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Russia Holds Parliamentary Elections for the First Time Since the 2022 Invasion of Ukraine; Trump Teases Big Decision on Iran, Admin to Meet with Gulf Leaders at the UNGA Sidelines. Aired 3-3:45a ET

Aired September 18, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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IVAN WATSON, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome, I'm Ivan Watson in Hong Kong, ahead here on CNN Newsroom.

As Russia holds its first parliamentary election since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin paints a rosy outlook for his country's economy.

U.S. President Donald Trump teases a big decision on Iran, while his administration prepares to meet with Gulf leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

And Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney makes a veiled swipe at President Trump as he weighs ties with the European Union.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Hong Kong, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Ivan Watson.

WATSON: Hi there.

Now, for the first time since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago, Russian voters are headed to the polls. Voting began about two hours ago and will continue until Sunday. 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, are theoretically on the line.

But effective opposition is practically non-existent, and President Vladimir Putin's party is expected to stay on top. Social tensions are starting to creep in, partly because the war in Ukraine is taking a toll on the economy. Before the vote, though, Mr. Putin said that things are still under control.

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VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We are, of course, seeing oil prices rise on global markets, and therefore we expect oil and gas revenues to increase in the coming months. This, in turn, will allow us to replenish the National Wealth Fund, which serves as a buffer for state finances. Economic performance in Russia is generally in line with our expectations. Gross domestic product growth this year is estimated to be within one percent. This is approximately what we anticipated when preparing the budget plan for the current year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: As Russians head to the polls, Ukraine is taking a new round of pounding from drone strikes. Officials say Russia fired more than 90 drones overnight, striking a shopping center in Zaporizhzhya, along with targets across Ukraine. At least two people were killed and eight others injured. Russia says it carried out strikes on ports and ships in Odessa.

Meanwhile, Poland's Prime Minister is warning that Moscow plans more strikes on Ukraine's allies. He says intelligence agencies say the Kremlin will launch hybrid drone attacks on countries that support Ukraine.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk claims Moscow's official line would be that those strikes were accidental. He's headed to Kyiv for talks in the coming hours.

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DONALD TUSK, POLISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): In my view, the hopes expressed by President Trump that Russia would cease its attack on energy infrastructure have proved to be in vain and were probably more of an attempt to persuade President Zelenskyy to ensure that Ukraine stop its attack on Russian refineries.

[03:05:08]

So unfortunately, and I say this with a heavy heart, I fear that by winter we will witness increasingly severe Russian attacks on energy infrastructure. I can only express the hope that these provocations and attacks will not extend beyond Ukraine's borders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Okay, for more analysis, I'm going to go to London now, where I'm joined by Gregoire Roos, the director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia programs at Chatham House. Nice to see you.

So I guess we're going to start with these Duma elections in Russia. You know, it was several weeks ago that I saw that that little political party of Grigory Yavlinsky, Yabloko, was basically banned from competing in the elections.

So what does that leave then? Any real political opposition to speak of? And if there's little opposition left, what's the point of an election for Russia at this point?

GREGOIRE ROOS, DIRECTOR FOR EUROPE, RUSSIA, AND EURASIA PROGRAMS, CHATHAM HOUSE: Good morning, Ivan, and thank you for having me. Again, we're on CNN, and you're spot on. I think what we're seeing here is obviously less a race to control the

Duma than a test of the Kremlin's capacity to demonstrate publicly its ability to mobilize political support for the war, for the Kremlin, after nearly five years of full-scale war, and at a time we've seen that for the past few months, when the war starts turning into a significant cost for the Russian people, from fuel shortages to skyrocketing inflation to rising unemployment and to taxation, which is something that the Kremlin has thus far managed to keep low. So we will see, I think, interesting indicators.

Obviously, turnout would be a relevant one, although I would tend to say that there's nothing that would prevent the Kremlin from inflating that figure, so I would not necessarily rely on the turnout necessarily. The opposition, as you rightfully said, Yablonko, was barred from running. So most of the wiping out of the opposition, so to say, was done, was carried out upstream, which is a reason why there is currently little risk for the Kremlin to see antiwar parties taking a lead in Parliament.

But what we will see is how many Russians actually follow the advice, the encouragement of the opposition to actually come to vote on the very last day to reduce the ability of the Kremlin to stuff the ballots, that will be a first indicator.

The second will obviously see the number of online campaign to really show that there's kind of a ballot stuffing. We will also see this. Some hackers have already shown some days ago that in spite of the reassurance from the Kremlin that the electoral system would be perfectly safe, well, you could actually hack it.

So it's another indication that it will be very easy to manipulate the results. And of course you have all the Ukrainian territories that are under Russian control that now have candidates who have been parachuted, who do not come from those regions, and who will most likely send Moscow landslide victory results. That will be another argument for Vladimir Putin to show how much integrated into the Russian Federation those territories are, culturally, as he likes to say, even if it is not the case, and obviously politically.

One point perhaps, and I don't want to be too long, indeed, there have been 93 strikes carried out by the Russians overnight, but the Ukrainians' air defense has actually been very efficient, as it's managed to take down more than 70 of those drones and missiles. So I think at this stage, even if the winter will be most certainly the most difficult for the Ukrainians to face and go through, the defense of the Ukrainians is very resilient and much stronger than what the Kremlin would hope for at this stage.

WATSON: Can I ask you, you know, we heard about warnings coming from the Polish Prime Minister about the threat, in his words, of Russian hybrid attacks on E.U. member states. Given how difficult the war has been in Ukraine alone for Russia, if there's any truth to this, why would the Kremlin want to tangle with the E.U. and potentially NATO? Would it be just to keep Europeans on their toes, or would they kind of think that they could really take on additional potential enemies?

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ROOS: I think it's an excellent question. And, again, what is very interesting is that this showcases the art of the Kremlin to keep provoking and to keep fueling a kind of fear of Ukrainian populations remaining under the threshold of direct confrontation.

So yes, you will still see, you might have heard that in France and the Netherlands some days ago there was some sabotage on some railways. It's still not proved at this stage whether this was committed by Russians or people who might have been manipulated or paid by Russia. But it is not to be excluded at this stage.

So you will see some hybrid attacks that will be localized, that taken independently from the others might look like they're not relevant, they're not consistent with a bigger pattern of attack and threat. But we will see that going forward with, of course, breaches in the airspace, drones attacking airports, cyberattacks most certainly, submarine cables that are becoming increasingly sensitive and infrastructure.

It is a way for the Russians to show, to send a signal to Russian populations, especially after the regional elections in Germany, showing that, indeed, this might pay off, at least locally. So I think the Kremlin is hoping that this would send a signaling to some of the Europeans who still believe that Russia is too strong an enemy and that Europe should rather ditch Ukraine and sit at the negotiating table with Russia, which is, of course, something that most Europeans do not agree with, and certainly not the leaders across most European countries.

So we're not there, but Putin knows that he has some room for maneuver, and that would also lead many European countries to ask whether the current Russia strategy of Europe is the right one. So it also increases the kind of doubt and breaks the self-confidence that we have seen coming out from Europe ever since Trump and the U.S. and Russia put those points on the table in November last year.

WATSON: All right. Gregoire Roos at Chatham House in London, thank you very much for speaking with me.

ROOS: Thank you very much indeed.

WATSON: Okay. Now, from the Russian-Ukraine war to the conflict in the Middle East, the U.S. President Donald Trump says he has a big decision to make on Iran.

In an interview with Axios, President Trump said, quote, "I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them, or do I not? It is a big decision. Anything could happen with me."

Trump's comments come ahead of a meeting with Gulf leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week. Two U.S. officials say they're set to discuss the next phase of the war with Iran. Trump again insisted that Iran wants to make a deal with the U.S. to end the war. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia says one person was killed and two injured as the kingdom intercepted a drone it says was launched by the Iran- backed Houthi militants in Yemen. It's the first death announced by Saudi Arabia this month since the Houthis intensified their attacks in the region. The Houthis did not claim responsibility, but previously announced military operations on southern Saudi areas.

The U.N. says escalating hostilities are obstructing aid deliveries and driving thousands to flee the peninsula.

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STEPHANE DUJARRIC, UNITED NATIONS SPOKESPERSON: Since the start of September, and as of yesterday, our colleagues at the U.N. Human Rights Office verified 55 civilian casualties in 19 incidents in Taiz, al-Hodeidah, Marib, and Lahij, 16 people were killed, including 10 children, and dozens of others were wounded.

Overall, women and children account for 84 percent of the casualties, 84 percent. But I want to stress that these are only verified figures. Tragically, the actual toll is likely to be much higher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: All right, let's bring in CNN's Leila Gharagozlou, tracking developments from Abu Dhabi. Leila, great to see you. I mean, boy, it does seem like an entire new front to this conflict in Yemen has opened up in just the last week or so, right?

LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, definitely. And things have been moving very quickly in Yemen. Experts that I spoke to just a little bit ago, though, said that this was always going to be a flashpoint, particularly with the Iran war continuing for so long.

Now, one of your guests last hour, Danny Citrinowitz, made a very good point that the Houthis are not Iranian proxies, but rather partners. And while this new front is aiding in the Iranian cause during this war, it's something that was always going to happen, and the Houthis, you know, do their own thing. So this new front should be very concerning as we look to see what happens with the Iran war.

Now, President Trump, as you said, has said that he has a big decision to make on Iran, whether to ramp up or draw down the war. And this is something he's been saying over the last couple of months. So we've kind of seen this cycle before.

[03:15:09]

The Iranians, on the other hand, have been very consistent that they will not accept a no-war, no-peace purgatory state. They either want to make a deal or they say, essentially, the only way is through.

So we're going to have to see what happens on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. And I think the thing that really brings both of these conflicts together is going to be that meeting with GCC leaders and what they talk about, because the GCC really is involved in both conflicts, both in Yemen via Saudi Arabia, but also with Iran, and being really the area that has carried the brunt of the Iranian retaliation.

So what they decide to do with this war, whether to ramp up the Iran war or draw it down, is going to impact the rest of the region, and is inevitably going to impact how the region handles the Yemen war as well.

So it's a really interesting time to see how things kind of pan out between these two conflicts and what President Trump's decision-making is going to be. Now, off the back of that, they have said that the Iranian delegation is going to come to the U.N. It's going to be a smaller delegation.

So also it will be interesting to see if anything happens there, if there are any sideline meetings between Iran and its GCC counterparts, or even with potentially American counterparts. So a lot to watch going into next week.

WATSON: Yes, and you mentioned my conversation previously with Danny Citrinowitz, that former Israeli intelligence officer, Leila, and he basically said neither Washington nor Riyadh have any really good options right now when it comes to these two conflicts.

Anyway, CNN's Leila Gharagozlou in Abu Dhabi, live. Thank you very much for this update.

There is much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom." The Canadian Prime Minister is speaking out about a European Union proposal to deepen their ties. What that could mean for their relationships with the U.S., all of that is coming up after this break.

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WATSON: Welcome back.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney took a veiled swipe at U.S. President Donald Trump during a speech to European Union lawmakers in France on Thursday.

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MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: I'm not proposing a third bloc in order to become a great power rival only with better manners. We do not seek power to dominate others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Carney added that Canada is instead pursuing resilience so that no one can control its open markets, impair its sovereignty, or undermine its freedoms, democracy, or rule of law. His comments come a day after the E.U. Commission President proposed that Canada become the bloc's first associate member, which provoked a fresh tariff threat from Donald Trump. More now on Mark Carney's position from CNN's Paula Newton.

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We really don't have any details on what exactly he is entertaining here. He's calling it a deeper alliance, but what he's doing here is really to try and have some kind of insurance policy against what is not just a Trump administration that's been difficult to deal with and obviously engaged in a trade war, but a capricious American electorate. And at this point in time, he said the word there, sovereignty.

And I think he personally, Mark Carney, has been working on this for several months, and he wanted to start in Europe. It's a natural thing for him. He was both a citizen of the U.K. and a citizen of Ireland at one time.

And he has been working this, trying to find a way to really push back, perhaps not just against what the United States would want now or in the future, but also China, which is really pushing its weight around the world as well.

This is what they've come up with. There is an E.U.-Canada summit at the end of October. Perhaps we will see more details.

Look, Canadian voters, Mark Carney said, would have to weigh in. And it's no surprise to Canadians that, look, the E.U. itself, if you're a member nation, it's a bit of a hot mess. And Canadians, business people that I speak to every day, say they want less bureaucracy, more of the American model, if you will, not more of the European model.

Mark Carney would know this well. He is from Alberta. And you hear people who still really want that good relationship with the United States.

Everyone can look at a map, and everyone sees their own bottom line. They want this trade war to end.

Now, does that mean you don't want to add on the E.U.? Sure. But they do not want to add on more regulations.

And again, Mark Carney was very clear, anything that happens would have to be approved by all the parliaments. Good luck with that.

Canada already has a free trade agreement with the European Union. Several countries, including Italy and France, have not yet joined.

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WATSON: Thanks, Paula.

There is much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom." Russians are now voting in parliamentary elections for the first time since the full- scale invasion on Ukraine in 2022. And there's little doubt of what the outcome will be. I'll have more on that when we come back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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WATSON: Hello and welcome. I'm Ivan Watson, in Hong Kong. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

People at another Washington institution are working to block President Trump from engraving his name on its building. The Institute of Peace and ousted board members are asked a federal appeals court to prevent the administration from carving Trump's name into the facade. He already had a sign with his name on it attached to the building after renaming it the Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace, lawyers for the plaintiffs say the administration appears to be taking steps to prepare to carve Trump's name onto the building.

For the first time since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago, Russian voters are heading to the polls.

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Voting will continue until Sunday in an election whose outcome is largely a foregone conclusion. The process is tightly controlled, so President Vladimir Putin's party is expected to win; Russia's only anti-war party has been banned from the ballot.

The Canadian Prime Minister says the E.U. proposal to deepen ties with Canada was not aimed at creating a new geopolitical bloc with what he called better manners. Mark Carney's veiled swipe at Donald Trump came a day after the U.S. President threatened fresh tariffs in response to a proposal from the E.U. Commission President for Canada to become the bloc's first associate member. Canada and the E.U. have both been hit with Trump's tariffs, prompting them to seek new alliances to shore up their economies.

Egypt's capital, Cairo, is one of Africa's biggest and most congested cities. And moving millions of people around is an increasingly difficult challenge. The city is betting on a new solution to remove that gridlock, a monorail.

Victoria Rubadiri looks at how this transport system might also be replicated across the continent.

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VICTORIA RUBADIRI, "CONNECTING AFRICA" HOST (voice-over): Gridlock and congestion are a common daily reality for commuters in Egypt's capital, Cairo. With millions of cars in a densely populated city, moving around can be challenging and slow. Now, a new state-of-the-art rail line running above these busy streets might be the solution.

BEN LEZALA, VICE PRESIDENT SERVICES, AMEGA ALSTOM: The monorail is the first of its kind in Africa, first of its kind in Egypt. It's a really significant project, it's the first driverless system on the African continent, and it's very important for the growth of Cairo, moving people around the city safely, reliably.

RUBADIRI (voice-over): For Alstom, the global transportation company building the monorail, that means creating a network capable of keeping up with Cairo's rapid expansion. The monorail has 74 car trains that operate on routes that run on either side of the famous Nile River.

LEZALA: Two lines, one line of 57 kilometers, 22 stations; second line of 42 kilometers, 13 stations. And it connects the center of Cairo to the east and the west, where new cities are being developed for the expansion of the greater Cairo region.

RUBADIRI (voice-over): But it's more than just moving people from A to B. New infrastructure can also create new economic opportunities across different sectors.

LEZALA: So all along that route, we're unlocking economic potential. So that's by people being able to move more quickly, more freely, more time available to the commercial activities which are happening on the ground, with shopkeepers, restaurants and so on.

RUBADIRI (voice-over): It's not just for Egypt, though. Alstom says that this sort of project can be replicated across the continent.

LAURENT VOS, CAIRO MONORAIL PROJECT DIRECTOR, ALSTOM: This project is the proof of concept for Africa, that a transportation solution sustainable, adaptable to rapid growth demand for the population is possible. So effectively, we can deploy this solution everywhere in the growing city in Africa that can adapt to big corridors when they are expanding their cities, that answer to the need of people to connect together, to move from their jobs to their areas.

We are extremely proud to have delivered this project, this fantastic project, which is built by Egyptians for Egyptians. And I hope tomorrow it's a model, a vision for the other cities in Africa to develop this solution.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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WATSON: --markets there and welcome back. Here are your business headlines.

Hundreds of ground workers for the Australian airline Qantas are set to strike next week. The Transport Workers Union says they plan to strike for 24 hours over pay and working conditions. The union said its workers did not make this decision lightly, while Qantas says it remains committed to reaching an agreement with its ground staff. Oil prices closed about one percent lower on Thursday amid reports

that crude from Saudi Arabia could reach global markets despite disruptions in recent days. Brent crude futures closed at more than $104 a barrel; the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell to just under $102 a barrel. Disruptions from fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Iran backed Houthis in Yemen had driven oil prices to near four month highs this week before easing down.

As calls grow for A.I. guardrails, Anthropic says its chatbot, Claude, is now helping build its own successor with little or no help from humans. The tech company reported Thursday its chatbot is leading more than a quarter of its research and development work. This comes as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in A.I. development, warning the technology will eventually become smart enough to improve itself without human input.

Competition is fierce as Western companies and local brands fight for their slice of Asia's massive fast food market. To be competitive, they have to incorporate local flavors and food habits.

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So for this week's episode of my streaming show, "Meanwhile in Asia," me and the team, we indulged in some of the favorites. Take a look.

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WATSON: Do you like this dish?

UNKNOWN: No.

KUNAL SEHGAL, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: No, I really don't. This is McDonald's McTwisty pasta.

UNKNOWN: Well, it's basically a very traditional Hong Kong breakfast dish. Macaroni in soup.

SEHGAL: Oh, I actually quite like it. That's not so bad. Yes, it's pretty good.

WATSON: I am hungry.

SEHGAL: You know what I like about, I mean, a lot of these fast food chains, but especially McDonald's is how they adapt to local cultures. If you go to Indian McDonald's, that caters to, you know, vegetarian people because a lot of people don't eat meat there, but also go on religious holidays. If people want to have fast food, they can have vegetarian food instead of meat.

WATSON: Can you get a Big Mac at an Indian McDonald's?

SEHGAL: You can get a Maharaja Mac, which, but you can't get beef there, of course, because of religious sensitivities, because majority of the country is Hindu.

UNKNOWN: Three potato egg tart, yes. SEHGAL: You know what? I really like this as well.

WATSON: But I'm telling you, you're not going to get an egg tart at a KFC in the U.S. I mean, this is part of what these kind of international chains are doing to appeal to a local market.

UNKNOWN: Yes.

WATSON: Next, I think, is a Shake Shack shake.

SEHGAL: A black sesame shake.

WATSON: Holy moly. That is like, yes, like a sesame bomb.

SEHGAL: Is it?

WATSON: Yes. I can't remember the last time I had a taste of a milkshake.

SEHGAL: Let me see. And what's the crunchy stuff on top? Holy (expletive).

WATSON: Hey.

SEHGAL: Sorry. Wow.

UNKNOWN: Is it very sweet?

SEHGAL: It's quite sweet.

WATSON: I mean, it's a milkshake.

SEHGAL: Yes.

UNKNOWN: Oh, wow. It's really good.

SEHGAL: No.

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WATSON: Check it out on CNN All Access, the All Access app. That was a lot of fun, but durian-flavored chips are, I would argue, an acquired taste. A new episode of "Meanwhile in Asia" is out each Thursday on All Access in the U.S. and on Saturdays on YouTube around the world.

All right, there are more revelations coming from the memoir written by the late Princess Diana's brother, Charles Spencer. In excerpts printed by the "Daily Mail," Spencer discusses then-Prince Charles' reactions in the days after Diana's death.

Spencer claims that on the night of the crash that killed Diana, Charles sounded giddily elated, according to an extract in the "Daily Mail." Spencer also claims that days later, during a discussion about whether Prince Harry and Prince William would participate in the funeral procession, Charles said, "We'll forget about her soon enough." Buckingham Palace has pushed back against Spencer's claims, suggesting

in a statement that his judgment and memory have been affected by grief for his sister. Spencer's book, "Swansong," will be released next week.

All right, and finally, check this out. A new wildcat species has been discovered living in the forests of Bolivia. At just 18 inches long and weighing less than three pounds, it's smaller than the average domestic cat, and I'd argue it's pretty cute.

It has light brown fur with irregular-shaped rosettes. This marks the first time in more than a century that scientists have formally named and described a new cat species. Look at that.

All right, thanks for watching. I'm Ivan Watson, in Hong Kong. "World Sport" is next, and then there's more "CNN Newsroom" at the top of the hour, and I'll be back with you at the same time tomorrow. Take care.

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