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First Move with Julia Chatterley

Austrian Chancellor Meets Putin in Moscow; World Bank: Russian War to Shrink Ukraine's Economy by Half; World Bank: War has Destroyed Critical Fields, Infrastructure; Kasyanov: Within a few Months every Russian will feel the Impact of Sanctions; Macron, Le Pen to Advance to Presidential Runoff; Musk Could Continue to Buy up Shares of Twitter. Aired 09-10a ET

Aired April 11, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN HOST, FIRST MOVE: You're watching CNN. I'm Julia Chatterley in New York. The battle for East Ukraine has begun. Kharkiv and

the surrounding areas are under attack. 11 civilians have known to have died, among them a seven year old child. That's according to the regional

military governor.

Satellite images show an eight mile long Russian convoy just outside of Kharkiv. It consists of armored vehicles and trucks with towed artillery

and support equipment. That's according to Maxar Technologies. And at the helm of this new offensive, a brutal new General Alexander de Volkoff, who

became known as the Butcher of Syria is notorious for inflicting atrocities on civilians.

In the face of this latest onslaught, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues to appeal for more weaponry, this time addressing the

South Korean parliament.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Ukraine needs support for its military including planes and tanks. South Korea can help Ukraine. South

Korea has various defense systems that could help defend against Russian tanks, ships and missiles. We would be grateful if South Korea could help

us to fight Russia. If Ukraine can have these weapons they will not only save the lives of ordinary people, but they'll save Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHATTERLEY: Overnight another railway station in the East of Ukraine was targeted by Russian rocket fire. Rail officials are not providing the

precise location. They were told no one was hurt in the attack, but trains, tracks and power lines were damaged.

And over the weekend, a Russian strike destroyed the airport in Dnipro City in Central East Ukraine, columns of smoke there visible as you can see from

the site. There's no word at this moment on possible casualties.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has been meeting President Putin over the weekend the Chancellor met with Ukrainian

President Zelenskyy and visited the town of Bucha calling for a full investigation. He described it as a place of war crimes.

Nic Robertson joins me now. Nic, great to have you with us the first meeting I believe of an EU leader and President Putin since the invasion

began and the Austrian Chancellor not pulling his punches on what he believes is taking place and what he wants to see.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, he certainly arrives face to face with President Putin with a moral authority to

confront Putin on what his forces have been doing in Bucha and other places in Ukraine, and that is what the message is going to be.

We heard from the Austrian Foreign Minister earlier saying that the chancellor is going into that meeting, to look Putin in the eye - eye-to-

eye to tell him the truth. He says that Putin should actually want to hear the truth. It's not clear if Putin will actually be listening.

And indeed, the Kremlin's already giving indications that they're not going to make this much of a public event, if you will, that the meeting will be

close to the press, that they're not expecting any comments by the leaders publicly afterwards, at least not together, and not a not in Moscow.

So the Kremlin, apparently trying to sort of downplay the significance and impact of this but really, the message here isn't just for President Putin,

it's for all the Russian leadership and also for the Russian people to explain what's going on.

The German Chancellor Nehammer, who has said that these are war crimes that have been committed in Bucha, and in other places, and that there should be

accountability. And in which case, he really is pointing the finger here at President Putin, if not him, then his forces.

So it's hard to see that this will actually change what President Putin is trying to achieve on the ground, but it is, in the words of some of the

other European Foreign Ministers we've heard from going into a meeting this morning, a necessary thing, a thing that's required a needed, if not, if

only to try to sort of bring about an end to the current conflict to get a ceasefire, an open humanitarian corridors.

And from what we understand from the German Chancellor himself, that realistically is going to be his priority. Try to get a ceasefire, try to

get those humanitarian corridors over, try to save as many lives as he can, Julia.

CHATTERLEY: Your point about messaging, I think, is very important, too. But what about President Putin, what's the benefit of him holding this

meeting as he looks towards the Russian people and his messaging back at home to the domestic environment here and I think to your broader point,

which is obviously what we all are hoping for here. Can anything be achieved in terms of a ceasefire evacuation corridors in your in your mind?

[09:05:00]

ROBERTSON: There's certainly the scope for it and it's within Russia's gift in cities like Mariupol to provide those corridors and other places where

they're shelling. If they stop shelling, then the humanitarian relief can happen.

But as we've seen Russia's it seems intent on destroying property intent on trying to scare civilians so much that they, as soon as they get an

opportunity they'll leave Russia controls that opportunity for the fact that the Kremlin's tells us that this meeting is not going to have cameras

present in the room.

You know, often we've seen Putin meeting and greeting with leaders pre-war, that's what he would do. There'll be a narrative on state TV, then there'll

be perhaps comments afterwards, the fact the Kremlin is telling us, they're not planning for that this time, really seems to indicate that they're

going to absolutely control the message, no surprise.

And whatever message comes out of this would be likely to fall into the category of the Kremlin saying, look, we're not cut off. We're not that

isolated. Here we are. Here's President Putin. His telling the Austrian Chancellor Austrians have long been friends of ours, they're neutral,

militarily neutral, going back decades and decades toward towards the Soviet Union at least and to try to sort of spin this as a as a plus for

Russia.

You know, that doesn't hold any water in the international community. But I think the Kremlin seems concerned and awkward about the reason that they

know that the Austrian Chancellor is coming. And as he says, that's to tell Putin the truth to look him in the eye. Tell him about the war crimes that

he's witnessed on the ground. Tell him about the testimony that is heard. And of course, the Kremlin doesn't want any of that leaking to the broader

Russian population.

CHATTERLEY: And that's why it will be so tightly managed. Nic Robertson, thank you so much for that. Now, cleanup efforts have started at a train

station in Kramatorsk after a deadly Russian attack on Friday. With the station out of service civilians are now trying to find other ways out as

CNN's Ben Wedeman reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The air raid siren rings out over a scene of carnage passed. In Kramatorsk railway

station, a ripped shoe, a discarded hat, a cane left behind. They came to the station with only what they could carry hoping to reach safer ground,

but nearly 60 never left.

Lives cut short by a missile on it someone scrawled in Russian for the children. 4000 people were here waiting for a train West when the strike

happened the massacre accelerating the Exodus.

WEDEMAN (on camera): Most of the residents of Kramatorsk have left the city having been urged to do so by local authorities as this part of the country

the entirety of Eastern Ukraine, braces for what could be a massive Russian offensive.

WEDEMAN (voice over): At the city's bus station Nikolay a volunteer has been helping with the evacuation. For him news of the pullback of Russian

forces around the Capital Kyiv was bittersweet.

NIKOLAY, VOLUNTEER: When I heard about Kyiv - I was happy, you know, but then I realized a couple of seconds later that they move in to Donbas or

their forces. I'm little bit I can't say that I'm scary but I'm worrying about my people about people about mothers about grandparents.

WEDEMAN (voice over): Some are heading West, others North the town of Slavyansk where trains still run. Oksana and a friend and their children

are bound for Lviv in the far West. There's a lot of bombing here says Oksana, I'm afraid for the children. The children thankfully, still

children. A handful of adult relatives stay behind far more aware of the danger ahead Ben Wedeman, CNN Slavyansk Eastern Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHATTERLEY: As we've mentioned, the latest Russian offensive in the Donbas region in the East has begun this after Moscow appointed a new war

commander who has a record of brutality against civilians in Syria. Phil Black joins us now from Lviv.

Phil whether it's the attacks the shelling that we've seen over the weekend in strategic evacuation points, airports or train station again or this

appointment of a new general that's well known it does seem the effect is to try and continue to spread fear and also send the message that there's

no backing down. There's no retreat here in fact, they're on the offensive.

[09:10:00]

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think that's right Julia and I think this is likely to be shaping up as the most focused offensive that we've seen of

this war so far by Russia. That is what Ukrainian officials in the east are expecting.

They say there is a continued build up forces there almost daily, that recent satellite images which point to a convoy traveling to the East of

Kharkiv traveling south towards what is expected to be a key line of advances Russia tries to break through and squeeze Ukraine's defenders in

that region.

And as you touched on, yes, a new general has been appointed to have overall battlefield command in this country is someone with a history of

well, brutal operations when Russia intervened in the Syrian civil war.

All of this builds up and backs up what has been the assessment from Western officials and analysts around the world who think that Russia is

looking to make quick tangible progress here that Vladimir Putin wants something to point to, by May the ninth which is a key annual public

holiday in Russia Victory Day, traditionally, the day that Russia marks the defeat of Nazi Germany.

But more recently, has come to really morphed into a broader celebration of Russian military glory, and might. So that is why the expectation is that

we're going to see some form of very dramatic shift by Russia within the coming weeks Julia.

CHATTERLEY: And there was a lot of discussion over the weekend about this region of the country being that much more difficult to defend by the

Ukrainians as well. What can you say about that, and also the efforts to get those that want to leave and those to evacuate from this part of the

country further west?

BLACK: I think the nature of the defense is going to be challenged because it is going to be this more consolidated operation. There is going to be a

greater depth a greater, a greater amount of firepower focus in one area across a relatively smaller stretches of territory at one time, more so

than we have seen in this war so far, when it has been marked really by its overextended Russian loans that have been relatively easy and vulnerable to

Ukrainian attack.

Moving around in a very light, agile way of being able to strike and move away, before Russian forces have really had an idea of what's going on.

This is expected to involve much heavier firepower consolidated in a very specific area. That's the challenge from a military point of view.

And then from a civilian point of view, the challenge is getting civilians out of there before any of this really kicks off. There are still many

thousands of people in this region, and the urgent call from Ukrainian officials is for them to get out now as quickly as possible.

And of course, it hasn't been made easy as an operation as a logistical exercise by Russia's repeated strikes against key points of infrastructure,

notably, the rail lines in recent days, we saw that strike and Kramatorsk on Friday, and overnight we're told by an official from Ukraine state rail

company that another station in the east was shelled by Russian forces, there was danger there was damage there, as well.

So all of that makes the job harder but these attacks also prove the urgency, the need to get these people out before the next phase of the

operation really begins.

CHATTERLEY: Phil Black, thank you so much for that report there. Now the economic consequences of all this, the World Bank says Ukraine's economy is

expected to shrink by almost half this year. Meanwhile, rating agency, S&P has downgraded Russia's credit rating on foreign debt to what's known as

selective default after Moscow attempted to make bomb payments in Rubles rather than in dollars.

Anna Stewart joins us on this. Anna let's talk about Ukraine first, what more did the World Bank have to say?

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a really detailed report looking at the impact that war is going to have on Ukraine's economy but also further

afield. And it's interesting, it says that Ukraine's economy, as you say, will shrink by nearly half this year.

But actually, there is a worst case projection. If the war escalates, they believe the economy could contract by 75 percent also major consequences

for Russia, which it believes that the economy will shrink by 11 percent and in the worst case, scenario 20 percent this year, unsurprising looking

at Ukraine and are reporting on the ground, of course, that you would see that kind of impact.

I think you spoke to the Ukrainian finance minister just a couple of weeks ago, and he said a third of the economy simply wasn't working. And of

course, it wouldn't be if it's under bombardment agricultural fields, this whole sector has been hugely disrupted.

And there's the fact that lots of shipping from the Black Sea has simply been halted, and the fact that 4 million refugees have left Ukraine and

elsewhere, and that number could increase and those that remain behind many people are course, walking, working towards the war effort.

So you're going to see a huge impact there in terms of the workforce. Now the World Bank projects a fifth of the nation--

CHATTERLEY: I think we've just lost Anna's microphone there. Anna if you can hear me we apologize for that. But we can no longer hear you so I will

let you go and we'll see if we can fix that. Thank you so much for that Anna there.

[09:15:00]

CHATTERLEY: All right coming up rebuilding Ukraine from the rubble. We discussed with the Nation's Former Minister of Ukraine. It's just how you

go about it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back! As the focus shifts to the Russian offensive in the East Ukrainians in cities and towns in the north are assessing those

that they lost and the cost of rebuilding in the aftermath of Russian attacks.

Volodymyr Omelyan joins us now he was Ukraine's Minister of Infrastructure from 2016 to 2019. He's currently volunteering with the country's

Territorial Defense Forces. Vladimir, thank you for joining the show as I mentioned there, you are part of the domestic defense forces too.

So as we start talking about the Russian offensive in the east, I want to ask you, what you've seen and how your people are doing there in the

surrounding areas around Kyiv which I know is where you've been defending.

VOLODYMYR OMELYAN, FORMER UKRAINIAN INFRASTRUCTURE MINISTER: Well Julia, pleasure is mine. Thank you for inviting me for your show. Picture is

really awful. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians died, and most of them were touched before this by Russian soldiers.

So it's not one or two cases, there are thousands of them all over Ukraine. General prosecution office already rejected more than 6000 violations of

laws by a Russian Army. And there will be more unfortunately.

And definitely it's a huge challenge for the whole nation because we see how civil treated by Russians. It's kind of barbarians, nothing to do with

21st century and some civilized country; we do understand that we are fighting hard.

CHATTERLEY: Volodymyr are you seeing people come back those that perhaps headed further to the west to escape the violence now coming back? And to

your point, I think, given what we've seen, are people still afraid that perhaps Russian troops come back? They focus on the east but then they're

not done with Kyiv and the surrounding areas.

OMELYAN: When we liberate Kyiv region, we can go and talk to Ukrainians which survive during Soviet or Russian occupation. First things they ask us

that are you sure you that Russians are not going back because they passed through enormous challenges.

[09:20:00]

OMELYAN: And it was very tough on the Russian occupation. What we see right now that many Ukrainian families left for the West, right now in the

European Union, or United States, my family as well. But they're going to come back to Ukraine, because we now as men are fighting for Ukraine to get

away from Russian troops.

But the big issue where they're coming back, because many houses are destroyed. Civil infrastructure is destroyed. And it's very, very difficult

to find a single place in Ukraine untouched by war. Maybe Western Ukraine survived better, but still the Western Ukraine was also under missile

attacks.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, the problem is, where do people go? How concerned are you by what we? How concerned are you by what we, what we now see. And what's

going to come in in the east of the country as Russia focuses, its forces there?

OMELYAN: Big battle and I hope final battle of the 21st century is coming in the eastern Ukraine. We see the Russians do concentrate most troops,

they concentrated to attack Ukraine. They failed to capture whole Ukraine. So right now they are trying to destroy our forces in the East.

I call that assistance; especially military assistance will be timely coming from the west, because otherwise it will be very difficult for us to

survive. And we are under permanent bombing. Mariupol is dying, not literally, but in reality.

And we do understand that recent appointment of - who supposed to be martial of the victory in Putin's will only increase losses among

civilians, because that's exactly what - was doing in Chechnya, and Syria, hitting civilians and killing civilians, and only after trying to fight for

an army.

I believe that Ukrainians will overcome this challenge as well. But definitely, it's very difficult. And we do understand the tragedy of

nowadays, history.

CHATTERLEY: I think one of the ways to illustrate and we've seen many examples of it that the tragedy is, as you describe it, and you're very

active on social media was a picture of a little girl that you tweeted last week, and I want to show my viewers just to give people a sense of, of what

families are going through?

It was a little girl with writing on her back. And it was family details, I believe, in case the adults that she's with a taken or they're killed, and

the child survives. And I think you said it best, where you said, I don't really know how to endure this anymore. Volodymyr, just did you meet that

family? Or was that just an example of something that you saw and have seen?

OMELYAN: Unfortunately, it's only example, as I told you that it's not kind of rare case or unique case. It's a typical situation in Ukraine starting

on the 21st of February. We lost almost 200 kids in this war, and hundreds of kids, without families and without parents, just because Russia decided

to invade Ukraine and to kill every Ukrainian.

This is a policy of Moscow, they publicly speak that there is no life for Ukrainian families and for Ukrainians because Ukraine should be destroyed.

And I was amused today to hear Mr. Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia, stating that the aim of this war in Ukraine was to fight the United States.

And, you know, it's also true, because in Ukraine, Russia wants to destroy democracy and wants to give new reality to the world. And I believe that,

especially in Ukraine, Russia will be destroyed. And there will be chance for democracy to survive. And there will be chance for the United States

together with the European Union together with Ukraine to overcome the biggest challenge of the 21st century because it's not a war in Ukraine

itself. It's a war in Europe, and Russia is fighting democracy here.

CHATTERLEY: I think many people would agree with you. The other battle to come is the rebuilding of Ukraine.

[09:25:00]

CHATTERLEY: The fabric the social fabric I think that has been devastated by the losses that you've suffered, but also physically, to allow people to

go on with their lives and to rebuild and to work. Do you have any sense of the time it's going to take of the cost that is going to have to be borne

in order to rebuild the country as you're looking around and surveying the damage?

OMELYAN: The most things in this war that Russia do it on purpose. So it's not kind of casual destruction of some fabrics. They do impact all industry

and economy in Ukraine, just to make it without any prospect for the future.

Definitely, it will take long time to rebuild, in my opinion, at least five up to 10 years. But I want that Russia pays for every distraction they did

in Ukraine, because it will be very good lesson for any other nation. If you want to invade another country, you will pay for it.

And it's really crucial that all those frozen assets of Russia as a state and Russian businessman should be not only frozen, but also direct into

international fund to rebuild Ukraine now that they do understand the exhaust hundreds of billions money stolen from Russian citizen will be not

wasted for their luxury leaving houses and yachts.

But to rebuild what they did with Army and weapons. I hope that it will be done very soon because otherwise, Europe and United States will have

another problem after the war. You help us a lot with weapons and we do appreciate it with that and more weapon to come. But Russia should pay for

that not U.S. taxpayers.

CHATTERLEY: Volodymyr, powerful message sir thank you stay safe and we appreciate your time. Coming up, a former high level Kremlin official

turned Putin critic on how the Ukraine crisis might end from Putin confident to Putin target. An inside look at the Russian President's grip

on power next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:30:00]

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back! Ukraine's President says tens of thousands of people have been killed in the Southern City of Mariupol, Volodymyr

Zelenskyy told the South Korean parliament the city has been destroyed all this as satellite images show an eight mile long Russian military convoy

nearing the Northeast of City of Kharkiv, where heavy fighting has been reported today.

President Putin's latest military maneuvers come as more Western firms announced their departure from Russia. French Banking Giant Sock Jen saying

it's selling its business interest there to a firm with ties to a Russian oligarch.

Rating agency Standard and Poor's also saying Russia effectively defaulted on its sovereign debt when it offered foreign bondholders payment in Rubles

rather than in dollars. Russia's Finance Minister insisting today his country is doing everything it can to make payments and says Moscow is

ready to take legal action.

Joining us now is Mikhail Kasyanov. He served as Russia as Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in Vladimir Putin's first term as President. He's

now a Putin critic, and has left Russia due to safety concerns. Mikhail, great to have you on the show thank you sir for joining us!

We are looking at an impending Russian default, in addition to everything else that's taken place. How do you think President Putin will view and

assess the past six weeks?

MIKHAIL KASYANOV, FORMER RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER: Yes, that's clearly Mr. Putin wants to avoid sanctions. And in fact, everyone knows that Russia,

Putin's Russia right now, despite of sanctions on Russia gets everyday $1 billion as payment for oil and gas.

And Mr. Putin doesn't want to use this inflow of foreign exchange to pay on the bonds on - he wants to overcome sanctions and he wants just the results

to be unfrozen and to pay on that his fight with U.S. first of all, just America reserves - America frozen the foreign exchange reserves of central

bank international reserves of Russia.

I think it's clear just he's fighting for this and that will be breach of the contract of course, the bonds couldn't be soft in Rubles. They should

be served in dollars they are denominated in dollars. That's clear there's international not practice, that's a contract.

CHATTERLEY: I mean, the Kremlin Spokesperson played it down last week and said, look, we've got the money, we just can't pay it and to your point.

That's part of the challenge of the sanctions and the pressure that they're putting on the economy. Do you think Putin cares if the country defaults on

foreign debt at this stage?

KASYANOV: I don't think he cares much about this, because just the sanctions imposed already are creating big, big problems for the whole

economy. And within a few months, all every Russian will feel it. Right now of course it's damaged the financial system.

In a few months, the economy would be destabilized and a great extent because of many companies, more than 400 foreign companies stopped their

operations in Russia it means just the industrial chain to destroy it.

It means some products, which usually was produced in Russia would not be produced and there will be a deficit of some products. And in fact, Russian

industry cannot replace everything what we imported and right now just input dropped considerably.

And in fact, just foreign currency is not on demand anymore in Russia. That's why Ruble is appreciated heavily within one week. That's not because

of the reality that's because of artificial I will say, established on top of the rates by the central bank.

But there is no demand for dollar and the euro because just central bank and Putin issued his decree frozen, not allowing people to spend money just

only 10,000 Ruble pour for six period time and $6,000 for six period of time.

[09:35:00]

KASYANOV: It means just us coming back to Soviet time, when it was artificial exchange of ruble to dollar was established at that time. That

is some reminds already old, old period, old Soviet Union unfortunately there's the case that Putin created a great problem for Russia. It's all

these activities contrary to long standing national interests of Russia and Russian people.

CHATTERLEY: Mikhail, these are the economic consequences. What about the political consequences because the Austrian Chancellor is meeting virtually

with President Putin today. He's going to push for a ceasefire.

What would be the political consequences for President Putin given everything you know about the workings of the Kremlin, and how he holds

power of negotiating a ceasefire at this moment, and perhaps reestablishing everything to how it was before he invaded? What would be the political

costs to Putin?

KASYANOV: For Mr. Putin, it's crucially important not to be viewed as defeated. That's why he needs victory. And then you know, just we're coming

to the month, the ninth of May, that's a Victory Day in Russia.

And in fact, by the time Putin should demonstrate to all people of Russia, especially those depressions, as we call them, the most conservative

Russians who continue to support Putin to demonstrate to them victory, Putin badly needs victory, this year's.

CHATTERLEY: How big a victory? Mikhail how big a victory?

KASYANOV: That's what I like to explain to you. He lost legitimacy inside the company. He cannot produce any victory inside the country victory

inside the country it means improvement of standards political Russians, that's why he tried to I would say race legitimacy outside it means victory

outside.

Now just be talking about potential victory on this particular devastating war. I think just the minimum achievement that that could be to expand

occupation of Donbas up to the borders of the administrative borders of these two regions. That is minimum that will not be seen as a great

victory, but Russian propaganda book produces as a victory.

The second ranking victory, it could be creating additional numbers creating a land corridor between Crimea and Donbas that will be seen as

victory and propaganda will produce us as the absolute victory.

But the maximum that is to cut Ukraine completely from the Black Sea and to fight and occupied Mykolaiv and Odessa that will be difficult. But that

depends, though, to what extent the Ukrainians will continue to resist tough resistance which shocked Putin.

In fact, he will explain this, and how the West would support Ukrainian - Ukraine right now with the military equipment, not to allow Putin to invade

further on that, if it happens that we have a really great victory for Putin. That will be some kind of manifestation of Putin's victory that will

be that what he wanted to achieve.

Unfortunately, that could be a case of that. But I dragged like to believe that Ukraine fighters would continue to have a tough resistance. And with

the support, they will not allow Putin to implement any of those.

CHATTERLEY: Mikhail Kasyanov, Former Russian Prime Minister and Minister of Finance sir thank you for joining us today. OK, let's move on. France is

bracing for a crucial run off a presidential election, the centrist incumbent against a far out rival who's gaining momentum. We're live in

Paris with the details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:00]

CHATTERLEY: Welcome back! Let me bring you up to speed with some of the stories that are making headlines around the world. French President

Emmanuel Macron and far right candidate and Marine Le Pen came out on top in Sunday's Presidential Election in France. They're set to face each other

in a runoff election later this month. It could be a tight race.

Jim Bittermann joins us now from Paris. Jim great to have you with us! What was quite fascinating about this was the sheer quantity of people that vote

for far right parties and far left parties, which leaves a much divided nation and what looks to be a very close runoff between the top two

candidates.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPODENT: Absolutely, Julia and we started to see this campaign, this campaign that's going to go on

for the next two weeks until the final runoff vote on the 24th start last night in fact, because Emmanuel Macron in his victory speech last night.

And he did when he won by 4.7 percentage points over Marine Le Pen. Nonetheless, in his victory speech, he aimed his remarks directly at Marine

Le Pen. Here's what he had to say about her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT: I won a France, which inscribes itself in a strong Europe, which continues to form alliances with great

democracies to defend itself not a France that exited from Europe that have for its only allies, the International populace and xenophobes. That's not

us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: And, in fact, he was when I say it was aiming at Marine Le Pen, she has taken positions against Europe in the past. She - they're still on

her party platforms website, there's still a manifesto saying that a fractured get out of the integrated command of NATO.

That Russia should be an ally to find peace in Europe. So a lot of things that don't go very well at all with the kind of France that Emmanuel Macron

is seeing in the future and those voters may see too.

In any case, he was on the campaign trail this morning, he was already out in northeastern France, almost to Belgium, and kind of forced her Macron Le

Pen to go out on the campaign trail as well. So they're campaigning is off and running probably going to be very intense here in the next two weeks

Julia.

CHATTERLEY: I mean the vision for France and for Europe is starkly different to your point under these two leaders. And beyond that, I think

whoever wins in terms of policy, the sheer fractured nature of society in the country makes ruling difficult either way.

BITTERMANN: Exactly. I think that's very true. I think when you talk to French voters, especially the rural urban divide I mean, Macron was getting

most of his votes from the big cities. Marine Le Pen is out in the rural areas.

She's very popular out there and Macron very unpopular. There's a lot of anti-macronism out there. So, there that's going to be one of the big

questions. It's a little bit like the United States, the situation the United States in the sense that you've got the rural populations that vote

one way and the urban populations that vote another.

So it's going to be a good campaign, I think, at least as far as the journalists are concerned, we're going to see a lot of fireworks here as we

build up. One of the things I should just say is that Marine Le Pen has kind of an uphill battle here.

[09:45:00]

BITTERMANN: And that is where is she going to find the votes? There was only one of the defeated candidates, there were 12 candidates yesterday,

and 10 of them were defeated. So you get these top two in the runoff.

And the other candidates have pretty much endorsed Macron in one way or another. The only person that did endorse and it ended, I think, invite his

voters to speak to vote for Marine Le Pen. And that was - the far right candidate who has a lot of similar ideas to Marine Le Pen.

So that's what I think is going to be happening over the next two weeks here, we'll see that that's one of the problems that she faces. And the

other problem is the big debate. There's always a big debate between the top two candidates and Macron's thought to be and certainly in 2017 proved

to be a much better debater than Marine Le Pen Julia.

CHATTERLEY: It is going to be a fascinating couple of weeks, Jim Bittermann thank you so much for that. Now to Shanghai - will start to ease days of

lockdown in some areas, despite reporting a record number of cases.

On Sunday restrictions will be partly lifted in neighborhoods that haven't reported infections in one or two weeks. But they'll continue to be

enforced in neighborhoods where cases have been confirmed over the past seven days. CNN's David Culver is with us from Shanghai himself.

David, great to have you with us the human cost of China's COVID policy, in certain cases now being broadcast all over social media. And this is just a

fraction of the people that are in lockdown. And you felt the consequences yourself too.

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're living in lockdown right now. And I just got a message from my community worker that's the only way you can go

in and out here. And they told me that I had a food delivery come.

So right after this I'm going to go pick up that food delivery. It's very rare that we get these so we have to take advantage when we have them. You

know Julia, if you thought Wuhan 2020 was bad, and you and I talked throughout that period.

Well welcome to Shanghai 2022 this has been like no other lockdown. And in the country's cosmopolitan and most affluent financial hub of all places

this is happening. The door behind me this is my exit to the alleyway, and I heard them late last night unwrapping tape and putting it on the door

along with my neighbor's doors, placing a paper seal to keep it closed.

Now some buildings with positive cases in the city are actually locked shut from the outside using a bicycle lock or padlocks. The biggest issue here

though, has been food shortages. It's really difficult to source food with stores being closed and you've got delivery drivers who are like us in

lockdown.

So neighbors well we're now coming together we try and source food directly from suppliers we buy in bulk. There have been for some a few government

handouts, but not enough and that's led to residents who are under lockdown demanding supplies as food shortages here have worsened some were shouting

we are starving.

Julia this is Shanghai. And a city leader over the weekend choked up at a news conference apologizing to the city's more than 25 million residents

for failing to meet expectations. She went on to promise improvements.

Now one thing to keep in mind is Beijing is now in charge. China's zero COVID policy, which we've talked about for many months now, if not now, two

years. It's a directive straight from the top. President Xi Jinping himself wants the virus stop.

So there's just military mobilization now that's underway. And it's aimed to make more than 100 makeshift hospitals here in Shanghai with capacity to

hold more than 160,000 people. Now that's impressive.

And state media is portraying it as such. And they're also portrayed in orderly, sterile environment. The reality from folks on the ground and we

spoke with them she was cramped and unsanitary conditions.

So how does this end and when? Well, Julia, you mentioned officials announcing today plans to begin lifting lockdowns on certain neighborhoods,

that's still going be really restrictive. And it's not nearly enough to bring this city back to life anytime soon.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, you can relax those measures, but you've got to have the hospital surge capacity in place in order to be able to cope with those

that get sick or you're going to have perhaps worse problems David, thank you for being there and thank you for bringing that report papered into his

home temporarily. Thank you, David.

Pakistan's parliament has voted to appoint Former Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif as the country's new Prime Minister. It comes a day after his

predecessor Imran Khan was ousted in a new confidence vote. Mr. Sharif is expected to serve as premier until a general election is held sometime next

year.

OK, coming up Musk mystery Tesla CEO turning talent dropping plans to sit on Twitter's board and his plans for Twitter still take flight that story

next.

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CHATTERLEY: Welcome back! U.S. stocks beginning of the trading week with losses with slow growth fears once again taking seated center stage.

Investors worried about how far the Fed will have to tighten economic conditions to get inflation.

Rising prices under control ahead of brand new U.S. consumer inflation numbers out tomorrow. U.S. bond yields reflecting that concern hitting a

three year high today the message their interest rates are going higher.

Energy markets also under some pressure today reflecting ongoing demand concerns obviously dried, tied to growth concerns both Brent and U.S. crude

currently, as you can see down by more than three and a half percent.

We're also keeping them on Twitter share today volatile in early trade currently trading higher by some 2.1 percent amid news that Elon Musk will

not take a seat on the company's board. Elon, there heading out the edit button on his plans to transform Twitter among other things but he remains

the firm's largest shareholder he will surely continue to ruffle feathers I think at the very least.

Clare Sebastian joins us on this now. I think the initial concern was that if he's not going to take the board seat, perhaps he's going to sell his

portion of shares. But that doesn't seem to be the case. I did see he tweeted handover mouth emoji when the news from Twitter came out as well.

So he was obviously dying to say something but didn't have this gone hostile?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is big question here, Julia not so much that he will sell his stake, but that he might build up more of his

stake part of the restrictions that were on him.

Bear in mind, if you become a board member in a company, there are a number of restrictions placed on you? You do have to act in the best interest of

the company. You have to do things like help hire a CEO turn up to board meetings, you know, all sorts of different restrictions.

And one of the restrictions on Musk was that he wasn't going to be allowed to build up his stake beyond 14.9 percent. So there is speculation out

there that he was put off by that restriction and wanted to perhaps build up a bigger stake.

This is of course, a company that he can well afford as the world's richest man. So that's part of it but a very fast turnaround. He was offered the

board seat earlier in the week by Saturday he was supposed to take it up.

But apparently according to the CEO of Twitter and a statement on the morning that he was supposed to take up that seat, he then declined. So we

don't know exactly why he hasn't said that. He's been quite restrained on Twitter ever since then. But as you say, it's possible that we might find

out more about this.

CHATTERLEY: Oh, my goodness. I mean, over the weekend, he was completely unrestrained. At one point he was suggesting that they should turn their

San Francisco Headquarters into a homeless shelter because "No one turns up" no one shows up anyway.

And Jeff Bozos chimed in and said actually, they'd done that they tried that at Amazon, and it works quite well. I mean, he was sort of having some

fun and games here. I think he's not going to go quietly, Twitter's response to this. We're going to have distractions ahead.

SEBASTIAN Yes, the CEO said there will be distractions ahead in his statement, but our goals and priorities remain unchanged. He said let's

tune out the noise and stay focused on the work and what we're building.

Now Elon Musk, in terms of sort of restraint or otherwise, it's actually deleted that tweet where he put up a poll, where he was asking people if

Twitter's headquarters should be turned into a homeless shelter. But nevertheless, Jeff Bozos did it reply to that and he said or do a portion

he said worked out great and makes it easy for employees who want to volunteer.

[09:55:00]

SEBASTIAN: That's a reference to the fact that Amazon has actually got a homeless shelter attached to one of its offices in downtown Seattle. So

that is clearly worked for them. That's something they've been doing for a number of years.

But it was sort of the sense that you got from Musk's original tweet and many of his tweets actually leading up to this was that he was sort of

criticizing at Twitter. And I think it's very telling as well what the CEO said in another part of his statement that they believed that having Elon

as a fiduciary of the company, was the best path forward better in and out they thought, but ultimately Elon Musk declined.

CHATTERLEY: I think he called Elon noise there. And deleting is the equivalent of edit, I think in Elon Musk's wealth. Clare Sebastian thank

you. Now the son of Beatles the Legend John Lennon has broken his vow never to sing his father's iconic song "Imagine" by performing the peace anthem

in honor of Ukraine. Take a listen.

Julian Lennon says he's been disturbed by the unimaginable tragedy clips of Ukraine. He also said Russia has committed murderous violence. The

performing was part of a stand up for Ukraine, a social media rally by global citizen to raise money for the country and refugees a beautiful

gesture we think. That's it for the show. "Connect the World" with Becky Anderson is up next.

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