Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Donald Trump Makes The First U.S. President In Current Or Previous Position To Have A Mugshot Photo; Russian President Condoles Wagner Leader's Passing; Pakistan Struggles With Flooding, A Year After The Catastrophe; Trump Free On Bond After Felony Arrest In Georgia; U.S. Says It's "Likely" Prigozhin Killed In Plane Crash; Putin Says Wagner Chief Prigozhin "Made Serious Mistakes"; Spanish Soccer Chief Facing Disciplinary Proceeding; Chinas Bans Seafood Imports From Japan; Rescuers Who Saved 8 From Dangling Cable Car Honored. Aired 02-3a ET

Aired August 25, 2023 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

Ahead on "CNN Newsroom," booked and fingerprinted. The first U.S. president with a mugshot turns himself in, remaining defiant as ever.

You're looking at the fiery aftermath and the apparent death of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. Russia's president speaks out for the first time.

And one year on, Pakistan is still reeling from catastrophic floods that submerged one-third of the country. UNICEF says millions of children don't have access to clean water.

And we begin with a historic day here in the U.S. Donald Trump arrested for the fourth time in less than five months. And for the first time ever, we have a mugshot of a U.S. president. Trump surrendered at the Fulton County jail in Atlanta, facing more than a dozen charges related to his attempt to overturn George's 2020 election results.

Sources tell CNN he wanted to look defiant in his booking photo. Later Thursday, Trump posted his mugshot on X, formerly known as Twitter, along with a fundraising appeal. He was free on a $200,000 bond covered with a 10 percent payment to an Atlanta bonding company, according to sources. He spoke with reporters before leaving Atlanta. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I really believe this is a very sad day for America. This should never happen. If you challenge an election, you should be able to challenge an election. I thought the election was a rigged election, a stolen election, and I should have every right to do that. What has taken place here is a travesty of justice. We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. And everybody knows it. I've never had such support. And that goes with the other ones, too. What they're doing is election interference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Most of the 19 defendants in the Georgia Election Subversion case have now turned themselves in for booking. The rest face a noon Eastern deadline time about 10 hours from now. More now from CNN's senior legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN SR. LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Now that former President Trump has completed his surrender here at the Fulton County Sheriff's Office, the next time he'll have to return here to Georgia is for his arraignment.

The District Attorney Fani Willis has said she would like to do the arraignments for all 19 defendants the week of September 5th. Now in his federal cases, this all happened at once. He was processed and then he went before a judge to enter his plea. But here in Georgia, things happen at a slightly different pace.

Now after that initial week or two of arraignments, the defendants actually have a short window of time to file certain challenges to their case. Several defendants, including Mark Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, they've already challenged their cases trying to get these state-level cases moved to federal court.

The former president has signaled that he will likely try to do the same. Rudy Giuliani may also try that move. So that process will take quite some time to play out. The next thing that's going to happen though is on Monday, there will be a hearing for Mark Meadows' effort to move this to federal court. We expect that the focus of that hearing is going to be that infamous call between former President Trump and former Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

The District Attorney, Fani Willis, has dismissed any suggestion by Meadows that what he was doing was just part of his job as chief of staff and that this should be not prosecuted. Now, it'll be interesting to see what the judge does here, but if Meadows does not succeed, he will be back with the other defendants in Fulton County as this case proceeds, but for a RICO case of this size and complexity could take years for a final resolution.

Paula Reid, Fulton County, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right, for more on this, I'm joined by Ron Brownstein, who's CNN's senior political analyst and the senior editor for "The Atlantic," and he joins me now from Los Angeles. Good to see you again. So Donald Trump said it, a sad day in America. On that, he's right.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. Of course, he turned it upside down. You know, we've gone through all of American history without a president being indicted on criminal charges. Now we have a president who's been indicted four times on 91 separate criminal charges.

And perhaps even more ominously than the charges that are accumulating against Trump is the reaction to those charges within his party. I mean, as we talked about yesterday, the most striking moment in that debate was six of the eight candidates on stage saying they would vote for him, even if he is convicted of a serious crime before the election.

[02:05:14]

And that, I think, is, as I said, an ominous statement about the view in the Republican Party, both about his behavior, but also about the legitimacy of any institution in a jurisdiction that leans Democratic rendering a verdict on a Republican politician. I mean there's a form of soft secession in the rejection of that legitimacy and it's pretty ominous to see it displayed as dramatically as it was last night.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. And already Donald Trump is fundraising off his mugshot. I mean it may help him pay his legal bills, but will it help him win back the White House?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think, you know, we have established that there's a bifurcated process going on here. I mean, within the Republican primary, by and large, so far, this has worked out for him. I mean, he has convinced most Republican voters to see this the way he wants them to see it, that this is another way in which American society, the real victims of discrimination in a diversifying America, are white Christian conservatives.

And he has made this an extension of his argument, his core political argument from the outset. Now how this plays if he is the nominee in a general election could be a very different proposition. I mean there are multiple polls showing that most Americans out of the Republican coalition believe that he has committed a crime and that most Americans outside of the Republican coalition believe that if he is convicted of a crime he should not be president again.

So Republicans, you know, are reacting in one way but they are ignoring some yellow lights on the dashboard about how this might play in a general. election.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, you touched on the first GOP debate. I mean, you know, two days ago, normally the candidates will be able to sort of dine on that and the media coverage for days. I mean, it's pretty much already forgotten.

So for the party, I mean, we heard in the debate Ron DeSantis say directly that if the next election is about the insurrection Republicans could lose, but how will that be possible? I mean, is it more likely as one of our reporters put it that the defining moments of or more likely to happen in the courtroom than on the campaign trail?

BROWNSTEIN: It is possible. Look, if Donald Trump is the nominee of the Republican Party, he is going to be competitive for the White House because we, you know, we are at an intense level of polarization, very few people switch sides from the team that they usually identify with, and we are a closely divided country.

Plus there's a lot of hesitation about giving Joe Biden another four years. Americans remain down on the economy, uneasy about inflation, and most people believe that he is too old to do this job for another four years. So all of that argues for a competitive race, no matter who the Republican nominee is. But Donald Trump fell seven million votes short last month. He is the one who has to expand his coalition.

And if you look at the way independent voters, as opposed to Republican voters, are responding to all of the legal challenges that are accumulating against him, it clearly raises the question of whether any of this is going to help him broaden the support that he had last time.

He can't forget he is the one who needs more votes if there is a rematch. And there's a lot of reason to think that while this would not crater his support, it would lower the ceiling at least somewhat and leave him in a more difficult position than he was last time.

BRUNHUBER: Alright, but let's go back to the primary. I mean, we saw the debate the other night, Trump's challengers, at least most of them, didn't attack Trump on his biggest liability, the legal cases against him. They're preferring to talk about the weaponization of justice. Will that have to change, do you think, if anyone really wants to challenge him or is that just a death sentence with Republican voters?

BROWNSTEIN: Look, they have to -- they have to formulate an argument as to why Republican voters should look past Trump. I mean, most Republican voters were satisfied with his presidency. Most of them think that he actually won in 2020. And as you say, most of them believe that the -- these are weaponized trumped up as it were charges against him. All of that is kind of powerful inertia for kind of defaulting to him as the nominee. And what we saw last night, was really an extension of what we've seen in the entire campaign.

None of these candidates have been willing to formulate a sharp case outside of Christie and Hutchison and hailing a little bit about why voters should look past Trump.

I mean you certainly get the sense that some of them, Ramaswamy, Tim Scott, may be running for vice president, may be running to be Trump's vice president. I don't think that's the case with Ron DeSantis, but he has put himself pretty much in the position of saying, I can deliver the MAGA agenda better than he can. When he's criticized Trump, he's tried to run to his right. Not a lot of space there.

[02:10:13] Ultimately, the issue of whether the Republican Party can win the White House back with so much time in 2024 in court, it seems to me would have to be part of an argument for anyone else. And yet, as you saw again last night, they have been very reluctant to do that.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. Listen, last question before we go. You know, you're talking about the candidates there, let's talk about the Republican voters. We got the viewing figures from the debate: almost 13 million people, you know, way short of the 24 million who watched the first Republican debate in August 2015, the last one in which Trump appeared. But given, you know, audience fragmentation since then and the fact that Trump wasn't there, it's still a lot more viewers than people expected. Does that suggest there is appetite for a non- Trump Republican alternative?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, he has support of about half the party, 55, on a good day. So that means there are, you know, there's, there's at least another half the part. And some of his voters would probably fall in the category of voters who are open to someone else. I mean, Whit Ayres, the veteran Republican pollster, kind of divides the Republican party into three pieces. 35 percent or so always Trump, 15 percent or so never Trump, and the other half, maybe Trump.

And I think there were a lot of maybe Trump voters who were watching last night, and they may have thought well of any of the individual candidates, but as we were just talking about a moment ago, he is polling at 50 or 55 percent, which means that some voters who are now saying they want to be with him are going to have to be convinced to make a different decision.

And I don't think anybody thought that we saw a sharply defined argument from anyone outside of Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson who were on the periphery of the race about why they should do that from the stage last night. And that's still is the question: if they actually want to beat Trump, will they provide voters a better, clearer, sharper reason than they have so far to move away from him?

BRUNHUBER: That is the question. So much to happen between now and then. Always a pleasure to speak with you, Ron Brownstein in Los Angeles. Thanks so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me. Yup.

BRUNHUBER: Russia claims it stopped a wave of Ukrainian drones targeting Crimea. It says it destroyed more than 40 UAVs over the peninsula Friday morning. This comes a day after Ukraine reported a brazen amphibious raid targeting Russian infrastructure there.

Nick Paton Walsh has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ukraine defense intelligence's suggestions that they launch a significant amphibious assault against Crimea is deeply important because of the symbolism that Crimea holds. I think it's fair to say in the eyes of many Western officials in the

mind of Russian President Vladimir Putin, this is a very important part of their occupation of Ukraine because it was the first area they took in 2014 almost without a shot being fired, annexed through troops infiltrating.

What Ukraine is suggesting is that a series of amphibious assaults hit the Crimean coastline and may have killed up to 30 Russian troops, essentially attacking their infrastructure and more importantly impacting their psychology, showing that even Crimea, which I think most Russians consider to be far enough away from the actual front lines of fighting, is now vulnerable to Ukrainian special forces assault.

That's an important message for Ukraine to send because it has been criticized in Western media reports for focusing too much on Crimea. Ukraine's response, I think, would have been, that so much of Russia's military infrastructure is in that peninsula and that helps Russia defend its positions in the front parts of the areas of Ukraine's southern counteroffensive.

But this statement from Ukraine essentially coming on Ukraine's Independence Day, a bid to project force depth of how far they can hit Russian targets that may have thought they were secure otherwise and also to feeding in to the broader discussion about how Yevgeny Prigozhin appears to have died in mysterious if not deeply suspicious circumstances.

Remember, the death of Prigozhin is not by itself isolated from the war in Ukraine. It's another reminder for Ukrainians that Prigozhin led an armed rebellion against Putin, fought heavily in Ukraine for Russia and some of the more brutal front lines, but also too that Putin, if indeed he is somehow involved in this death, still feels a threat internally because of how Prigozhin negatively characterized how this war had been prosecuted.

A lot's moving here on Ukraine's Independence Day, but battlefield changes certainly what Kyiv want to project as the world asks exactly what happened to Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: And CNN's Nada Bashir joins me now live from London with more on all of this. So, Nada, Putin breaking his silence on Prigozhin's death. What more reaction are we hearing?

[02:15:05]

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Look, you heard that from Nick. There is still a lot of suspicion around the circumstances of Prigozhin's death. Russian authorities say a full investigation is underway but it is very much in its early stages. We know that a full forensics examination is taking place. Teams will be sifting through the wreckage and debris spread across an expanse about two kilometers northwest of Moscow and of course the Russia's aviation authority has already released those details of the passengers on board Prigozhin and some of his top deputies presumed to have been killed in that crash and as you said there we heard from President Putin acknowledging yesterday.

He expressed his condolences to the families of the victims on board the plane. But he also spoke about his relationship, his long-standing relationship with Prigozhin. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I knew Prigozhin for a very long time, since the early 90s. He was a man of difficult fate. And he made serious mistakes in life. And he achieved the results needed both for himself and when I asked him about it, for a common cause, asking this last month. He was a talented man, a talented businessman.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASHIR: Now Russian investigators will be looking at an array of possibilities from possible malfunctions or technical difficulties on board that plane to questions around whether this was a deliberate incident, whether the plane was down.

There is certainly much speculation around that, particularly of course in light of that insurrection we saw two months ago led by Yevgeny Prigozhin. We heard from President Putin at the time. He was very clear and vocal that he viewed this incident as an act of treason and there has been questions since that day around the possible retribution that Yevgeny Prigozhin may face as a result.

But of course, no clear indications just yet around what caused the plane to crash on Wednesday. But of course, we have heard from the U.S. for its part, defense officials there saying that their initial assessments show or suggest that Yevgeny Prigozhin was indeed killed on the plane.

But at this stage, the Pentagon has no indications that it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. Meanwhile, within Russia, there has been some questions. some speculation around the possibility of Ukraine being behind this incident but President Zelenskyy has been clear on this Ukraine had no part according to the president. Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Alright thanks so much Nada Bashir, I appreciate it.

Wildfires in Greece surge once again and have firefighters rushing to beat back the flames. When we come back we're on the ground with a closer look at the damage and what crews are still working to save.

Plus millions of people are still struggling. A year after floods devastated Pakistan ahead. We'll take a look at the state of the country one year on. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:20:00]

BRUNHUBER: Pakistan is still in need of urgent support one year after catastrophic flooding. Last year's monsoon season killed hundreds of people, destroyed millions of homes, and wiped out entire farms.

At one point, nearly one-third of Pakistan was underwater. One year later, UNICEF warns that millions still don't have access to essential services. According to the U.N., some eight million people are still without safe water, and more than 1.5 million children in need of nutrition intervention.

The floods damaged and destroyed vital infrastructure including 30,000 schools, 2,000 health facilities and 4,300 water systems. UNICEF is calling on the Pakistani government and others to increase investment in basic services for children and families.

And in Greece authorities say they're dealing with a large resurgence of wildfires gripping parts of the country. Officials say strong winds stirred up fires north of Athens early Thursday morning. Right now more than 250 firefighters are working to battle the blaze as residents in at least three areas were asked to evacuate their homes.

CNN correspondent Eleni Giokos is in Greece and has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELENI HIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what is left of one of the most beautiful hiking trails in the whole of Greece. I'm in Parnitha Mountain in Athens. It's known as the Lungs of Athens. It's an important carbon basin for the city.

I want to show you why it's called the Lungs of Athens. If you look out, you can see this thick black smoke towering over the city. But you also see a very densely populated area, not enough greenery. And this virgin forest was that one reprieve. Fires broke out here on Tuesday. It affected homes. Many homes were burned yesterday. The fire department are not giving us an exact number. They're still trying to assess the damage.

We also don't know how much of this forest has actually been burned. What we do know today is that the firefighters tell us that overnight it was a nightmare experience with many new blazes erupting across the mountain and of course with no air assistance that makes it all that much more difficult to put out the flames.

This morning many helicopters and planes towering above us. One of the helicopters can carry around 11 tons of water and working rapidly to try and put out the fire. You can see the wind has subsided somewhat but the fear is that once it starts again that will reignite some of the flames that are starting to just simmer at this stage. Now looking ahead, locals tell us they're very worried about potential flooding. during rainy season and landslides. That will be something that will come in the future. But for now, this fire season for the whole of Greece has been

absolutely catastrophic. We have seen hundreds of new fires erupting across the country in the last few days.

Eleni Joukas, Athens, Greece, for CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

All right, still ahead, Donald Trump becomes the first U.S. president with a mugshot, the latest on his arrest and booking in Georgia after a short break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:25:00]

BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."

Donald Trump is back in New Jersey at this hour, free on $200,000 bond after his arrest in the Georgia election subversion case. The former U.S. president was fingerprinted and photographed in a 20-minute booking process. Sources tell CNN Trump wanted to appear defiant in his mugshot and chose not to smile. It's the fourth time this year that Trump has turned himself in to face felony charges. He spoke with the conservative TV network "Newsmax" on his flight back to New Jersey describing his arrest series. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Terrible experience. I came in. I was treated very nicely. But it is what it is. I took a mugshot, which I never heard the words mugshot. That wasn't being teached with at at the Wharton School of Finance. And I have to go through a process. It's election interference. You know that better than anybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: All right for more on this I'm joined by David Katz. He is a former assistant U.S. attorney now criminal defense attorney and joins me from Los Angeles. Thanks so much for joining us here. So just a big picture what do you make of this unprecedented day?

DAVIC KATZ, FORMER U.S. ASSISTANT ATTORNEY: Well, it is really unprecedented. It's the fourth time. It's the first time that a president, former president has had to give a mugshot. And there was this kind of a ballyhoo thing that he was going to be treated just like everyone else. And I think that the district attorney in Fulton County kind of missed the ball on that. I think it would have been smarter if she'd have just had him come in an unusual way.

In other words, not having coming by video. They filled out ahead of time this fact sheet. They didn't even actually weigh him. They put down the weight before he showed up. They had the rap sheet that he doesn't have, of course, except he's got the three other accusations against him, two of them federally. But he doesn't have a normal rap sheet like that. So there was really no purpose in having him come there.

And I think that just in terms of the optics, Trump won the day. And I think that the D.A and the people that she's working with have to really think that through, because he showed up in a caravan. He showed up like a visiting head of state.

Nothing was normal about it. They kicked the reporters out of there, whereas they normally have a press area. And so he got to play this all his own way. And I think that as they say, they need to think that through. Also, there's going to be a speedy trial, but not for him. Under Georgia law, one of the co-defendants, Cheseboro, asked for a speedy trial.

He'll get one. but not the others. I've said it from the beginning when I heard about this case a week and a half ago had been filed. It will not get to trial in my estimation against Trump before the November election. And I think right now it's actually helping him going toward the November election politically.

I think the case that really matters is the same one that I thought for a while, the one in DC, the one that's in federal court that's one against him solely. And I think that one could actually get the trial before the November election and the judge there federal judge is going to do everything possible I know this case is important because it can't be pardoned but it somehow Trump gets back into office it's going to be a war of wills between him and state court Georgia and help hard himself on the federal cases I think they need to get moving with the federal case that really matters the one in Washington D.C, not take any excuses from him that he's not ready for some reason or these other are in the way and push that one in Washington D.C. federal court against just him.

BRUNHUBER: Alright, well let's go back to this Georgia case though. You mentioned a couple of defendants wanting a speedy trial here. I guess it would be to the advantage of the defendants to sever their cases and be tried individually. So, will we see, you know, 19 separate trials here?

KATZ: We're not going to see 19 separate trials. But I think what's going on tactically and Trump has very good lawyers and he's paying them for once, is that he's going to get a preview. In other words, if Chesebro goes to trial in the fall, as he says, the DA will have to put on her whole case.

She won't have to put on everything. But Trump will get a great preview of the case, right? And if there's yet another severed trial, he'll have a second preview of what awaits him. And then there's also the issue of seeing what the jury's like. It'll be a great preview, which a defense lawyer -- and I'm a criminal defense lawyer now in federal court, you don't usually get.

And I think that this case is just -- it also could be transferred to federal court. And if Trump has an opportunity for that, I think he'll take it. He has about another three or four weeks to make up his mind. He can also see how that one goes. There's going to be a hearing in federal court on Monday to see if Mark Meadows, his former White House chief of staff and this five or six number official at the Justice Department, the one who tried to vault over the others and become acting head of the Justice Department and issue a statement that there had been some monkey business with the election.

And then Trump said, my Republican congressman will just take it from there. That fellow, Jeffrey Clark, he and Mark Meadows are going to ask on Monday at an evidentiary hearing to have the case transferred to federal court. And then Trump will have to decide, does he want to go to federal court?

It would still be a state case, so it wouldn't be pardonable. It would still be a state case, but it would be very different. And the calculation for Trump would be, would that judge really force him to a speedy trial along with the two others. So he may lay back and figure that there's so much delay.

And I think that's one reason that we're hearing about Trump not paying the co-defendant's lawyers. I think he doesn't want to financially enable them to do anything different from what he wants, which is that the 17 or 18 left, except the one or two who are getting a preview trial, he'll lay back, and 17 or 18 will be way too much to take on masse to a trial any time before the November election.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, just so many twists and turns still to go here. Really appreciate your expertise. David Katz in Los Angeles, thanks so much.

KATZ: Great to be with you again. Really appreciate it.

BRUNHUBER: Cheers.

The U.S. believes Yevgeny Prigozhin was likely killed in Wednesday's plane crash. Officials say they're evaluating a number of possible causes as to what brought the plane down, including an explosion on board. But they're ruling out one possibility for now. Here is the Pentagon spokesperson on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. PATRICK RYDER, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Our initial assessment is that it's likely Prigozhin was killed. We're continuing to assess the situation. We don't have any information to indicate right now. The press reporting stating that there was some type of surface to air missile that took down the plane. We assessed that information to be inaccurate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: All right. And joining me now is Stephen Fish, Professor of Political Science at U.C. Berkeley and author of the book "Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics". Thanks so much for being here with us.

So we heard from Vladimir Putin for the first time, talking about Yevgeny Prigozhin, saying some, you know, fairly innocuous things about this man that he knew for a long time. What do you make of his reaction to this? And what message is Putin sending? Does it hint at all at what might really have happened here?

DR. M. STEVEN FISH, PROF. OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, U.C. BERKELEY: Well, Putin is sending a message with shooting down Prigozhin's plane over Russia that nobody is safe if they defy him, that the price of defying Putin is death. And that even if the Godfather seems to forgive you for a little while, in fact, at a time of his own choosing and in a place of his own choosing, he'll take you out. This is just the way this mafia regime works.

BRUNHUBER: So, I mean, if Putin was behind it, the fact that it was an airplane that was targeted has some symbolic significance in terms of the message it sends to the elites, right?

FISH: Yes. In fact, it's a very dramatic message, seeing an airplane falling out of the sky. What's more, keep in mind, Kim, that Russian elites love to get around on private jets. That's their favorite way of getting traveling around Russia and abroad as well. And to take a private jet out of the sky like this is to tell people that Putin will certainly target your mode of transportation if necessary to take you out if you're disloyal to him.

BRUNHUBER: And historically, I mean, we know Putin likes his revenge served cold, but any delay in going after Prigozhin, I mean, that might have been tactical as well?

FISH: It probably was. He could have tried to take him out right after Prigozhin made the play for Moscow and mutiny. But, you know, acting like he'd forgiven Prigozhin apparently even had him in for a several hour conversation and spoke with him and made it look like he'd actually forgiven him.

[02:35:10]

But, in fact, what this two-month delay probably allowed Putin to do was to lull Prigozhin into a false sense of security to make him feel like he, in fact, had been forgiven. And to encourage him -- Prigozhin is very arrogant to begin with -- to continue to maintain contacts with people who supported him. Then Putin could monitor Prigozhin's conversations.

He could monitor his communications with other members of the elite and kind of smoke out people who might be still on good terms with Prigozhin. So this, in fact, afforded Putin a lot of intelligence that was very likely the case and probably one of the reasons why he waited.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Machiavellian there. What more are we learning about the others who were on that flight and what impact that might have on Wagner itself going forward?

FISH: Well, it looks like pretty much the entire top level of the Wagner private military company, as it's called, was on board. Dmitry Utkin, who is one of the founders, along with Prigozhin of the Wagner Group, he's the one who named the Wagner organization. In fact, he named it after Wagner because Wagner was Hitler's favorite composer and Utkin is a Nazi, pretty much the same way Prigozhin is.

He was on board. Several of the other leaders at the top level of Wagner were on board as well. So Putin has really decapitated the Wagner organization. What this means is the remnants of the organization are going to be dependent on the Russian state from now on. So this was his way of taking out Wagner in a manner that really kind of eliminated any other top leaders in the organization.

BRUNHUBER: And finally, a senior U.S. official told CNN that the Biden administration plans to keep piling pressure on Russia through additional sanctions. We've seen Russia's ruble has been crumbling down to a new low recently. So in the context of all of this and the death of Prigozhin, did you see any more cracks appearing politically due to the economy as well?

FISH: Well, in Russia, you know, the economy is slowly sinking. It's not happening all that quickly. And I'm told by people I know in Moscow that Moscow still looks good. But generally speaking, the economy is slowing down. It's starting to creak.

The ruble has actually been declining recently, and it makes a great deal of sense to keep the pressure on when it comes to sanctions, because let's remember, these sanctions have been very effective. They have denied Putin a great deal of the resources he needs to prosecute this war successfully.

It's also putting pressure on the Russian population, so it's possible that it will increase, eventually, popular discontent with this war. These sanctions aren't magic, but they are working, and they're very much -- they're very worthwhile and worth continuing to pursue.

BRUNHUBER: All right, listen, really appreciate all of your insights. Steven Fish, thanks so much.

FISH: My pleasure, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: And we'll be back after a quick break. Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:40:17]

BRUNHUBER: Football's world governing body has opened disciplinary proceedings against the president of the Spanish Football Federation. This comes after video shows Luis Rubiales forcibly kissing a player on the lips following Spain's World Cup victory. FIFA says he may have violated rules that deal with offensive behavior.

Spain's women's soccer league has also filed an official complaint with Spanish High Council Sport. Rubiales has since apologizing he made a mistake.

Japan says it's strongly requesting China reverse its ban on all imports of Japanese seafood. China made the move on Thursday after Japan began releasing treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. Beijing says it's necessary to protect the health of Chinese consumers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WANG WENBIN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION, CHINESE FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTRY (through translation): The disposal of the Fukushima nuclear contaminated water is a major issue of nuclear safety. Its impact goes beyond Japan's borders, and the issue is by no means a private matter for Japan. The ocean belongs to all humanity. To forcibly start an ocean discharge is an extremely selfish and irresponsible act in disregard of the global public interest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The Fukushima plant was damaged during an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Japan says the released water meets international safety standards.

Pakistan is honoring the expert zipliners who rushed to help rescue eight people stuck in a dangling cable car earlier this week. They were presented with awards at a ceremony in Islamabad Thursday. The zipliners were called to carefully swoop in, bringing five children and two adults to safety after a 14-hour ordeal.

The cable car was left swaying above a rocky ravine on Tuesday after a cable snapped. The elements made the rescue difficult.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUHAMMAD ALI SWATI, RESCUER (through translation): The most significant obstacle we encountered was the absence of light. The wind pressure was also quite high. In the valley, you can't feel it, but when you go high, wind pressure is significant. So darkness and the wind pressure were the key challenges for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Military helicopters also played a role in the rescues. Both the owner and operator of the cable car have now been arrested on charges including reckless driving and negligent operation of machinery.

All right, thanks so much for joining us. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back in 15 minutes with more news. "WORLD SPORT" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WORLD SPORT)