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Mourners Gather for Boris Nemtsov's Funeral; Australian Skydiver Has Seizure at 9,000 Feet; White House to Netanyahu: Don't Betray Us

Aired March 3, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Mourners gathering to bid a final farewell to a staunch opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Boris Nemtsov was gunned two days before he was to speak out against Russia's agreement in the Ukraine.

Let's get right to CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance live in Moscow -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the memorial service which has been taking place here in Moscow has now come to an end. The coffin has been put into a hearse and it's making its way to a cemetery where Boris Nemtsov will be laid to rest.

A great deal of shock and anger being expressed in the Russian capital over the course of the past several days. He was gunned down, this leading opposition figure in Russia on Friday night, after he left a restaurant with his girlfriend, shortly before midnight on Friday. Four gunshots in his back, sending shock waves through the political establishment here.

Many opposition figures blaming if not Vladimir Putin directly, and certainly the atmosphere in this country in Russia, in which if you oppose the Kremlin, if you contradict what Vladimir Putin has to say, you could end up dead on the street, that's the concern the opposition figures have here. And it's the concern shared by many ordinary Moscovites, who were paying their respects in the streets in this memorial today.

Back to you, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Matthew, thank you very much.

Today is the day we finally hear what sensitive information Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to reveal to Congress about a potential deal with Iran. He's doing so without the blessing of the White House, the Obama administration actually warning him not to reveal sensitive information.

While the word is the relationship between the two countries is solid, President Obama does not plan to watch the speech and at least 30 Democratic lawmakers say they will boycott it.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: With all eyes on Washington, and the Israeli prime minister's speech to Congress, Secretary of State John Kerry meeting again with Iran's foreign minister in Switzerland. Nuclear talks were accelerating in an effort to end a decades-long dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

Secretary Kerry says some progress has been made, but the clock is ticking.

CAMEROTA: Three thousand people in Chile forced to evacuate in the middle of the night after a famous volcano in the southern part of the country began erupting. The last time the Villarrica Volcano erupted was back in 1971. At least 15 people died in that incident. This time, the eruption was expected with scientists tracking weeks of increased activity.

PEREIRA: Just heard our Matthew chance talking about a Russian opposition leader laid to rest in Moscow after being assassinated just steps from the Kremlin. No lead in the search for his killer.

Ahead, we're going to take a closer look at the murder of Boris Nemtsov, not the first Putin adversary to pay with his life.

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PEREIRA: This morning, the hearse carrying the body of Russian opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov, on its way to the cemetery for him to be buried. We're no closer to learning who assassinated the top critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. When Nemtsov was gunned down Friday right near the Kremlin, suspicion immediately fell on Putin's administration. Putin, of course, denies any connection. But Nemtsov is not -- certainly not the first opponent to end up dead.

Let's bring in Bobby Ghosh, CNN's global affairs analyst and managing editor of "Quartz".

This is a storied history in Russia, dealing with, if you will, oppositional forces. We sort of have a map here of some of the people we want to take a look at.

Let's start in 2004, we know that again, by some accounts, Bobby, this is a few we're looking at. There's reports of dozens, even hundreds of people put to death.

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes, it seems awfully coincidental that so many people who have been assassinated or met sort of gruesome ends, just happened to be critics of the Putin administration, just too much. There's too many things going on to be just coincidence.

PEREIRA: Let's start at 2004, as I've mentioned. We're going to start with Paul Klebnikov. He's an American, editor and investigative reporter of the Russian version of "Forbes."

Talk about why he would be targeted? GHOSH: Well, he had been reporting on corruption, particularly among

the oligarchs, among the wealthy Russians and looking into excesses in Chechnya, where under Putin, the Russians fought a brutal war to suppress an uprising.

He was one of the early journalists to fall. And there have been many, many since then. But the fact that he was an American citizen, shows that his killer's didn't really care and to date, nobody has really been fingered for being responsible. Some Chechens have been blamed but no one really knows, 11 years later.

PEREIRA: Eleven years later.

All right. Let's fast-forward to 2006, we'll speaking of Anna Politkovskaya, also a journalist. And she also had been looking into actions in Chechnya. She was shot and killed in the street ironically enough on Putin's birthday.

GHOSH: One of Russia's finest journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, she worked for a newspaper called "Novaya Gazeta." Six journalists in that paper have been killed. She was the most prominent of those. She had been a fierce critic of Putin.

She, too, had looked into the excesses in Chechnya, horrible human rights abuses, gunned down in the streets. Again, five Chechens were blamed, but no one really got to the bottom of it. No one really knows who, even the Russian administration know one know who is ordered the hit on her.

PEREIRA: And in some of these cases, it's not necessarily that the Putin administration was directly involved, but they were blamed for not fully investigating what actually happened in these cases.

GHOSH: And the fact that these were critics of Putin is suggestive, not definitive. But certainly suggestive.

PEREIRA: Let's move on to Alexander Litvinenko. This is a very famous case from 2006.

Former agent for Russia's FBI. He was poisoned and he died a month later. On his death bed, he accused Putin of being his murderer and also killing the journalists that we just talked about.

GHOSH: He said that Putin ordered the hit on Anna Politkovskaya. He had been a KGB agent. So, a background very similar to Putin. But very early on, he said that Putin was ordering the assassination of his political rivals, he was arrested twice, jailed once, fled to the U.K. Somebody put radioactive polonium in his tea, the most horrible way to die.

PEREIRA: And it took him a month to die.

GHOSH: Yes.

PEREIRA: 2009, a bad year, again, where there's many deaths here. But we're going to focus on Sergei Magnitsky. We know he also -- his death had a tie here to home. Explain that connection with the U.S.

GHOSH: Well, Magnitsky was what you thought for an auditing firm, which had connections with the U.S., auditing firms, international firms often do. He was looking at some very specific corruption cases involving possibly the state, but also big Russian companies, conditions whose owners were close to Putin. Was thrown in jail for 11 months, treated brutally, beaten, he had severe medical conditions that were ignored. He developed pancreatis, gall stones, very, very painful.

Died after being severely beaten, just eight days before he had to be released. Under Russian law, if you're not charged after a year, you have to be released. He was jailed for 350-odd days.

PEREIRA: Last but not the least, we go to last week, and this is one that sort of teed all of this off for us, at least our coverage this week -- Boris Nemtsov, the former deputy prime minister of Russia. He had accused of government of embezzling during the Olympics.

What more do we know about him? He had said recently, apparently, Bobby, that he feared that Putin might want him dead.

GHOSH: Yes, a lot of critics of the government given the recent history know that they have a target on their back. And I'm not surprised Nemtsov felt the same way as well. He was the closest thing to a serious political rival. He had been a deputy prime minister in the Yeltsin years. And then very early on, began to accuse Putin of these excesses, particularly in Sochi, the winter Olympics where the Russian state spent billions, billions of dollars, often to companies close to Putin.

PEREIRA: It's so interesting that Putin said he sent a letter, reached out to the family and also said that his death was in order to make him look bad, to make Putin look bad.

So, do you think there's any chance of any justice being found for Nemtsov?

GHOSH: Unfortunately given --

PEREIRA: Given the history.

GHOSH: Given the history of all of these other people that we've talked of, as we've said, this is only a small sampling, I would not hold my breath. I don't think Nemtsov's family is holding their breath. But the fact that people are coming out into the open, thousands of Russians in the open protesting and mourning for Nemtsov, gives just a glimmer of hope perhaps. Just perhaps there's some possibility of change.

PEREIRA: Even his girlfriend is concerned it's going to be pinned on her.

Bobby Ghosh, always a pleasure to walk through this kind of information with you. Thank you so much.

GHOSH: Anytime.

PEREIRA: Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Mick.

So, what's scarier than jumping out of a plane? How about jumping out of a plane and then this happens? A sky diver unconscious, plummeting down, down, and then, a save that only the hero himself could undersell and we know that because both men involved join your NEW DAY and tell you their tale.

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CAMEROTA: It's one of the most dramatic rescues you'll ever see, and it takes place 9,000 feet in the air.

Skydiving student Christopher Jones suffers an epileptic seizure while free-falling towards the earth. His instructor Sheldon McFarlane realizes something was wrong and was able to deploy Jones' parachute.

They both join us this morning from Perth, Australia.

Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here.

CHRISTOPHER JONES, AUSTRALIAN SKYDIVER: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Christopher, you gave us quite a scare. Tell us what happened up there.

JONES: We both exited the plane at 12,000 feet. Doing all the right things, I'm going through a stable body position. Check my altimeter, I was at 9,000 feet and the Sheldon signals, do a left-hand turn and from that moment on I don't remember anything until actually waking up the parachute at about 3,000 feet.

CUOMO: So even though you had the seizure, you wound up having the easy part of the episode because you were unconscious during the most harrowing part of it.

But you, Sheldon, when did you realize that oh no, he's having a seizure, I have to do something?

SHELDON MCFARLANE, SKYDIVING INSTRUCTOR: I realized Chris had had a seizure probably five minutes after we touched the ground and I met up with him inside the hangar. I saw him exit the aircraft. He did a bit of a tumble and he corrected himself quickly and we checked his altimeter, and with the task at hand to complete his stage five freefall jump.

Yes, he started his first turn after I signaled to him and did a quarter of the way through the turn when his shoulders came forward and he went into the fetal position and rolled on to his back and spinning. I wasn't sure whey was up to at though point and I wasn't looking into it too much other than what are you doing.

I thought he might have been suffering a little sensory overload or a new technique. So I had no idea what he was up to. I was observing for a while. I could see he wasn't watching his altimeter and he wasn't doing anything to rectify the situation or get himself stable or back to control.

So I thought I better go down and grab him, stop him from turning and by the time I got to him, I thought it was appropriate to get under a parachute.

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh! Sheldon, I want to stick with you for one second, this is the scariest part of the whole video he appears to be free falling away from you and like, he's below you by hundreds of feet -- how did you catch up to him?

MCFARLANE: We use a technique that we use commonly in sky diving for closing distances, straightening my legs out behind me. Pointing my head down towards him and sweeping my arms back. Almost like you see in the movies, it's the same technique that we used.

I dived down to him, matched his fall rate and went in and grabbed him. So, there's a technique you learn when you're sky diving, you've done 20, 40 jumps, you learn to do that. It's not really a big deal.

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh!

CUOMO: Not a big deal? I can barely see him in the video, so had you no doubt that you would be able to get to him and deploy his chute, you felt it was a given, it was just about getting there?

MCFARLANE: The angle on the lens is pretty wide. So the distance between us wasn't as great as it seems. Chris wasn't falling that fast. He was on his back. So, it wasn't that bad. It wasn't that hard to get down to him.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

Christopher, when you watch this video, after the fact, what do you think about your ordeal?

JONES: Well, first of all, I was a bit shocked at the footage. I knew something had gone wrong, but I didn't know what. And once I realized it was a seizure, it kind of hung a bit, I was a bit overwhelmed. But yes, we reviewed the footage and yes, it was -- yes, now this has happened.

CUOMO: Now this has happened.

Why did you decide to put it online?

JONES: I just decided to put it online after I was on hold, I went on holiday shortly after this actually happened and I decided to put it online after I got back. So no, so my friends could really say I didn't think it would get this big this fast. It was just basically happened overnight. It's basically incredible story.

CAMEROTA: Christopher, a lot of viewers have asked, you know you have epilepsy. Why are you even allowed to go sky-diving? JONES: Well, I was controlled on medication. I haven't had a seizure

for over four years. And my doctor had actually -- my specialist had signed me off on the jump and everything. And yes, it was all fine.

I guess you can't really hold back in these situations like any medical condition. I could have had the seizure. While driving home or in an airplane on the way up. It's just unfortunate that it happened while I was in freefall.

CUOMO: The good news is that everything turned out fine this time. The bad news is, this will probably affect you going forward, right? Do you think you'll ever be able to jump out of a plane again by yourself?

JONES: Unfortunately, I think my solo career is over as of now. But, of course, tandem options are always still there.

CUOMO: I know who you should pick, pick this guy, Sheldon. If you have to do tandem, because he doesn't think it's any big deal to rocket through the air like Superman and grab you and deploy his chute like it's no big thing. That's the guy to have on your back.

CAMEROTA: Guys, thanks so much for joining us.

MCFARLANE: Thank you very much.

JONES: Thank you very much, guys.

CUOMO: Just for the record, if I ever have to come rocketing through the sky and deploy your chute? It was a big deal, I want you to know that.

CAMEROTA: By the way, you would have to, because I would suffer sensory overload. You know, we should also mention they do an automatic chute that deploys at 2,000 feet from the ground.

CUOMO: Can deploy.

CAMEROTA: Can deploy. It's much better if your instructor manually deploy it is. It can get tangled. You can be in the wrong direction. He did save his life.

CUOMO: It's not a given. He zipped down there because he had to, not because it was an option.

CAMEROTA: Right.

CUOMO: Wow, that's one story for you this morning. But there's a lot of news we're following, so let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: The White House is warning Benjamin Netanyahu, do not betray our trust.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Today, we have a voice. SUSAN RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: Bad deal is worse than no

deal.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Israel is very concerned about Iran. We are, too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never seen something like that turn so horrible so quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These police officers were responding to protect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I watched a man take his last breath right there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Had the individual not grabbed the officer's pistol, we would not be having this discussion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of these people whom Putin had hated, they somehow all perished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone in the Russian government knows something about this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody is afraid in the current Russia.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with, Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to NEW DAY.

Tension is building four hours before Benjamin Netanyahu's big speech before Congress. The White House concerned the Israeli prime minister could reveal sensitive details about America's nuclear talks with Iran.

CUOMO: President Obama calling Netanyahu's credibility into question, insisting the prime minister has been wrong about Iran before and is wrong now. He calls his disagreement with Netanyahu -- only a distraction. But he will not be watching the speech.

CNN has the story covered like no other network can. Let's start with senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta.

What's the latest word?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, the speech will not be must-see TV for the president, he won't be watching and he is all but acknowledging that there's been damage done to the U.S./Israeli relationship. But he said that the damage will not be lasting.

The White House is now bracing for the impact of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to Congress this morning. One major concern is that the prime minister will divulge sensitive details from the U.S. talks with Iran over its nuclear program. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest warned yesterday that that would be a betrayal of U.S. trust.

Now, Netanyahu insists the talks will pave the way for Iran to have a nuclear weapon soon.

But in an interview with "Reuters," the president, said Netanyahu has been wrong before and he's off the mark this time. The president maintains he does not take this rift with Netanyahu personally. He also adds that maybe the prime minister doesn't have a whole lot to worry about, because perhaps these negotiations won't actually produce anything.

Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, I would say that it is probably still more likely than not that Iran doesn't get to yes. But I think that to in fairness to them, they have been serious negotiators. And they've got their own politics inside of Iran. It is more likely that we could get a deal now, than perhaps three or five months ago. But there's still some big gaps that have to be filled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And speaking of big gaps, the president wants to delay Iran's capability to quickly produce a nuclear bomb for ten years. It is not clear and there's some indications this morning that Iran will balk at that proposal.

Now, as for Netanyahu, his host House Speaker John Boehner, his office says the demand for tickets to this morning's speech is like nothing they've ever seen before. But dozens of Democrats as you know will be skipping the speech.

Vice President Joe Biden, he will also not be there. He's going to be in Latin America today. In Biden's place will be the Utah Republican Senator, Orrin Hatch, the senate pro tem, that's another indication of how Republican and partisan the speech will appear to the American people later on today. There will be no Democrats sitting behind Prime Minister Netanyahu when he speaks -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Interesting. OK, Jim, thanks so much for all of that.

So, what will the prime minister say when he stands before Congress this morning?

CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott has that preview from Washington.