Flyers In Ukraine Ask Jews To Register With Government
BURNETT: An escalating crisis in Ukraine tonight. Diplomats meeting for an emergency talk to try to ease tensions. President Obama and Russia's President Vladimir Putin, though, both shooting at each other today. Jim Sciutto reports from Washington.</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Holding court on Russian television for nearly four hours, President Vladimir Putin took one question by videoconference from a surprise caller, American fugitive, Edward Snowden.</s>EDWARD SNOWDEN, NSA LEAKER: Does Russia intercept, store, or analyze in any way the communications of millions of individuals?</s>VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We do not allow ourselves to do this and we will never allow this. We do not have the money or the means to do that. The most important thing is we have a special service that's thankfully under strict state control.</s>SCIUTTO: It was a ploy that appeared aimed directly at President Barack Obama. Nearly a year after Snowden revealed a secret NSA program to intercept the communications of Americans. The exchange one more in a growing battle between Washington and Moscow overshadowed a promising agreement reached between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine. It calls for pro-Russian protesters to leave public buildings they seized and the Kiev government to grant them amnesty. President Obama warned, however, that words must be matched with follow-through by Russia and its supporters on the ground inside Ukraine.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We have put in place additional consequences that we can impose on the Russians if we do not see actual improvement of the situation on the ground. And we have to be prepared to potentially respond to what continued to be efforts of interference by the Russians in eastern and southern Ukraine.</s>SCIUTTO: So far that progress is nowhere to be found. Three people were killed as Ukrainian forces attempted to retake one city. And today President Putin claimed the right to send his forces into Ukraine if he so decides.</s>PUTIN (through translator): I can remind you that Russia's Federation Council granted the president the right to use armed forces in Ukraine. I very much hope I will not have to use that right.</s>SCIUTTO: At the same time leaflets like this one began showing up on the streets in the eastern city of Donetsk, ordering Jews, ominously to register themselves and document their property with the pro- Russian government. Secretary of State Kerry expressed his disgust.</s>JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: After all of the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable, it's grotesque. It is beyond unacceptable.</s>SCIUTTO: Our reporters on the ground in Eastern Ukraine found that the distribution of these leaflets has been limited, but it really does show the danger that once these ethnic tensions, divisions are stoked there, even for political ends, Erin, they're very difficult to control.</s>BURNETT: All right, thank you very much, Jim. Amazing developments on that. Well, next, we are following the breaking news of the sunken ship carrying hundreds of high school students. There are people still praying and the chance they may be alive tonight. Why were only a few lifeboats deployed? And how did the captain make it out completely safe and sound? We are live at the scene with our Kyung Lah. Plus we have heard stories before of people surviving days by finding an air pocket in sunken ferries. We are wondering could this be the case tonight.