Dutch Exit Polls Suggest Far-Right Struggles; Russian Spies Indicted Over Yahoo Hack; German Officials Raid VW
RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR: Closing bell on Wall Street was ringing very strong performance for the Dow Jones industrial. Time for the gavel to be hit with the St. Patrick's Day Foundation ringing in the bell. St. Patrick's Day, by the way, is not until Friday. They are doing it a little bit early. The day is over. It is Wednesday, it's the 15th of March. Tonight, exit polls from the Netherlands suggest a tough night for the far- right. Mark Rutte performing well in the general election. We will be live in The Hague in a moment. Two Russian spies facing charges for hacking half a billion Yahoo accounts. And we have liftoff. The Fed's first rate rise of the year has taken place, and the markets interestingly, loved what it saw. Executives charged with hacking Yahoo accounts. I'm Richard Quest, life in the world financial capital, and I mean business Good evening, wherever you look today there were major stories breaking. You can see some of the stories that we'll be bringing you tonight. Whether it was the polls closing in the Netherlands, the Dutch elections. The Department of Justice indicting Russian spies for hacking Yahoo. We have the Fed chair, Janet Yellen, announcing an interest rate rise. Or President Trump promising a new industrial revolution for car companies. Today's events will have major long term ramifications for business and markets around the world and we are going to cover each one for you this evening. We begin, of course, in the Netherlands where tonight an exit poll in the Dutch election suggests the incumbent, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, is ahead. It projects, as you can see here, his Freedom Party -- Freedom and Democracy Party will come first with a possible 31 seats. Geert Wilders, Freedom Party, the Christian Democrats and the Democrats are in a tie for second with 19 seats each. Now as always with these things, please remember any exit poll may not be precise enough to predict the final outcome and this exit poll was not commissioned for CNN it was done for the Dutch broadcaster NOS but we take notice of it, of course, because it suggests the Rutter has performed better than expected or arguably Wilder performed worse than had been predicted. This election widely seen as a bellwether for populism in Europe and whether the Dutch would resist it or embrace it. Hala Gorani is at the seat of government in the Netherlands. Hala is at The Hague, and this is a very fascinating result tonight.</s>HALA GORANI, CNN HOST, THE WORLD RIGHT NOW: it absolutely is, by the way, I'm in front of the Parliament building here in The Hague. The world was watching why? Because Donald Trump was elected last November. Brexit won unexpectedly, even though every poll pretty much suggested that Brexit wouldn't go through in the referendum last year. In 2017 the first big test was this one. It was Geert Wilder, the far- right, extreme right politician, anti-Islam, anti-immigration, anti-EU. Will he come first as so many polls had suggested? Today was disappointing for him no doubt, because he did not. The party of the incumbent Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, the Freedom and Democracy Party, with 31 projected seats firmly on top. You mentioned, Richard, this is not a poll conducted for CNN it was commissioned for the national broadcaster but experts tell me these exit polls are usually pretty accurate. What does this tell us? It tells us that the centrist parties including, for instance the D66 Party which is pro-European in the center that want a much softer approach to immigration for instance, but they are tied for second place with the far-right party of Geert Wilders. It's a comeback of some of the centrist parties. Can you say that this populace wave stopped here in the Netherlands? Perhaps can you. Or you can say the fragmented nature of Dutch politics means no matter which way you look at it you will always have this type of sort of fragmented, fractured political landscape you see in that exit poll. One thing is for sure Geert Wilders did not come out on top period.</s>QUEST: Right, but Hala, look, I know it's an exit poll, it was done from somebody else and there's plenty of moments before the results. But listen, do this seem to suggest that Rutte stays as Prime Minister? That he becomes the man who is able to cobble together some form of coalition as indeed all Dutch governments are and he remains in power.</s>GORANI: Listen, it suggest, perhaps that will be the case. When you ask politicians here, even the member of the European Parliament, Marietje Schaake of the D66 party was not willing to venture a guess. Dutch politics are very different from the types of elections we're used to covering, certainly very much unlike the U.S. election or the upcoming French election. You have days, weeks, oftentimes months of negotiations between parties in order to cobble together some sort of coalition. It could be between four parties, five or six. Now, the fact that Mark Rutte even though he performed -- did not perform as well in 2012 is still on top. The probability he'll be called to form the next government is higher than, you know, would have been expected if some other polls had materialized today. Can I say that with certainty? No.</s>QUEST: Good. There we are. We're in an uncertain world. Hala Gorani who is in the Netherlands, in The Hague, which is not the capital. The capital is Amsterdam as we been reading about all day. But The Hague is the seat of government. There we are, we learn something new every day. Hala, good to see you there, thank you very much indeed. There are 156 in the Dutch parliament as Hala was talking about in that space in The Hague. And there are 28 parties in total in are vying to fill them. So, these are the parties that are represented at the moment. The seats are handed out on the basis of proportional representation. Now you need 76 seats for a majority. That's obvious, if that's the number of seats. No party has ever won outright. So, let's look what we got currently. This is the current one. The VVD which is Rutte's party and the Labor Party, they are the ones that are in current coalition. And they are the ones that will obviously be looking at how they can put together some other new coalitions. Geert Wilders, PVV party is the one that is obviously with 19 seats, he's going to be -- the question is he going to be looking for the opportunity to put together a coalition with some other parties. Always bearing in mind that the other parties are not willing to do a deal with him. It means it gives Rutte the opportunity to do a deal here, to do a deal here, to bring other people here, and to create that coalition, leaving Wilders way out of it. Charles Grant is the director of the Centre for European Reform joins me now from London. If the result is as it looks like tonight are we overstating it to say that the mood of populism met a solid wall in the Netherlands?</s>CHARLES GRANT, CENTER FOR EUROPEAN REFORM: I think that might not be overstating it. I don't think the Netherlands was ever going to be the third part of the story that began with Brexit and Donald Trump. A lot of commentators like to join up the dot and say populism is on the march. It was never going to win Netherlands. Wilders was never going to get more than 13, 14, 15 percent of the vote. The government was never going to include in it. It doesn't mean the populism wave is dead or varied are not still very significant for Europe. When we turn next to France, for the French elections coming up in May, my guess is that Macron, a pro-EU, liberal pro migration centrist will win, but Marine Le Pen will give his a good fight. The real worry for those people like me, who are worried about populism is Italy. Italy will have an election before February of next year, perhaps this year. The populists might even win in Italy.</s>QUEST: All right and if we take the situation where, you know, there's an element of populism still around, there's anti-immigration element still festers, even if the Wilders of this world or the Le Pens of this world do not win, surely the established politicians, the established parties have to accommodate some of that populist agenda and how will they do that in the Netherlands?</s>GRANT: Well, I think you're absolutely right, Richard. They are doing that. One of the reasons Mr. Rutte has done very well tonight is he has moved some way to the right, been quite tough on immigration and the problem of Islam and terrorism and indeed his very tough approach to the Turkish government's row over the banning by the Dutch government of Turkish ministers from entering the Netherlands. His running support sees that he's booted his popularity by taking a top line on turkey. The center parties are learning. They have to move a little bit to the right in order to stay of the populace threat.</s>QUEST: Let's put aside, for example, this question of immigration. The big issue, not just Brexit but it's going to be the future of the European Union, particularly the Juncker Plan, and the question of a two speed Europe. Where will countries like the Netherlands recognizing they want to remain in the EU, do they become moderately Eurosceptic?</s>GRANT: Well, I think the position of a new Dutch government probably as you've said to be led by Mr. Rutte will be no more treaty changes, because has to be a referendum probably to approve any treaty, which could be lost. No more treaty changes. No more integration. No creation of a transfer union for the Eurozone where the richer countries shift money to the poorer countries in some mechanism. I think the Dutch will be one of the countries putting a break on future integration. But interesting if Mr. Macron wins in France, as the polls suggest, he will be in favor of a new move to integration and perhaps with new treaties and setting up new institutions for the Eurozone, like a Eurozone finance minister. We may see the French pushing that and the Dutch and Germans resisting it. If they don't agree then nothing will happen and we won't get a more integrated</s>EU. QUEST: Good to see you, sir. Complicated events, but they're all taking place and were grateful that you came in tonight to help us understand them. Thank you very much, sir, good to see you. U.S. officials have indicted two Russian spies for the hacking of at least half a billion Yahoo. Accounts. The Department of Justice calls it one of the largest data breaches in history. The four people were charged in total. Two of them are FSB spies or believed to be. And one is Dimitri Dokuchaev is already in custody according to his lawyer. He's under charge for treason said to be a spy for the Americans. Then you got Igor Sushchin, as well. The other two hackers -- this is fascinating -- one is arrested in Toronto and the targets were often very specific. Let's just take a look at what the targets were. Bearing in mind this was not a bulk hack designed to just get credit cards. You had the former Minister of Economic Development of a country bordering Russia. But wonders who that could be. We'll ask Jose Pagliery. We have a sales manager that's a major U.S. financial company. A senior officer of a major U.S. airline. The chief technology officer of a French transportation company. And an international monetary fund official. Yahoo was not the only target, indeed, in all of this. There was also Gmail that was also under Russian web mail was also compromised. The Department of Justice was outraged of the Kremlin's connections to this monstrous hack.</s>MARY MCCORD, ACTING ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The involvement and direction of FSB officers with law enforcement responsibilities makes this conduct that much more egregious. There are no free passes for foreign state-sponsored criminal behavior.</s>QUEST: we need to put this into some's perspective. Jose Pagliery is with me. Good to see you, sir.</s>JOSE PAGLIERY, CNNMONEY CYBER SECURITY REPORTER: Likewise.</s>QUEST: This was not a bulk hack to get credit card details and that sort of thing that we were talking about earlier.</s>PAGLIERY: No. This is amazing. What's laid out in these 38 pages of indictment, these details are incredible because we finally have a concrete detailed example of how the Russian government leverages cyber criminals to conduct its espionage. And so, while we know that a half a billion Yahoo users were hacked in this, really the targets were some 6,500 or so powerful people that the Russian government wanted to spy on. We're talking about CEOs, government officials, outside and inside of Russia.</s>QUEST: But how did they know that those 6,500 had Yahoo accounts or Gmail accounts or did they just randomly try?</s>PAGLIERY: This is one of those cases where the FSB, the spies knew they wanted these people and so they teamed up with hackers to target Yahoo, because lots of people use Yahoo. And so, it's not that they knew that these people were using Yahoo accounts, it's just that lots of people have Yahoo accounts. And they also targeted Gmail too. They were after the people.</s>QUEST: How successful were they in actually getting to their target? Do we know? Is there anything in here that tells us that?</s>PAGLIERY: Extremely. Because what this indictment says is that they got access to the email accounts which is a treasure trove. They got access to email accounts that belonged to -- I'll read it here -- an officer of Russian ministry of internal affairs who investigates cybercrime. So, it looks like the KGB were after some of their own. They got access to these emails and within that find out who their friends were, their family, where they shopped, what they did, what email accounts they used separately.</s>QUEST: How did they come up with this list? We caught that list earlier, I mentioned earlier, and the country bordering Russia --</s>PAGLIERY: Most likely Ukraine.</s>QUEST: Ukraine, right, but --</s>PAGLIERY: FSB has been after everyone in that country.</s>QUEST: And then you've got the question of the technology and leading salesman in the U.S. airline. How did they come up with this list? Do we have any idea?</s>PAGLIERY: Not yet. It seems reading this and talking to former federal --</s>QUEST: A sales manager to a major U.S. financial company. Go on.</s>PAGLIERY: Talking to former federal prosecutors, former FBI agents who have worked alongside the FSB, and partnered up with them or trying to catch criminal hackers in Russia. They know that the FSB is a spying agency. Right? These are all potential targets for Russian intelligence.</s>QUEST: We have four alleged bad guys.</s>PAGLIERY: That's right.</s>QUEST: One is in Canada. I suspect will be extradited to the United States in the fullness of time.</s>PAGLIERY: Likely.</s>QUEST: We have one that is in prison awaiting trial in Russia.</s>PAGLIERY: Stoyanov, he's a very complicated tale. From the looks of this, it looks like he was a double agent.</s>QUEST: He's in a lot of trouble tonight.</s>PAGLIERY: Oh, yes.</s>QUEST: Done matter which way he goes. You know, the Russians spy --</s>PAGLIERY: The Russians excuse him of spying for the United States. The United States is excusing him of being a downright criminal.</s>QUEST: Not a good day for him. And the other two, they're FSB spies, any chance in your wildest dreams that they would come to -- get extradited?</s>PAGLIERY: Extradited to the United States, absolutely not. This is a frequent complaint that U.S. law enforcement has that Russian law enforcement will not play that game. Here's the thing. What's so incredible about this indictment is that it is emblematic what we reporters have been hearing for a long time. That the FBI will seek cyber criminals in Russia. They will call FSB and say, can we partner up on this. Here's who are looking for. And the FSB instead of arresting them and extraditing them, or merely arresting them and trying them in Russia, will turn around and recruit them as a tool for the FSB. It's a terrible game that we're playing here.</s>QUEST: It always was. Good to see you.</s>PAGLIERY: Likewise.</s>QUEST: When we come back, just shows you a story that would normally lead QUEST MEANS BUSINESS and will have it after the break. Rates are up and going higher. Jessica Yellen says she has a simple message for the economy. Been a very busy day and I'm delighted you're with us tonight.