Tonight, another Putin critic jailed.
This time
it's a former Russian police officer
sentenced to seven years in prison.
What, for seven years in prison,
you may ask?
Well,
the crime is criticizing
the war in Ukraine.
Two friends
in a private phone conversation.
So how did Russian authorities
find out about the conversation?
Just put aside the seven year
prison sentence right now.
They wiretap his phone.
Well, this development coming
as Russia's
top diplomat,
the foreign minister, Sergei
Lavrov, has just landed in New York City.
Lavrov is allowed in the United States
because he's here
for a United Nations meeting.
And Russia, as ironic as it may be.
Currently holds the rotating presidency
of the Security Council.
Ukraine's top top diplomat
called that, quote, the worst joke ever.
And Lavrov today,
when he got the microphone,
used it to warn of a widening war.
As during the Cold War,
we have reached the dangerous, possibly
even more dangerous threshold.
OUTFRONT now, the U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations,
Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
And Ambassador,
I really appreciate your time
and it's great to see you.
So you were there today
with Sergei Lavrov, and I
curious what your reaction
was being in that room
and what it's like to be in the same room
with him now.
You know, it was the
epitome of irony and hypocrisy
to have the foreign
minister of Russia
chairing the Security Council,
a meeting on multilateralism.
Multilateralism, when Russia
has in there unilateral,
unprovoked action
against Ukraine, attacked everything
that the U.N.
charter stands for and everything
that we value as members
of the United Nations.
So I held up the charter
and I read parts of the charter
to remind him of what that charter means.
And every single member of the council
talked about their support
for the charter.
So he was really out of place
there today.
Do you have any sense as to
and obviously he's been longtime
foreign minister, right.
He's dealt with negotiations
with John Kerry on on things.
Right. Over the years.
Do you think that he is all in?
Is there any part of him that gets it or.
No?
I can't speak for for him.
But I hope that listening
to the members of the council today
that he got something
and what he got
was from the secretary general
to almost every single member
of the council
supporting the values
that underpinned the U.N.
Charter and criticizing Russia's
attack on Ukraine's
sovereignty and their independence.
So I mentioned that police officer.
Right. Seven years in prison. Right.
For criticizing
the war in a private phone conversation,
they tap his phone.
We obviously know
about the father, right, of a girl
who had painted a Ukrainian flag
in school. Right. He's in prison.
She's in an orphanage. Right.
And these examples,
there are more and more and more of them.
There are also Americans
held in penal colonies
and prisons in Russia right now.
Elizabeth Wieland
is the sister of one of them,
Paul Wieland.
He is wrongfully imprisoned.
He's been there for years.
You introduced her to the U.N. today.
So she was there,
she spoke and Lavrov was in the room.
She said
you said you wanted him
to look into her eyes,
to see the suffering. Right.
That she's going through. Right.
With the loss of her brother.
She told CNN that Lavrov did look at her.
You asked him to do so
and that he actually did.
We don't have video of it.
But she said that that happened.
What do you make of that?
That he would actually do that?
You know, I think he felt the pressure.
I didn't see him.
Look, I was concentrating.
You were delivering
your comment, my statement.
But I do know that when I turned to him
and said
you should look in her into her eyes,
he was pretending to read.
And he did look up and so I am pleased
that she saw him look at her
so that he could feel her pain
and he can feel her suffering, not having
seen her brother for nearly four years.
And she also mentioned
the jailed Wall Street
Journal reporter
Evan Garcia,
which we've heard a lot about him
there, charging him with high rate,
high crimes of espionage.
And there
is, from
what we
understand, from talking to lawyers
involved and sources,
there's no imminent resolution to this
and they're not looking for one.
Do you have any idea
whether there is anything, anyone,
anything specific that Putin wants
for Mr. Herskovitz, his return?
You know,
what Putin wants is to use American
individuals, private citizens
as political and diplomatic pawns in
his aggression against Ukraine.
He has not specifically said,
I want to trade this or trade that.
But he what he wants to do is use them
as possible
trades for whatever it is
he may be trying to achieve.
And we're doing everything
possible, Aaron,
to get all American citizens, to get Evan
to get Paul released from the terror
that they are experiencing
being in these penal colonies.
I want
I want to ask you about Sudan
before we go.
We've learned
there's a three day cease fire,
but obviously you've got a country
on the brink of civil war.
U.S.
Embassy evacuated by Special Forces,
SEAL Team six.
You know, it sort of hearkens back.
I remember covering so much
what happened in Tripoli.
Right. And the horrors there.
Right. The death of an ambassador.
So they have been evacuated,
but we understand there's about 16,000.
This is the State Department
or officials estimate,
of how many Americans remain in Sudan.
Are you committed
to getting all of them out
or at this point, it's sort of
if you're out, you're out
and if you're not.
You know, we we've made clear
we've been making clear for months
that Americans
should not be traveling to Sudan.
And we've encouraged Americans to leave
before this incident happened.
But we are working
with the United Nations
and supporting those Americans
who have expressed the desire to leave.
We provided some overhead
support to the U.N.
convoy that included American citizens.
And we have put some resources
to support
American citizens leaving Sudan.
And during this three day cease fire,
which we hope holds,
we encourage
Americans to do what is necessary
to ensure that they remain in a safe
and a safe position.
Right.
Of course,
you can't force people to do it
as the 16,000 people is a lot of people.
Ambassador, thank you very much.
I appreciate your time tonight.
Thank you very much.