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Wagner Chief Presumed Dead After Russia Plane Crash; Japan Begins Releasing Treated Radioactive Water Into The Ocean Despite Outcry; 8 Republicans, But Not Trump, Face Off In First GOP Presidential Primary Debate. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired August 24, 2023 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: -- according to Russian officials, this is the plane crash which claimed the life of Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Debate night in Milwaukee, Republican presidential hopefuls take to the stage for the first primary debate in the 2024 election, but minus the front runner Donald Trump. Firefighters in Greece are battling more than 200 fires across the country and around the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Thanks for joining us to CNN Newsroom. We begin with Yevgeny Prigozhin who for the last two months has been considered a dead man walking ever since he led a brief uprising against senior Russian defense officials. A rebellion which was seen as the biggest threat to Vladimir Putin's 23-year-long iron grip on power.
Intelligence officials even world leaders talk with him in terms of when he would be killed. Not if but when. That day may have come Wednesday with reports from Russia that Prigozhin the head of the Wagner Mercenary Group was among 10 people killed in a plane crash.
There's still no official word on what caused the plane to come down on a flight from Moscow to St Petersburg, and the only confirmation Prigozhin was on board the private jet comes from Russian aviation officials.
According to state media, all on board seven passengers three crew were killed. Eight of the 10 bodies have reportedly been found in the wreckage. Russian investigators announced they have opened a criminal case and video on the social media site Telegram shows what appears to be the plane falling from the sky with one wing missing.
The plane went down about halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg it suddenly stopped transmitting flight data just after 6:00 p.m. local time Wednesday.
Prigozhin forces were heavily involved in some of the most fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine, managing to take the city's Bakhmut and Soledar, some of the few battlefield games for the Russian military.
Prigozhin though spent months criticizing Russian military leadership for the handling of the war that ultimately led to the uprising back in June.
Live now to London once again CNN's Clare Sebastian, and I guess, you know, we're now waiting for more word from the Kremlin. It's just after what, 8:00 in the morning there. So clearly, is this saying that they're likely to talk more about as the day moves on? Or is it something which we are just getting to pieces together? You know, from the outside looking in?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, I think it'll be interesting to see because obviously in the wake of that Wagner mutiny, where a number of Russian airmen were killed when planes were shut down, you didn't see Putin, you know, hold a ceremony, a moment of silence. Will they be offering similar condolences for the deaths of the people in this plane crash? I think that is the big question.
But we are getting the footage this morning from the crash site itself showing in daylight, some of the wreckage of the plane moving of stretchers with body bags, things like that there does seem to have been a little bit of damage on the ground as well. There's a little hard to tell from the distance. You can see that they've cordoned off the area as well.
I mean, look, I think there was a sense to which state media has been waiting for a steer from the Kremlin for this the initial headlines focused on there having been a plane crash and then buried the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin at the very end of the article.
I think that suggests that there's still an element of taboo around this. They know that this is a sensitive topic for the Kremlin. So I think it will be interesting to wait and see what they have to say about this. But we did see Putin on Wednesday out at a presumably pre- planned World War II ceremony, memorial ceremony for the Battle of Kursk, in that region.
And this is interesting, he went out and he shook hands, even at some point, hugged someone in the crowd, very unusual to see President Putin doing that, but very reminiscent of scenes that we saw in the immediate wake of that aborted Wagner mutiny, where he went to Dagestan and did something very similar, went out with his people, shaking hands, all of that at the time seemed to be a response to the somewhat rapturous reception that Wagner got when they entered the town of Rostov at the beginning of their aborted march on Moscow.
So, this looks like Putin, you know, out reasserting power aiming to appear in control. Of course, he has to seek reelection next year. And I think that certainly looks like this is having a political impact that this situation with Prigozhin definitely destabilized and weakened Putin and he's still, you know, cleaning up to an extent the damage from that.
VAUSE: Yes, and there's also a lot of questions about whether or not, you know, this is, you know, Putin is doing or whether there's some other -- something else going on here. Whether there was some rumor going around at one point about the Ukrainians that this was sort of identity laundering that Prigozhin somehow faked all of this as a way to, you know, move on from the Putin issues and essentially work back in the shadows as he has done in the past. All that seems to be debunked that, right.
SEBASTIAN: I mean, there are still a lot of questions don't around what how happened with that Wagner mutiny and what effect it will have on Putin's grip on power.
[01:05:05]
I think it was interesting that this plane crash came on the same day that we had by state media that Sergey Surovikin, who was the general who briefly was in charge of the operation in Ukraine, known to be relatively close to Prigozhin, at least not one of the generals that Prigozhin was actively defaming publicly that he had been sacked from his post as commander of the Aerospace Forces. Is there a sense perhaps, that Putin is cleaning house here, as I said, trying to sort of close the book on this episode with the Wagner mutiny and move on reassert control, things like that.
But I think there are still questions remaining, of course around Wagner, who will take control of them what will happen to those who are training in Belarus. So I think with the light of day, we may get more clarity on some of that.
VAUSE: Clare, thank you for sharing that question. I appreciate it. Thank you. Take care.
Well, the Prigozhin is apparent public execution was shocking, but not exactly surprising for U.S. officials. Details from CNN's Kylie Atwood reporting in from the State Department.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, top Biden administration officials have been saying repeatedly and publicly that Prigozhin had a target on his back after that failed coup earlier this year, just two months ago, saying it was possible that the Kremlin could try to kill him after that.
Now, of course, we don't have confirmation that Putin was connected at all to this flight that was down that Russian state media is saying Prigozhin was on But President Biden is saying that it's likely that Putin had some kind of connection telling reporters on Wednesday afternoon that not much happens in Russia, that Putin is not behind, but also adding that he didn't definitively know that Putin was behind this.
But in terms of what U.S. officials have been saying before this news broke, Biden himself warned that Prigozhin should be careful of what he ate. CIA director Bill Burns agreed with that assessment, saying that Prigogine shouldn't get rid of his food tastes are also calling Prigozhin, the ultimate apostle of paybacks and saying you'd be surprised if there weren't further retaliation for Prigozhin. And the Secretary of State Antony Blinken, also saying that Russia has an open windows policy, of course, referring to the other opponents of the Kremlin, of President Putin who had mysteriously died by falling out of the window.
So U.S. officials today not saying that they are surprised by these reports, coming out of Russian state media, but also, you know, insinuating that there are reasons that they aren't surprised because of the action because of the actions that President Putin has taken in the past. Kylie Atwood, CNN, the State Department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joining us now is David Sanger, political and national security analyst for CNN, as well as White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times. He's also the author of the perfect credit. And it is good to see you, David.
DAVID SANGER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Great to see you, John.
VAUSE: OK, there's still no word on the cause of the plane crash. But the Wall Street Journal, among others reports Grey Zone, a popular Telegram channel close to Prigozhin, said the plane had been brought down by the Russian Defense Ministry's air defense systems.
And yet all of this seems shocking, but not entirely surprising, assuming that this is in fact, a very publicized, you know, very obvious public execution if you like. The Kremlin could have staged a less obvious death. But then again, plausible deniability isn't exactly the point here.
SANGER: That's exactly right. Look, we're working on a few assumptions still, John. The first is we know it was Prigozhin's plane. We don't know that he was on it. Right. The second is, we know they have recovered at least eight of what they believe were 10 bodies there. So presumably, they'll be able to make an identification whether we believe it or not.
And we're not certain what brought it down. But planes don't usually just fall out of the sky at 28,000 feet, and this one seemed to be on a steady flight path until tThat chilling video, we saw that hitting straight down.
So clearly, there was a calamitous event that affected the airframe that could have been a missile, as you suggested that Telegram channel insisted. It could have been an internal explosion. It could have been accidental, but that seems like a less likely scenario. And the fact of the matter is that because it went down over Russian territory, we will never know for sure.
VAUSE: In the past, though, Putin has been asked specifically about the fate of so many of his rivals. Here's the interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS HOST: That so many of the people that oppose Vladimir Putin and wind up dead or close to it.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): All of us have plenty of political rivals. I'm pretty sure President Trump has plenty of political rivals.
[01:10:08]
WALLACE: But they don't end up dead.
PUTIN (through translator): Well, haven't presidents been killed in the United States, all of us have our own set of domestic problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So assuming that Putin is behind this plane accident that Prigozhin was in. Is there a price that comes with killing the most senior of insiders, and if nothing else, Prigozhin was at least brutally honest about the state of the war in Ukraine, Putin's not exactly getting the best advice these days.
SANGER: That may be the case, but he may well determine that the events of two months ago left open the possibility that he was now suddenly vulnerable. And if in fact use responsible for bringing down the plane and we may never know the answer to that question, definitively, even if the evidence points mostly that way.
We could well come to the point where it becomes clear that Putin decided that he just needed to unwind his business with the Wagner group, get them out of Ukraine, get their weapons out of their hands, send them off to make busy missions in Belarus and maybe in Africa, and then biding his time. Take out Prigozhin.
Now, this is exactly what Bill Burns, the CIA director, and the former ambassador to Russia, predicted in, you know, not quite as many words at the Aspen Security Forum last month, when he said that Putin, you know, brutally deals with any opposition to his power and likes his revenge cold. And both those circumstances would seem to have been fit in this case, if it's what it looks like it is.
VAUSE: Well, here's the Russian president speaking at an event in Kursk on Wednesday, after news broke about progressions, plane crash.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PUTIN (through translator): All the hardships of battles today. Just as in the days of World War II lie on the shoulders of our soldiers on those who are on the front line on sergeants, platoon, squad battalion, on commanders, on gunners, and miners, on scouts and communication men, on the tank and battle vehicles themes, on artillery, government and pilots. All our soldiers fight bravely and valiantly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: No mention of Prigozhin, no mention of his mercenary. So what happens to the tens of thousands of fighters on the payroll of the Wagner group?
SANGER: Well, really good question. A good number of them were given a chance to enter the regular Russian military. But you know, just try to deconstruct for a moment what it is that we saw Putin doing there.
So he's occurred (ph). So he's at the 80th anniversary of that battle with the Nazis by making the comparison to the Russians who are fighting and dying in many cases in Ukraine. He is arguing that the battle for Ukraine is just a continuation of the battle against Nazism that happened a few years ago.
And remember, it was just a year a year and a half ago that he said he was trying to oust Nazis from control of Ukraine that a pretty strange argument that sounded especially unusual to Western ears.
So that's what he was doing with curse (ph). While his one time chef. He is one time advocate. Remember, it was Prigozhin who ran the internet research agency and was so critical in the efforts to interfere in the 2016 election while he was falling out of the sky.
VAUSE: Yes.
SANGER: Ir presumably falling out of the sky.
VAUSE: As you say we'll most likely never know for certain, but it certainly looks as if another critical opponent of Putin has gone the same way as so many others. David, as always great to have you with us, sir. Thank you.
SANGER: Good to be with you, John.
VAUSE: North Korea's second attempt to launch a spy satellite in orbit appears to have failed. State media report the rocket carrying the satellites suffered a malfunction after liftoff on Thursday. Japanese officials reported broke apart with pieces crashing into the (INAUDIBLE), East China Sea as well as the Pacific Ocean.
Watch briefly prompted an evacuation order for residents of Japan's Okinawa region. North Korea says it will try and launch a spy satellite again in October. Thursday launch comes as U.S. and South Korea have been holding joint military exercises.
Japan now releasing untreated radioactive waterways from the Fukushima nuclear site into the ocean part of a controversial plan which is bad anxiety concern and a lot of pushback around the region.
[01:15:10]
The International Atomic Energy Agency says the release meets safety standards and will have a negligible impact on people and the environment. Still fishing communities in Japan and South Korea worry about the impact on their livelihoods. China calling on Tokyo to hold early saying it will take necessary measures to protect people's health.
Let's go live now to CNN's Marc Stewart in Tokyo. So this is going ahead. I guess the question now is how long will this water be pumped into the ocean? And what will be the effect? How can they be certain that it will be negligible?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, John. Well, let's first talk about the timetable of all this. This is not going to be just a one time release. This dispersion of the water is something that actually will take years, if not, perhaps a decade that long we're talking about, but we're going to see an initial release over the next 17 days or so.
And as such, there will be regular testing taking place. In fact, we heard from officials from Tokyo Electric Power Company, they say that a boat will be in the waters of the Pacific area where this is taking place to make sure that this is all going accord and in compliance with the different rules.
Now as far as the safety concerns, as you mentioned, a lot of a lot of questions have been raised notably by China. In fact, we heard from a Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson saying that this move by Japan is extremely selfish and irresponsible posing a risk to China and the rest of the world.
Well, Japan along with help from the International Atomic Energy Agency maintains that this is safe and that this method of diluting the water to release the harmful components is one that is true and tried.
Now, there is certainly going to be a radioactive component that will not go away a very small amount of a substance known as tritium. But those numbers, those levels are seen as negligible. In fact, we just heard from the International Atomic Energy Agency during a visit to Japan that these levels are less than that you would get on a trans- continental flight in the United States.
So this is going to be taking years and years to take place. Regular testing and compliance will take place. And it's interesting. These watch -- all of this water is being held in tanks at the Fukushima nuclear plant. It could fill around 500 Olympic sized pools, this water through a very complex system is being funneled under the ocean through a tunnel and then it's been released.
As far as the next steps are concerned. It's going to be regular monitoring, regular compliance. But John based off of the conditions that are now facing this water, releasing it was and is seen as the right thing to do by the Japanese government. They felt that if it just sat there or perhaps was buried in the ground, it would perhaps be an even bigger problem in n the years to come. John.
VAUSE: Marc, thank you. Marc Stewart live us for there in Tokyo with the very latest.
Up next here on CNN. Eight Republican rivals seek the stage for the first presidential primary debate of the 2024 race. Notably, Donald Trump was not one of them will have the highlights in a moment.
Don't run maybe the no show in Milwaukee but he will barely show up to surrender to Fulton County authorities of the coming hours. They'll place the $200,000 cash bond. We'll have the very latest in the Georgia elections diversion case in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:20:48]
VAUSE: Well, eight U.S. presidential hopefuls the first primary debate of the 2024 race was a chance for a breakout moment to show the Republican Party why they should be the party's nominee for president and not the front runner Donald Trump, who opted out.
Tensions flared on the stage in Milwaukee as candidates sparred over issues like support for Ukraine, abortion, the economy. They also took some swipes at the former President Donald Trump. He tried a little counterprogramming, though with an interview with former Fox host Tucker Carlson. That was posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, always will be known as Twitter. At the same time as the debate went to where. CNN"s Jeff Zeleny has borne out reporting in from Milwaukee.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): This may still be Donald Trump's Republican Party, but it was not his first debate. At least in the first hour, voters got a glimpse of a post-Trump era, a robust discussion broke out over abortion, government spending and the economy, particularly the wisdom of Bidenomics, of course, going after the Biden administration's agenda, but a stark reality check came at the beginning of the second hour of the debate when Republican candidates were asked about Trump's indictments themselves.
Now the former president, of course, is set to turn himself into authorities in Georgia on Thursday. And that became the subject of a direct and blunt response from former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
CHRIS CHRISTIE, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Here's the bottom line. Someone's got to stop normalizing this conduct. OK. Now, whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong. The conduct is beneath the Office of President of the United States.
ZELENY^ The boos you could hear from the crowd right there from more than 4,000 Republicans gathered in the auditorium made clear the challenges awaiting this party, as it deals with the fact that President Trump is indeed fighting these indictments and the front runner for the nomination. But former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley stepped in and said the party must turn the page if they want to win back the White House.
NIKKI HALEY, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to look at the fact that three quarters of Americans don't want a rematch between Trump and Biden. And we have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America. We can't win a general election that way. ZELENY: But for two hours, the first Republican presidential debate of the season was remarkably fiery. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis clearly trying to solidify his role as the leading alternative to Trump, at many respects, simply seem to retreat from the stage.
He talks about his conservative voting record and his policies in Florida. But he simply did not have some of those defining moments the debates are often remembered for. It was the Vivek Ramaswamy, the 38- year-old entrepreneur who would become the nation's first millennial president, who was at the center of repeated quarreling over ideas and experience. He tangled with Chris Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, and more.
He will test whether more exposure is necessarily good exposure.
VIVEK RAMASWAMY, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's not morning in America. We live in a dark moment and we have to confront the fact that we're in an internal sort of cold cultural civil war and we have to recognize that --
MIKE PENCE, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You are acquainting (ph) the American people with the failed government.
ZELENY: One thing is clear, this was a debate of ideas showing many divisions inside this Republican Party, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott tried to end with an optimistic message for the future. Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson urged Republicans to believe in themselves again and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum also tried to get his message across.
But at the end of the day, it was the Long Shadow of the former president, not here in Milwaukee that still hangs over this race. He of course makes his appearance in Georgia on Thursday morning as this Republican presidential campaign rolls on. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Milwaukee.
[01:25:07]
VAUSE: Earlier I discussed debate with Michael Genovese, political analyst and author of The Modern Presidency: Six Debates that Defined the Institution. Here's part of our conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: It seems unlikely this debate Wednesday night will join that list of six outstanding debates. Overall, though, what is your takeaway from tonight?
MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think the headline is cat fight common Trump wins. Cat fight because you saw a lot of sniping at each other. The surprise was that DeSantis was not the target. Everyone thought that since he's the front runner, they'd be going after him and pointing all their guns at him.
Ramaswamy was the one who got most of the attention, partly because he was saying some pretty outrageous things. But I think the other part of the headline is that Trump wins that Donald Trump proved that he still controls the party. You could see it in the answers to questions. And you could also hear it in the audience because Republican audience which was very, very pro Trump.
We all if you're a Republican, we all live in Trump world. And we have to be very concerned about whether or not we step on his toes. And when you do, as you heard from the -- you may have heard from the audience, they went right after those candidates that criticize Trump.
Neil Young is a great rock star used to say rust never sleeps. Donald Trump never sleeps. He's always out there agitating even when he's not in the room.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And the analysts are counting down to Donald Trump's expected surrender to Fulton County authorities. The four-time indicted, twice impeached, one term former president is said to be processed Thursday afternoon local time, and the notorious county jail.
Officials say he'll be treated like any other criminal defendant. The district attorney said a Friday deadline for Trump and his 18 co- defendants to turn themselves in, nine have already done so that includes Trump's former attorney, Rudy Giuliani. CNN"s Katelyn Polantz has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER (on camera): Donald Trump will be coming into Georgia on Thursday with a full security detail as he proceeds to jail in response to the Georgia indictment related to his actions after the 2020 election and a racketeering conspiracy quite a moment for the former president to be going to jail, something he did not do in any of the other criminal indictments he faces and that will make him the 10th person that we know of as of Thursday in these cases to be reporting to jail.
Several others on Wednesday reported to jail including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis. All lawyers working around Donald Trump after the election, all were able to put up bond so that they would be released and would not have to await their trial from jail.
Donald Trump is expected to do the same. He has negotiated bond in advance. But it is quite possible that he could have his mugshot taken. He would be fingerprinted. There would be other details taken down of him when he does go and report to the Fulton County Jail here in Georgia.
At the same time, there are two defendants that we still are watching to see what will happen with them on Thursday and Friday. They are both administration officials that work for Donald Trump, Mark Meadows his chief of staff in the White House and Jeffrey Clark, a Justice Department official. Both of those men were trying to hold off their arrest or their need to self-surrender this week and a judge on Wednesday said that wouldn't be possible that they would need to self- surrender or would be arrested if they did not meet a deadline of noon on Friday. Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still ahead here on CNN, more details on the plane crash involving Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. Now some reaction, Russians now reacting to that plane crash.
And then at the BRICS summit in South Africa, members struggle to agree on a plan to move away from the U.S. dollar they all want to they just don't know how.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:20]
VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
More now on our lead story.
Russian officials say Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was on a private plane which crash northwest of Moscow on Wednesday. According to state media, all ten people on board were killed and an investigation is now underway.
Some Russians are paying tribute to Prigozhin, lighting candles and leaving flowers near the Wagner office in St. Petersburg. Prigozhin has been a longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin but launched a short-lived mutiny two months ago which posed the biggest challenge to Putin's leadership since he came to power 23 years ago.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen has more now on the plane crash as well as Prigozhin's transformation from friend to foe of Vladimir Putin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Probably the last moments of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, this jet an Embraer Air legacy 600 seen falling from the sky a wing appearing to be missing. Russian authorities confirming Prigozhin was on board the aircraft.
CNN is unable to confirm the authenticity of this video but (INAUDIBLE) claimed it was the moment that an Embraer Air jet fell from the sky in the clear region north of Moscow.
Flight data shows the plane traveling from Moscow on a heading to St. Petersburg before it suddenly stopped transmitting.
Russian media say ten people were on board, all of them believed dead, and that Prigozhin's name was also on the passenger manifest.
The Wagner mercenary group fought bitterly in Ukraine, notably in Bakhmut, gaining some territory but also incurring heavy losses.
Prigozhin ripping into Russia's defense minister and his top general accusing them of withholding ammo leading to further deaths of his fighters.
YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN, HEAD OF WAGNER GROUP (through translator): You think you are the masters of this life. You think you can dispose of other lives. You think because you have warehouses full of ammunition that you have that right.
PLEITGEN: In late June, Prigozhin went a step further launching a rebellion he said aimed to unseat the leadership of the defense ministry. Prigozhin finally relented and Wagner's troops were ordered to Belarus. But days later, Putin took aim at Prigozhin himself.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We will protect our people and our statehood from any threats, including treason from the inside. What we are facing now is treason, unreasonable ambitions and personal interests led to treachery, state treason and betrayal of our people.
PLEITGEN: World reaction to the latest news has been swift and blunt.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is not much that happens in Russia that Putin doesn't know. I don't know enough to know the answer.
PLEITEN: No comment from the Russian president. He held a moment of silence but four Soviet soldiers killed in World War II in court as the debris of the plane carrying what was one of his most important fighters burns in a field north of Russia's capital.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN -- Berlin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: For more, we're joined now by CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. It's good to see you, sir.
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to see you, too John.
VAUSE: Ok. So here's the reaction to Prigozhin's presumed death from U.S. President Joe Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I don't know for a fact what happened. I'm not --
There's not much that happens in Russia that Putin doesn't know. I don't know enough to know the answer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Overall White House officials seem to really great this with no great surprise. Some were shocked but everyone sort of expected it to happen.
[01:34:58]
VAUSE: And the official line is that Prigozhin death will not change U.S. policy on Ukraine. So why is that? Is it because the Wagner mercenaries as a factor, are they essentially removed from the battlefield after that short-lived uprising and they're no longer in the mix?
Why is this being greeted with sort of nonchalance, if you like, by the administration?
LEIGHTON: I think part of it John is that they think that the Wagner group has basically been neutralized by Putin. And one of the problems that they are having, you know, with this news is that they really can't confirm that Prigozhin is actually dead although there are many indications that is in fact the case.
However when they look at all of this in totality, they don't want to give that much credence to the Wagner group but (AUDIO GAP). And if they say anything one way or the other it could either embolden perhaps the remnants of the Wagner group to react in one way or the other or it could steady Putin's hand in his effort to regain control of the situation politically in Russia.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to the Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was speaking on Wednesday, speaking about some kind of alternative reality that none of us really know about. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PUTIN: Russia has decided to support the people who struggle for their culture, their traditions, their language, their future.
Our actions in Ukraine are motivated by only one reason -- to put an end to the war unleashed in Ukraine by the West.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You know, Putin really believes that Ukraine started the war, it was unleashed by the west. It could be sign he's not getting the best advice from those around him.
And it seems, you know, if he's determined -- it seems right now he's determined to keep these incompetent loyalists in charge of the war while removing any kind of effective generals among them. Prigozhin, at least he spoke out and told the truth.
What impact do you think though that, you know, that kind of rule will have ultimately within the ranks of the Russian military and all the battlefield in Ukraine?
LEIGHTON: Well, I think it will have a stultifying impact. In other words, it's going to really hurt the Russian war effort because one of the things that military forces need is some degree of speaking truth to power and the ability to discern real events from fake events.
And if that ability is being lost by these pronouncements, it's very clear that Putin started this war. Nobody, you know, with a sane mind views it any other way. The problem that Putin is running to is he's got this worldview, this
historical view that is based on protecting perceived slights to Russian ethnic populations in Ukraine and it has really snowballed that into a major casus belli -- cause for war and that becomes a huge issue for him and he can't really back way from it either politically or intellectually.
And that, of course, is something that is not based on reality. And that's creating a lot of problems for him.
VAUSE: Cedric Leighton, as always sir, thank you. Good to see you. Great to have you with us. Thank you.
LEIGHTON: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: Russian president Vladimir Putin as we said has not made any public comment on Prigozhin's presumed death. But on Wednesday, while meeting via video with leaders of Brazil, India, China and South Africa, the so-called BRICS group, Putin blamed the West for starting the war in Ukraine. And he says Russia is trying to end it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PUTIN: Russia has decided to support the people who struggle for their culture, their traditions, their language, their future. Our actions in Ukraine are motivated by only one reason -- to put an end to the war, unleashed in Ukraine by the West.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Putin also thanked China and a coalition of African nations, including South Africa for putting forward peace proposals which have widely been criticized as meaningless and pro-Russian (INAUDIBLE) no interaction.
Along with the speeches, the BRICS summit struggled to make progress Wednesday on their two main agenda items -- expanding the group and deciding on a currency member nations can use to trade to try and move away from the U.S. dollar.
The group adopted a framework to admit new members but took no action to do so.
CNN's Larry Madowo reports the currency idea remains just that, an idea.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Even though the issue of a currency is not officially on the agenda here of the BRICS summit, it's come up repeatedly.
It began with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying in his virtual address that de-dollarization is an irreversible process and that the BRICS countries are discussing ways to use national currencies in all areas of their economic cooperation. And then Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa talked about
finding ways to settle their investment and trade transactions, using national currencies.
[01:39:54]
MADOWO: And BRICS tend to see this as their fight back to the hegemony of the West and to the dominance of the dollar in international trade.
CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT: We are concerned that global financial and payment systems are increasingly being used as instruments of geopolitical contestation.
Global economic recovery relies on predictable global payment systems and the smooth operating of banking, supply chains, trade, tourism, as well as financial flow.
MADOWO: Replacing the dollar will not be easy. It is the preeminent currency for international trade and investment. BRICS countries have also adopted a document that sets out the pathway, the guidelines to expanding the group.
President Cyril Ramaphosa before this meeting began said more than 20 countries have formally applied to join the group and there is interest for more so an announcement is expected before the BRICS summit comes to a close.
It's become an interesting point here. South Africa's foreign minister Naledi Pandor essentially saying everybody wants to be in. Well they want to be in but what exactly do they do once they're in. These are some of the things that these leaders have to agree on before they leave Johannesburg.
Larry Madowo, CNN -- Johannesburg.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: In the next hour, Wall Street journalist Evan Gershkovich is set to appear in a Moscow court. Russia's state news agency says the hearing will consider extending his pre trial detention which expires at the end of the month. Gershkovich is facing up to 20 years in prison on espionage charges which he and his employer both deny while the U.S. considers him wrongfully detained.
Gershkovich is the first U.S. journalist detained on allegations of spying in Russia since the Cold War.
Still to come, winds are fanning the flames of deadly wildfires around Greece leaving residents to look on as their homes go up in smoke and flames.
We'll have the very latest in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Firefighters in Greece are battling more than 200 wildfires which have broken out since Monday, almost 100 in the past 24 hours alone.
High winds are fueling the flames, increasing the threat to residents and their homes, as well as national parks. Air quality is extremely low in Athens because of the thick smoke which is even spreading to Malta as well as Italy.
CNN's Eleni Giokos is in Athens with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Devastation, destruction and desperation as Greece continues to struggle with catastrophic wildfires.
[01:44:44]
GIOKOS: Here in (INAUDIBLE) in northern Athens, a herculean effort to put out wildfires fueled by high winds in an area of forest which is known as the "lungs of Athens". The Parnitha Mountain ablaze.
Firefighters say the Greece fires are like a war zone with many locals refusing to leave their homes. Some staying until the bitter end only to watch their homes go up in flames.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am not leaving my home.
GIOKOS: Street by street, the flames rage on with no regard for the people or pets in its path.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are trying to put out fire. Sadly, the firefighters have been stationed here from last night. They did not have a drop of water. So we had to do it ourselves.
GIOKOS: The capital Athens was surrounded by flames and thick black smoke.
The wind has just suddenly picked up rapidly. You can see the fire spreading. I mean within seconds it has erupted into massive flames.
This is what the Greek firefighting force has to contend with, a herculean task. We are going to have to leave. It's now getting far too close.
In the last 48 hours there have been 209 wildfires around Greece. According to fire brigade spokesperson Yiannis Atropios (ph) according to state news agency ANMA (ph) as Europe's sweltering summer continues with intense heat for the third month in a row.
Eleni Giokos, CNN -- Athens, Greece.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Tropical storm Franklin has claimed at least one life in the Dominican Republic as it barrels through the Caribbean. The storm is moving northeast through the Caribbean Sea at the moment. Franklin brought heavy rains and deep floods across the Dominican Republic and neighboring Haiti.
The Dominican President says no homes were destroyed but many have been damaged. If the forecast holds true, the U.S. National Hurricane Center says it could strengthen to hurricane force by the weekend.
Iran is considering a new bill that would enshrine into law extremely harsh punishment for women who violate the country's strict dress code.
This comes as authorities move to prevent a possible repeat of protests sparked by the death last September of a young woman who allegedly wore a head scarf improperly.
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has more now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Iran has launched a new wave of arrests ahead of the one year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini. That's according to local and international rights groups.
Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish activist died in custody last year after being detained by the country's morality police for allegedly improperly wearing her head scarf.
Her death in custody sparked mass demonstrations across Iran, that led to a brutal crackdown. Now, the families of some of the protesters killed, according to Amnesty International, have been subjected to human rights violations including intimidation and harassment at the hands of authorities across the last several months.
This comes as some activists, including a group of lawyers who defend activists say that the families of those executed are also being subjected to intimidation and harassment in at least one case, the father of one of those executed.
Again, this is according to lawyers who are defending some of those activists on the ground. The father of one of those executed is in detention.
Human Rights Watch is accusing Iran of going by its old playbook of trying to suppress popular dissent by carrying out the wave of arrests ahead of the one year anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death.
It is unclear at this time if any events are planned for September.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Zimbabwe has extended voting in some areas after long delays and accusations of election rigging. Voting for the president, as well as the legislature was delayed for hours in the capital Harare and some other opposition strongholds.
Election officials say there was a problem printing ballot papers. Still, voters are kind of furious.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FORTUNE SIKIRETA, ZIMBABWE VOTER: Ballot papers are supposed to be at polling stations 48 hours before the election starts. And come election day there is no ballot papers. We have to wait here for 12 hours and there are no ballot papers.
SHUPIKAI NDASAKA, ZIMBABWE VOTER: They said they did not have ballot papers. So we waited around the passed (INAUDIBLE). that's when the ballot papers came. So I just voted now. We have patience because we need our vote in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Zimbabwe's president is seeking a second term. But his main rival is leader of the party Citizens Coalition of Change.
[01:49:56]
VAUSE: Police in Pakistan have reportedly arrested the operator of the cable car that was swaying high above a rocky ravine with six children and two adults trapped inside. All are now safe after a harrowing rescue but the accident has led to new questions over the safety of the gondolas as an important mode of transportation in Pakistan's remote mountain villages.
Details now from CNN's Paula Hancocks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Back with his family and on solid ground. A relieved smile said it all.
ATTALLAH SHAH, STUDENT: I thought it was my last day. I thought it was all over for me.
HANCOCKS: Attallah Shah is one of six students rescued along with two teachers Tuesday from a cable car hanging precariously 900 feet in the air, held up by a solitary cable.
SHAH: We were going to school around seven in the morning. When the chairlift was halfway there, its rope broke. It was dangling. And I was terrified.
HANCOCKS: Local villagers rushed out of their homes, most with children who use the cable car for their school commute across the mountainous terrain the nearest road is four hours away.
"The uncle of another student rescued tells us the entire villages started beating their chests. His mother was distraught, crying for 14 hours while our child was out there. We could not eat or drink. Only when the children were rescued did we feel alive again."
The rescues were daring. A Special Forces officer hanging from a helicopter carrying one student to safety. Pakistan's military said the mission was complicated by strong winds and a fear of the helicopter's rotor blades destabilizing the lift.
When nightfall grounded the helicopters, makeshift stretchers on a zip line were pulled by soldiers and locals to save the rest of the students and teachers. Some suffering from nausea during the 14-hour ordeal. Reports of others losing consciousness.
ALTABAD ULLAH, RESCUE WORKER: We got here at 9:00 a.m. Then the military arrived, the local rescue teams and police. We all worked together. The operation ended in success by 11:00 at night.
HANCOCKS; Amid nationwide relief, questions about cable car in Kyber Pakhtunkhwa have emerged. A necessary form of transport in this unforgiving terrain, but often locally built. Some using scraps of metal and discarded vans, often poorly maintained.
On this occasion however, ingenuity and teamwork ensured 14-hours of terror had a happy ending.
Paula Hancocks, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Coming up here on CNN, how one of Putin's top defenders turned into one of his loudest critics. A look at why Yevgeny Prigozhin had a serious change of heart. That is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: As reports of Yevgeny Prigozhin's plane crash came in, the Russian President Vladimir Putin was marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet battle against Nazi forces.
While there, he thanked soldiers fighting in the so-called special military operation underway in Ukraine. No word on whether that thanks included Wagner fighters.
But it was in Ukraine that Prigozhin turned from a Putin ally into one of the harshest critics of the Kremlin.
Brian Todd has our report from Washington.
[01:54:49]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what Yevgeny Prigozhin was known for in recent months, yelling into the camera at his rivals in the Russian military for what he claimed was their inadequate support of his Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine.
For months, Prigozhin had played a crucial role in the Ukraine war. His fighters often leading the charge in Vladimir Putin's invasion. In Ukraine, analysts say, Prigozhin fighters proved especially valuable to Putin.
STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYHST: Not because of the fabulous military skills or equipment they provide him but because the Wagner group was even more willing than the Russian army which is saying something, to just sacrifice their young soldiers. They just don't care.
That was very useful for Putin.
TODD: But one analyst says his short-lived rebellion against Putin in June made Prigozhin the worst kind of enemy for the former KGB colonel in the Kremlin.
JULIE IOFFE, FOUNDING PARTNER AND WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: We know and we have known for a while exactly how Vladimir Putin thinks about specifically traitors Because Prigozhin was not an opponent and he was a dissident. But he was a traitor.
TODD: A turnaround, dramatic even by Russian standards. Yevgeny Prigozhin's rise is a classic Russian tale of brute force ambition. He served time in prison in the final stages of the Soviet Union for petty crime.
When he got out, he started a hotdog stand, parlayed that into a series of successful restaurants that Putin sometimes brought other world leaders to.
Prigozhin scored lucrative government catering contracts earning him the nickname "Putin's chef".
HALL: Being the guy who runs, you know, the Kremlin food service might to you and me sound like not a particularly important thing but to people who are afraid of being poisoned, that's a position of trust for Prigozhin.
TODD: Prigozhin used Putin trust and resources to make another bold and extraordinary move around 2014, founding Wagner as a paramilitary group then operating mostly in the shadows.
He and his fighters not only battle hardened, but brutal. Human rights groups say Wagner, which has recruited murderers and drug dealers from Russian prisons to fight has committed a series of human rights abuses including allegedly torturing and murdering a Syrian prisoner with a sledgehammer and executing a Wagner fighter who had defected the same way.
HALL: You know, the videos of Prigozhin and his people using sledgehammers to maim and kill people, he understands the value -- the propaganda value of coming across as a brutal almost uncivilized kind of person.
TODD: Analysts say that Yevgeny Prigozhin's death would not only have a profound effect on the war in Ukraine, but also on Russia's campaigns in Africa and elsewhere.
They say it would pave the way for Vladimir Putin and his allies in the Kremlin to possibly take total control of the Wagner Group or to dismantle it.
Brian Todd, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. Kim Brunhuber takes over of CNN NEWSROOM after a very short break.
I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
[01:57:47]
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