Trade War Talk And Russia Sanctions; Deadly Clashes Rock Israel-Gaza Border; Trump Begins Prep For Possible Mueller Interview
CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Trade tension: U.S. markets bear the brunt of a possible trade war between the U.S. and China. And targeting Putin's friends: the U.S. imposes new sanctions on oligarchs close to the Russian president. Plus more deadly protests. Israel opens fire on demonstrators in Gaza, killing at least seven people. From the CNN NEWSROOM here in Atlanta, I'm Cyril Vanier. Great to have you with us.</s>VANIER: The escalating trade dispute between Washington and Beijing is scaring investors. The Dow plunged more than 570 points on Friday. The Nasdaq and S&P also fell more than 2 percent. The main reason for all of this? Wall Street is rattled by the game of chicken between the world's two largest economies. And the week went from bad to worse. By Thursday, U.S. president Trump had raised the stakes dramatically with a threat to impose $100 billion in new tariffs. The White House press secretary insists the Trump administration is not itching for a trade war.</s>SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is something that China has created and President Trump is trying to fix it. And we are moving forward in that process of trying -- we're going to continue putting pressure on China to stop in the illegal and unfair trade practices that they've continued in for decades.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is he willing to fight a trade war on this?</s>SANDERS: We don't want it to come to that. The president wants us to move to a process of fairness, to free and fair and open trade and that's what he's trying to do.</s>VANIER: Well, not everyone's convinced. Clare Sebastian looks at how we got to this point and where we go from here.</s>CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a down day from the beginning on the stock market but the selling really accelerated in the second half of the day. President Trump's threat to impose an additional $100 billion in tariffs on China on top of the $50 billion both sides had already threatened really rattled already fragile stock markets. And it wasn't just the potential economic fallout of tariffs. Rising consumer prices, potentially slower economic growth, it was the somewhat confusing messages coming from the Trump administration. First, President Trump himself took to the airwaves this morning in a radio interview, saying, we don't have a trade war. We've already lost. Then his chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, also tried to firefight shortly after that, saying we are not running a trade war, we still plan to negotiate. And then the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin went on television. And this is what he said to CNBC.</s>STEVEN MNUCHIN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: The tariffs will take some period of time to go in to effect. There will be public comments. So while we're in the period before the tariffs go on, we'll continue to have discussions. But there is the potential of a trade war. And let me just be clear, it is not a trade war. The president wants reciprocal trade.</s>SEBASTIAN: Mnuchin's comments voicing the market's worst fear that a trade war is actually possible. He also avoided questions on whether the two sides were in negotiations, something the markets had been banking on. And China didn't help matters either. Commerce minister said Friday it will not hesitate to fight back at any cost. In the end the Dow closed down more than 500 points, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 also down more than 2 percent. The fear down here on Wall Street is that the weekend will bring more uncertainty and more confusion -- Clare Sebastian, CNNMoney, at the New York stock exchange.</s>VANIER: Now to this. Vladimir Putin's inner circle is feeling the sting of new U.S. sanctions. Seven powerful Russian oligarchs with close ties to Mr. Putin are on the sanctions list. Also named are 12 companies that those oligarchs either own or control and the sanctions targeting also 17 senior Russian officials. All of this meant to punish Moscow for what the U.S. considers hostile actions around the world which include interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. We get more on this from CNN's Manu Raju.</s>SANDERS: Good afternoon.</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The new sanctions that Trump administration announced today will hit several prominent Russians who have ties to President Trump's associates and could be of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller. Included on the list, billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who owns one of the world's largest aluminum producers. Deripaska has longstanding business ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who, according to "The Washington Post," reached out to the Russian oligarch, offering private briefings on the campaign during his tie as Trump's campaign chairman. Also, Viktor Vekselberg, owner of a major Russian conglomerate, who had a prominent role in the Bank of Cyprus at the same time that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had a large investment in the bank. Two of the oligarchs' American associates donated handsomely to the president's inauguration, which Vekselberg also attended.</s>RAJU: And the administration also targeted Alexander Torshin, a top official at the Central Bank of Russia. Torshin has longstanding ties to the National Rifle Association, which spent millions to help Trump win the presidency. In 2016, Torshin had a brief interaction with the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. and also played a role in an effort to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin that same year. The tough new moves may have been announced by Trump's administration, but the president himself has been mostly quiet in condemning Russia's behavior. The White House today said actions speak louder than words.</s>SANDERS: We speak on behalf of the president day in, day out. Again, the president has signed off and directed these actions. I think that that speaks volumes, actually, on how the president feels and exactly underscores what he said earlier this week when he said no one has been tougher on Russia.</s>RAJU: Mueller's investigation also is putting pressure on prominent Russians. After indicting 13 over allegations they sought to interfere in the 2016 campaign, his investigators in recent weeks have questioned Russian oligarchs traveling to the United States, including one who landed in the New York area and had his electronic devices searched. New court filings also show that Mueller's team is seizing on information gathered during a raid last year of Manafort's Virginia home and from a storage locker. Investigators used a warrant from March 9th to get information on five AT&T phone numbers to aid ongoing investigations that are not the subject of either of the current prosecutions involving Manafort, who was indicted on federal charges last year but has denied any wrongdoing. Now after issuing a subpoena to the Trump Organization, Mueller's team also appears to be targeting Trump business partners. Investigators showed up unannounced at the home of a Trump business associate, who witnessed multiple transactions connected to Trump's efforts to expand his brand abroad. That's according to a McClatchy report. That same report also says investigators seem to be especially interested in transactions involving Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, in business deals the Trump Organization pursued deals in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Russia. Cohen has denied any wrongdoing. His attorney could not be reached for comment but ultimately the question is whether that will breach the red line the president drew last year when he said that Mueller should not be investigating the president's finances -- Manu Raju, CNN, Washington.</s>VANIER: And CNN's Richard Quest spoke with one of the Russians targeted by these sanctions, the chairman of VTB Bank, Andrey Kostin. He says it's all a big misunderstanding.</s>ANDREY KOSTIN, CHAIRMAN, VTB BANK: I did nothing wrong to America, to American interests. I was always trying to promote good business relationship with American banks, with American investors. So I am punished because the American administration considers that the Russian government is conducting the wrong policy, and it's very unfortunate. It shows the very high level of misunderstanding of Parliament and American administration of the intention of the Russian government, of the Russian leadership. It is very unfortunate. I think we should stop somewhere because we are going from bad to worst and if not for us, but for the sake of our children who definitely deserve the better world and peaceful world. We should stop somewhere. So, I don't have any feeling of revenge. I don't even recommend my government to retaliate because we already had tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats. Now, there is sanctions against Russian businessmen, including the private ones. I think we should stop somewhere and start to rebuild our relationship.</s>VANIER: And Richard Quest also spoke to Bill Browder, a man who's been dubbed Vladimir Putin's enemy number one. He's an investor and businessman deported from Russia after exposing corruption there. Browder says this round of sanctions finally hits President Putin where it hurts.</s>BILL BROWDER, FINANCIER AND PUTIN CRITIC: I would give today's actions a 10 out of 10, an A plus. This was a rock solid decision by the Trump administration to finally do something which really affects Putin's personal financial interests. What you have to understand about Vladimir Putin is that he's a very rich man. He doesn't keep the money in his own name. He keeps it in the name of oligarch trustees. And by going after these oligarch trustees, we're finally touching Putin himself. And that's very serious.</s>RICHARD QUEST, CNNMONEY EDITOR AT LARGE: So how will he respond?</s>BROWDER: Well, he can't respond symmetrically because it's not as if Warren Buffett has got a whole bunch of Russian assets to sanction. And so he's going to have to respond asymmetrically. And what he has to understand is that the United States government has only sanctioned a small list of oligarchs. There's a much larger list of oligarchs who could be sanctioned in the future. And I think he's scared of that.</s>VANIER: Moscow is defiant toward the new sanctions. The foreign ministry promised a, quote, "harsh response." It also issued this statement. "Washington continues to frighten with the rejection of American visas and threaten Russian businesses with freezing property and financial assets, forgetting that the seizure of private property --</s>VANIER: -- "and other people's money is called robbery. "We would like to advise Washington to get rid of illusions that we can be spoken to with the language of sanctions." Russia's also being hit with these sanctions after a former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve agent in England. Doctors now say that Sergei Skripal is improving rapidly and is no longer in critical condition. His daughter is in stable condition now. Britain and dozens of other countries including the U.S. blame Moscow for the poisoning last month, an accusation that Moscow denies. Deadly protests broke out again Friday along the Israel-Gaza border. Since last week, thousands of Palestinians have been taking part in what they call the March of Return. They are trying to reach Israeli territory in a bid to reclaim what they say is Palestinian land. That's led to confrontations with Israeli forces. And Palestinian officials say at least seven people were killed on Friday. CNN's Ian Lee has more on the violence from the Israel-Gaza border.</s>IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Burning tires draw a black curtain across the border of Gaza and Israel. A Friday of fire mixed with tear gas and water, ingredients for another volatile day. Thousands of Palestinians again rallying near the fence; meters away, Israeli forces, each side bracing following Gaza's deadliest week in years.</s>LEE: This thick, black smoke is designed to obscure the sight of Israeli snipers. But the military fears that it could also be used as cover for Palestinians moving closer to the border.</s>LEE (voice-over): This video provided by the IDF allegedly shows a Palestinian cutting the border fence, a red line for Israel, who warns anyone threatening the country's sovereignty is risking their life.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our mission today is to deny the Hamas that ability and to make sure that nothing harms our security infrastructure and nothing comes across.</s>LEE (voice-over): Tear gas and water cannons try to repel Palestinians making a run at the fence. When that doesn't work, live rounds and the death toll rises. "I'm hoping that I will be a martyr," Nihal Walid (ph) says. "My son is carrying the Israeli flag. He will burn it in front of them and I want him to be a martyr, too, God willing." She is not the only one that says so. Many of these Palestinians tell us they have nothing to lose and will do anything to return to lands they lost to Israel 70 years ago. Their determination can be measured by their casualties. And the dead and injured overwhelming the already struggling Gaza hospitals.</s>LEE (voice-over): It is likely to get more difficult with the violence expected every Friday until mid May. And many worry a single incident could burn out of control leading to yet another war -- Ian Lee, CNN, on the Israel-Gaza border.</s>VANIER: And coming up on the show, a first-hand look at one of Syria's worst conflict zones. CNN will be reporting from inside Eastern Ghouta after the break. Plus one of Bollywood's biggest stars fighting to stay out of prison. We'll have the latest on Salman Khan's plea hearing. Stay with us.