you wouldn't even know there's a war on. Many people have fled to that part of the country because they thought it was safe.

Clearly, it is not now, among the dead is a 21 year old journalist, a woman as well as a 95 year old woman who survived the Second World War, but not this one. Now there's been a bit of an uproar in Lviv over the fact that when this strike took place, 10 bomb shelters had been locked shut.

There was a similar uproar in Kyiv, a little while ago because bomb shelters were locked and people couldn't escape into them during an air raid as well. So there's an investigation going on there, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Ben Wedeman, thank you. The Israeli army says it's conducting strikes on parts of Lebanese territory after rockets were fired from Lebanon earlier. Lebanese state run media say Israel shot at least 15 shells on South Lebanon. Video shows plumes of white smoke rising from one village in the hilly south.

The latest military action comes three months after the two countries saw their worst cross border fire in years. The U.S. military says Russian fighter pilots were unsafe and unprofessional when they intercepted three U.S. drones flying over Syria. The Pentagon released video of the incident showing the Russian jets harassing the drones were on a mission against ISIS terrorists at the time.

At one point the Russians released parachute flares in front of the drones forcing the drone operator to conduct evasive movers, maneuvers rather. Let's bring in CNN's National Security Reporter Natasha Bertrand on this. So what did you make of that video, Natasha?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, it was just another example of the U.S. military trying to get out ahead of what will likely be a Russian spin on what happened here in Syria. And what we are learning is that according to the U.S. military, and according to the video that we can see here with our own eyes.

The Russian fighter jets, they harassed the three U.S. drones that were operating over Syria as part of an anti ISIS mission. And what they did was they actually released parachute flares in front of these American drones in order to block their view. One of those Russian fighter jets also engaged its afterburner in front of one of the U.S. drones in order again, to block its view and force it to take evasive maneuvers.

Now, no U.S. drones were actually forced down in this incident. You'll recall that just about four months ago, Russian fighter jets harassed another U.S. drone over the Black Sea and forced that drone to come down in international waters because the Russian fighter jet actually hit the propeller of that drone.

That did not happen in this instance, in Syria. But what U.S. officials are saying is that this is becoming a pretty disturbing pattern. The Russian fighter jets had been harassing not only U.S. drones, but also manned U.S. fighter jets over Syria in many more instances than they have seen over the last year in recent months.

And what they're saying is that it appears actually that the Russian fighter jets have tried to get into dog fights with American fighter jets over Syria, so kind of trying to engage in combat with American fighter jets over the country.

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That is according to the top U.S. commander for the Air Force operations in the Middle East. So they are clearly disturbed by this pattern of Russian conduct and they have called on the Russians to act in a professional and safe manner given that very close proximity that the U.S. and Russian forces are operating within in Syria, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Natasha, thank you for joining us from the Pentagon with that. We are following a developing story out of here in London where at least nine people including seven children were injured with a car crash into a primary school. You can see it there. Police say a building on the school grounds located in the Wimbledon area was hit shortly before 10 am local time.

Authorities are investigating the say they have ruled out terrorism as a motive. Chinese scientists are warning July is warning that July will be a month of dangerous weather, flooding is already doing tremendous damage in Southwestern China. 15 people have died and more than 10,000 have been evacuated from their homes.

President Xi Jinping is telling local officials to do more to protect lives. Climate scientists say to expect more flooding typhoons and high temperatures in July. Popular Hong Kong born singer Coco Lee has died at the age of 48. Her two sisters say she was hospitalized on Sunday after attempting to take her own life and passed away on Wednesday.

They add she has suffered from depression for years, leaves music in raptured Asian and then global audiences mixing R&B and hip hop with her light and airy voice and she said a powerful mood with a ballad reflection for the movie "Mulan" and even voiced the title character in the Mandarin version of the film.

Still to come Meta targets Twitter with a new app with similar features. After the break we'll discuss, why Threads might be more than a Twitter copycat?

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FOSTER: Facebook's parent company Meta has officially launched a new app called Threads. It's a social media tech sharing platform designed to offer a space for real time conversations online. CEO, Mark Zuckerberg claims 10 million people signed up in the first seven hours. Threads, is a direct challenge to Twitter.

But it appears to have plenty of similarities with it, including its layout and the timing of the launch seem to be just right as well since Elon Musk took over Twitter. It's faced a series of challenges and systemic problems. The new Threads launch escalates the rivalry not only between the tech giants, but also between Zuckerberg and Musk personally.

You may remember Musk teasing the idea of a cage fight with Zuckerberg. Let's bring in CNN's Clare Duffy, who joins us live from New York. This is a cleaner version of a fight isn't it than cage fight but from what you've seen of it, is it an exact copy of Twitter? How would you describe it?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: It doesn't look a lot like Twitter. It's a feed of mostly text based posts although people can also post photos and videos.

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What's really special about this is that it brings then a lot of Instagram sort of functionality it's similar to the navigation of Instagram so it's going to feel really familiar and intuitive for people to use. You log in with your Instagram account, and you can port over all of your Instagram followers and following.

So it's going to be really easy for people to sort of sign up and get started. Obviously, we've seen that take off 10 million users signing up in the first seven hours. So it's obviously early days. But this looks really promising for Meta. It feels sort of like the first day of school on there, you have lots of celebrities, brands, journalists, trying it out, comparing it to Twitter. And so it does seem like an early good start for Meta with this new app.

FOSTER: I'm on Instagram, and I'm on Twitter. Twitter's where I get a lot of my news. And I've you know, over a period of years, I follow different journalists, for example, politicians. Instagram much more sort of lifestyle for me, I don't know if that's typical, but it's kind of odd seeing, you know, interiors, and travel coming through what looks like a Twitter feed. Do you think there's a bit of a clash there? How will that work?

DUFFY: Yes, it is kind of interesting. You know, you hear a lot of people sort of making jokes about the fact that the people who follow them on Instagram are they're sort of friends and family and personal connections. And that's much different than the people who typically follow them on Twitter.

And so there might be sort of disconnect, and people have to kind of build their Twitter followings on this new app. I think sort of stepping back a bit. This also gets at one of the challenges for Meta is that this is a brand new platform that they're going to have to moderate, especially going into the 2024 U.S. Presidential election campaign season.

This is something that they're going to have to keep safe, avoid harassment, avoid spam, and avoid misinformation. And that's a lot of things that sort of had turned people off from Twitter. And so I think that's one of the challenges that they're going to have to deal with. It's so exciting, this new launch, but there are going to be challenges for Meta as well.

FOSTER: And Elon Musk, you know, he's never sort of takes competition that, you know, without, by lying down does say he's going to react to this. We'll wait to see what he has over the course of the day. But do you think he's just going to stick to his current strategy, which has been very unpopular with a huge amount of users?

DUFFY: I mean, I do think we could see Elon Musk was sort of rolling back some of these recent policy changes he made over the weekend. He implemented a temporary limit on the number of tweets that users can read on the platform, which doesn't make a lot of sense if your whole business is trying to get people to read content on your platform.

So I think we may start to see him changing some of those newer sorts of implemented policies. But it's hard to see what all Elon can do to really challenge this new platform. I think this presents a real problem for him because people have been looking for an alternative to Twitter for months since Elon Musk took over this platform. And so it will be interesting to see what he does. I'm sure he'll get some digs in on Mark Zuckerberg today on Twitter, but we'll have to wait and see.

FOSTER: Do you think it's a big market, this whole side of it simply because, you know, since Instagram reels and since TikTok? There's been a much bigger focus hasn't there on video rather than text? Hasn't the world moved on a bit from this format?

DUFFY: Yes, it is interesting. I mean, there has been so much focus on video on social media, and you haven't even seen Twitter trying to get more into video side of things. But I do think there is still a demand. I mean, we've seen people have talked about wanting a Twitter alternative for months, but there hasn't really been one that stuck so far.

And so there is I think still some demand for this text based platform where people can go for real time conversations, they can go for news. And so I think that's what Meta is trying to capitalize on here. And of course, Meta brings the benefit of its existing scale, there are 2 billion active users on Instagram that can really easily now join this new platform.

FOSTER: OK, Clare Duffy, really appreciate your time.

DUFFY: Thank you.

FOSTER: Coming up Russian prisoners of war speak to CNN about conditions on the Ukrainian front lines and they reveal some surprising details, stay with us.

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FOSTER: And now to new revelations into the Justice Department's 2020 election interference investigation. The Former Arizona House Speaker says he spoke with the FBI for four hours a month ago. Republican Rusty Bowers tells CNN's Kaitlan Collins, investigators seem to have a lot of evidence in a very broad probe.

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REP. RUSTY BOWERS (R-AZ): I offered them nothing new. They seem to have a good grasp on all the testimony that I've given and all of the interviews that I had given to the Arizona Republic and people from the Washington Post. They were very aware of the January 6, committee testimony that I gave.

There may have been something that I said that was of interest, but I don't remember anything standing out that had not been mentioned before.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Did you turn over any documents to them?

BOWERS: That I don't remember, I know I gave a lot of documents to my attorney. And I still have a lot of documents, but I don't know if they're important or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Wow, this is the highest ranking Republican known to have spoken with investigators about direct conversations with Trump and his campaign. The probe is focused on efforts in several states to put forward fake electors who supported Trump instead of Biden. The Justice Department is also revealing new details about the 2022 search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

Newly released documents show investigators had surveillance video of people moving boxes around the Florida property. The document says a person identified as witness 5 moved boxes around the estate throughout 2022 including 11 brown cardboard boxes, and one with no lid that appeared to contain papers.

Witnesses or witness 5 appears to be Trump aide Walt Nauta, who had been indicted along with the Former President. Prosecutors have alleged that Trump asked him to move boxes containing secret and classified material just before the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago last year, the last August.

And Nauta is expected to plead not guilty in a Miami Federal Court today. His arraignment has been postponed twice already because he didn't have an attorney. The death toll from a poisonous gas leak in South Africa has gone up according to the country's public broadcaster.

Authorities say 17 people have died from nitrate gas inhalation. The incident happened at a squatter camp in the City of Boksburg on the outskirts of Johannesburg.

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PANYAZA LESUFI, GAUTENG PREMIERE: This scene was heartbreaking. I regretted why we have to go through that. It was heartbreaking. So it's something that we might need assistance personality because it was in the bodies were scattered literally everywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Officials say Initial investigations indicate the leak could be linked to illegal mining. We will turn back now to Russia's war on Ukraine where several Russian prisoners of war who surrendered to the Ukrainians have described their dreadful conditions on the front lines, including military officers getting a high on painkillers and giving orders that make no sense. The POWs spoke with CNN's Ben Wedeman.

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WEDEMAN (voice over): No longer on the front lines Anton recounts how he ended up a prisoner of war. Back in Russia he was behind bars for the third time for drugs. When they put me in prison, I heard they were recruiting serve six months and they pardoned he tells me. So he signed up with Storm-Z, a unit made up of convicts attached to the Russian Defense Ministry.

After only two weeks of basic training, he was shipped off to the front lines near Bakhmut. After days of intense shelling, no food and only rainwater to drink, he heard Ukrainian troops outside his foxhole. He assumed they would execute. I thought that was the end he recalls.

I switched my rifle to single shot mode and thought I'll shoot myself but I couldn't. This video shot by soldiers of Ukraine's third Assault Brigade shows the tense moments when Anton and his Comrade Slava surrendered.

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The Ukrainian troops told them unlike Russians we don't kill prisoners. We spoke to Anton, Slava and another soldier in a makeshift jail in Eastern Ukraine, concealing their faces and not using their real names. The third Assault Brigade granted us access to the POWs and two of their soldiers were in the room for the interviews.

The POWs will soon be transferred to Ukrainian intelligence. They didn't appear to be under duress and agreed to share their stories. Slava also serving time for drugs, said conditions in the trenches were grim. Food was scarce. We didn't have medical kits, he says. His commanders took all the painkillers to get high, he recalled, and as a result issued nonsensical orders.

Morale was terrible. Sergei was wounded by a grenade before surrendering to Ukrainian troops. He was a contract soldier, not a convict. He completed his six month contract in Kherson and went home. But when he hesitated to sign another contract, a military prosecutor gave him a choice, prison or back to the front.

He ended up outside Bakhmut under constant Ukrainian fire discipline collapsed, the officers fled. All illusions were shattered. It was very different from what I saw on TV, a parallel reality says Sergei. I felt fear, pain and disappointment in my commanders. A law passed last year in Russia imposed sentences of 3 to 10 years for soldiers who surrender voluntarily.

If he returns home and a prisoner exchange, Anton manned up again back in a Russian prison. Ben Wedeman CNN, Eastern Ukraine.

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FOSTER: Thanks for joining me on CNN "Newsroom", I'm Max Foster in London. "World Sport" with Amanda Davis is up next.

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