they feel like they are not really here, until the moment they hit that ice, the moment they are pushing their sled, wolf. >> we will stay in very close touch with you, selina wang in beijing for us. thank you very much. and to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. i am wolf blitzer in the tuation room. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. out front next. u.s. intelligence uncovering evidence that putin is allegedly plotting to make a fake video of an attack by ukraine. the video that was intended to push eastern europe into war. plus, it is being called a catastrophic blow to isis. leader of the terrorist group killed during a rid by u.s. special forces, and we are getting new details tonight and images on exactly how this went down. and cnn learning pence's top aides answered many questions when they met with the january 6th select committee but there was something they refused to talk about.

what was it? let's go out front. good evening, i am erin burnett. out front tonight, a false pretext for war. the pentagon says it has evidence russia is plotting to produce a video that would fake an attack on russian troops. propaganda that would create a pretext for russia to invade ukraine. >> um, fake attack we believe that russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video, um, which would include corpses and actors that would be depicting mourners and images of destroyed locations and as well as military equipment at the hands of ukraine or the west. >> i mean, that's incredible, right? video that would include corpses, actors depicting mourners. that is a production, and it is all, of course, out of the mind of putin. and nothing has stopped right now the intelligence u.s. officials, they want it out there.

they want people to know about this video because they hope that putting out that they figured it out would deter the russian president from doing it. >> we are publicizing it now, however, in order to lay bear the extent of russia's destabilizing actions towards ukraine, and to dissuade russia from continuing to dangerous campaign and ultimately launching a military attack. >> dissuade. will it make a difference? it is a fair question because up until now, of course, nothing has stopped putin from putting more and more troops into position. in fact, every response has been met with more aggression. nato's secretary general saying today that russia's buildup of troops near kyiv is something not seen in decades. >> this is the biggest russian deployment there since the cold war. >> since the cold war. and russia continuing to pump

out things they want you to know that they are doing. today, video and pictures showing the defense ministers of russia and belarus at a training ground inspecting troops as they carried out mock attacks -- that is what you are seeing there in those images. the buildup on the northern border of ukraine is belarus and it is growing at an alarming rate. nato expecting another 30,000 russian combat troops to go there in the coming days and that is why in washington today, lawmakers are sounding the alarm. >> i expect he is going to do something. i think we need to prepare ourselves for the fact that is the likeliest thing and in my case, a near certainty. >> it is astounding the disinformation campaigns they put together to try to create pretext or chaos. >> very real threat is not overstated. and that, that we should be prepared in the event that this is an invasion. >> in just a moment, i am going to speak to the chairman of the house armed services committee. congressman adam smith who was

also briefed by officials today behind chose closed doors because it all comes as the u.s. is responding. nearly 2,000 soldiers based out of ft. bragg, they are on their way now to poland and germany. meanwhile, 4,000 miles from where those troops are headed, the russian president is preparing to meet with his chinese counterpart. they are expected to sit down in the coming hours here tonight obviously morning in beijing. it is a pivotal meeting for putin because china really is becoming russia's life-here. putin today putting pen to paper writing in a letter to the chinese the two men plan to discuss a number of trade and business deals that would quote offset the negative impact of unilateral sanctions. well, as you know, that's pretty much been it for nato and the u.s., right? they said no to combat troops. they said they are going to stop it by sanctions. sanctions, sanction, sanction. start high and stay high. well, is china going to bail

russia out? matthew chance is in kyiv, ukraine, tonight. and matthew, i know you have reporting on that new russian military buildup just about 100 miles from where you are tonight. tell me what you are learning. >> well, erin, tonight, u.s. and european diplomats are expressing their alarm at that continuing russianuildup of forc forces near the ukrainian border inside belarus. diplomats telling cnn that it is a big worry and it is also an essential piece if russia intends to carry out a quick strike against kyiv, the city from which i am speaking to you now, because kyiv is just about two hours by road away from that region where those military drills with russian forces inside belarus are taking place. earlier as you mentioned, nato secretary general said they have seen significant movement of an expected 30,000 russian troops inside belarus taking part in what are supposed to be military drills. and you have to add -- add that

to the 130,000 -- just -- just under, in fact, according to late intelligence sources -- that the russians have already deployed near to the ukrainian border, you know, in -- in other areas as it were poised if the order is given from the kremlin to go in. all this, coming as a senior-u.s. official tells cnn that russia is sort of planning to fabricate a pretext to stage an invasion into ukraine. falsely, blaming the ukrainian military of carrying out an attack against russian-backed rebels or perhaps against russia, itself. um, the official telling cnn that that would involve, as you mentioned, a propaganda video but this has been an enormous amount of detail about what that video would include, including, you know, spexplosions, corpses actors playing mourners, nato drones to try and implicate the western military alliance. so it would be a real blockbuster. the caveat, of course, saying it's not the only option open to

them and of course you have to say the kremlin are categorically denying any involvement, erin. >> of course. all right. thank you very much, malgt you chance. and i want to go now to the democratic congressman, adam smith. he is chairman of the house arm services committee and he was inside that classified briefing that i just mentioned on russia and ukraine today. i appreciate your time again, chairman. so today, coming out of that classified briefing, the republican senator marco rubio said that he is convinced with quote near certainty that russia will invade ukraine. do you share that view? >> i don't think we know that, yet. there is no question that our intel community is of that opinion, that the massing of forces and the movement that you described so well in the lead-up, um, to -- to the story make it clear that russia is preparing to be ready to do that, and seems to be headed in that direction. but we have not gotten a clear signal there's been any sort of go, we are absolutely doing this. it just seems hike what they are inclined to do, which is why we

are so focused on bringing international pressure and building a strong alliance to deter that decision. to make it clear that the cost of the decision would be higher than the benefit to stop putin from making it. >> so, in the briefing, did anything else strike you, specifically, chairman? >> well, the briefing was -- was a lot of stuff that mostly we had already heard. i had been briefed a few times on what is going on. there was nothing -- there was nothing dramatically different. >> yes. >> i will say, in the last three or four days, i think the -- the level of international pressure against putin, i think is probably greater than he expected. i mean, he knows that he is going to pay a cost for this, without question, as you were talking about. he is meeting with the chinese to see if he can mitigate that. um, but the international community has risen up against this. he -- he is going to pay a cost for this. um, and one cost that hasn't been talked about -- i mean, putin's overarching goal is to get eastern europe away from the rest of europe and away from the u.s., to get us uninvolved.

part of the reason moving troops into romania, into poland, strengthening our relationships -- i met with a group of lithuanian legislators today is to show putin what he is doing is having the opposite effect. it is bringing eastern europe closer to us. >> so, i want to ask you about this video cause i -- i mean, maybe it's just me. but, you know, to go to the level of, um, getting actors and paid mourners and explosions and -- and fake corpses -- i mean, that's a production. and -- and, you know, part of you say gosh that is a little frightening. and then, part of me says that's quite ridiculous, also. i mean, was anybody really gonna fall for that? what do you read into this? that, they were considering such a thing as a pretext to invade? >> look, disinformation is central to -- to russia's approach to the world to try to get their -- to get their way. to undermine the west. whatever the issue is, they spread disinformation all over the place. we have seen it in our elections. i mean, i even see it in people sending me stories, you know,

the whole notion ukraine isn't really a country. here is all the reasons that russia is justified. and those stories are being spread throughout online, in the media, and elsewhere. putin is really cocky and confident about his ability to fool people. um, and he doesn't -- you know, i don't think he thinks of it as absurd at all. he's seen people across the world buy other stuff that he's been selling. and i think he can sell this pretext, which is why i think it's the right move to shine a light on it and say not this time. we are not going to fall for this. >> are you confident -- i mean, as i mentioned, at the current state, the current time we're in, it's been a very clear position from both nato and the united states that their nato troops and u.s. troops are not going to ep gage in combat in ukraine, right? they have been categorical and clear. sanctions are the path. obviously, sanctions like the last time around aren't going to be anywhere near good enough. they weren't then, they won't be now. so i know the plan is to go tougher if you need to go but you hear putin say that the deals with china, that they are

about to announce, would offset the negative impact of unilateral sanctions. look, this is a matter of what china is willing to do. do you think that they are willing to soften those sanctions so much that they don't matter? >> we don't know, at this point. first of all, they are not able to soften those sanctions so much that they don't matter. china just doesn't have that level of power and it's not unilateral. it's not just the u.s. >> right. >> there is a whole series of countries that are going to do this. there is no way that china can completely offset that. i mean, if you are talking about the international banking system, the u.s. and the west still drive that. >> that's right. >> and the impacts on russians' economy would be profound so we don't know at this point exactly what china is willing to offer or wling to do. um, certainly, we would like them not to but we don't have a ton of influence over china on that question. >> well, right. i mean, they will do what they can do but obviously your point about the banking system is obviously hugely significant. chairman, thank you. i always appreciate your time. >> thank, erin. all right. and next, we are going to take

you inside that military raid in the dark hours of night that took out the leader of isis. incredible, what you will be able to see. plus, two former top aides to mike pence sitting down for lengthy interviews with the january 6th committee. what did they say? and what would they not talk about? member of the select committee is out front. and president biden turning his attention to gun violence today, traveling to new york after two officers were shot and killed. so, what is the president's plan to combat crime? oats and soothes your stomach for fast relief and get the same fast relief in a delightful chew with pepto bismol chews.

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tonight, we are learning new details about the u.s. raid that killed the current header of isis. u.s. officials say the terrorist set off a suicide bomb as special forces closed in on his combat in northwest syria. they say the force of that explosion threw him from the third floor. his remains were found on the ground outside. the white house touting this mission as a quote catastrophic blow to isis. >> thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more. last night's operation took a major terrorist leader off the battlefield and it sent a strong message to terrorists around the world. we will come after you and find you. >> of course, when he killed himself, he killed his family, too. courageous. alex marquardt is out front. alex, um, what is the latest that we are learning about how this raid was carried out?

>> erin, we are learning more details but there are still many questions, of course. now, this raid did not go exactly as they had hoped. the hope had been to capture him, that is according to the head of central command, frank mackenzie. as you mentioned, he blew himself up along with his family, his wife, and children. his body was thrown to the ground, and there the special forces troops on the ground did identify him thanks to dna and his fingerprints. now, how did this operation go down? we are told by the biden administration a major priority here was to limit civilian casualties, and so the decision was made to not carry out an air strike where there could be more civilian casualties. they decided to send in special forces on helicopters. that is a lot more dangerous, a lot more can happen, especially because this operation took two hours. that is a long time for those special forces to be on the ground. we are told these special forces flew in, that they used bullhorns to not only keep

people away from the site of the operation but to try to get people out of that thee-story residential building. this were innocents, there were civilians living on the ground floor. we are told ten people were brought out, came out. among them, eight were children. now, after he blew up himself and his family, there was a gun fight between the special forces and one of his lieutenants who lived on the second floor. he barricaded himself there with his wife. they were killed, along with a child. it is unclear how that child died. now, in terms of the death toll, erin, according to the pentagon, there were four civilians killed and five enemy combatants. now, there is a discrêpe uponsy here. according to the famous white helmet civil defense group in syria, they say there were 13 people killed as opposed to the nine the pentagon said. it -- it is not clear where that discrepancy comes from. but this was months in the making, erin. biden was briefed on this in december.

uh, he was told the intelligence indicated that he was in this three-story residential building. the go order, we are told, was given on tuesday. and this operation carried out on wednesday. um, it is not clear who will take his place at the top of isis. he is the second leader of isis. but whoever it is, according to the biden administration, that person almost certainly will be a man, will suffer the same fate as his two predecessors who were killed by u.s. special forces. sorry, who blew themselves up. >> right. right. obviously, because of the raid. all right. alex, thank you very much for that reporting. images are incredible. we are going to show more as we talk with bob baer, cnn intelligence and security analyst. obviously, spent a lot of time in -- in -- in syria and other countries in the middle east. so, bob, let me just start with the mission, itself. two hours from start to finish. obviously, an incredible hi long period of time. right? when you think about the bin laden raid, which was 28 minutes? or about -- thereabouts that

they were there. um, the u.s. categorizes this as a catastrophic blow to isis. how significant of a blow do you think it is? >> well, it's extremely. it disorganizes all the cells. he was a spiritual leader of the islamic state. he has religious standing. he was committed, he was a true believer. every time you lop off the head of the islamic state, you are better off. just throws them into confusion as we have seen over and over again, you get rid of bin laden, there goes al qaeda for the most part. and so on. so this was, you know, it was a necessary strike and i should add, erin, they -- they probably watched this house for several -- saw the children, calculated the best way to -- to save the children and the women. but he never apparently left this -- this safe house and, you know, a drone would have been better if he had been in a car. but the way it worked was they -- they had to go in as they did, which by the way is very dangerous in a place -- any place in idlib. >> yes, and of course, you think about it.

you know, they put american lives at risk to try to minimize any civilian loss of life. and his -- the leader's children were killed because he killed them, right? he killed his own children. um, were -- we are learning that the plan, bob, had been in the works since at least december. and now, i want to show some of these pictures here because you mention it. that, they knew that the isis leader never left the compound. this is the inside here that the pictures special forces took. so lived on the third floor with his family. never once left. but there, of course, were families with no connection to isis, who also lived on that floor. when you look at all these images that are coming in that they took of this inside of this, you know, after the raid obviously, it is completely destroyed. what do you notice? >> well, the blast fragments and the fact that it was an explosion inside. um, you know, if it had been a drone or something else, the special forces had used some sort of munitions, it would have looked different. so, this backs up the pentagon's

story. um, and don't forget, erin, that these people know they are being targeted. this is one reason they stay off e-mail and cell phone calls. but on the other hand, they take their houses and -- and wire them for explosives. you know, intending to kill american soldiers in a raid. and the way that he looked at his nickname was look, when you kill women and children, they go to heaven, too, as he does. they are true believers and this is what makes these missions so difficult. you don't just knock down the door and start, you know, grabbing because the intent is to kill as many americans as possible. >> it is amazing, though. two hours and -- and -- and that great risk of loss of life that the american special forces took. and -- and they did not suffer that. they were completely successful. >> absolutely. >> all right. thank you so much, bob, i really appreciate you. >> thanks. and next, mike pence's former top aides meeting with the january 6th select committee. they were tightlipped when it came to certain conversations.

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tonight, cnn learning former-vice president pence's top aides refused to discuss their direct conversations with former-president trump during their recent interviews with the january 6th select committee. pence's aides drawing that line, after being instructed by u trump's legal team those conversations they say are covered by executive privilege but sources say the aides did answer questions about their conversations with pence, which is obviously hugely significant. paula reid is out front. paula, tell me what more you know about these interviews between the committee and pence's aides? >> well, erin, the committee knew going into these interviews, there would be privilege concerns and as new cnn report reeg veals exactly how the trump legal team is still trying to keep secret some of what happened on january 6th. we have learned trump's lawyers are invoking the presidential communications privilege. now, that protects

communications with the president so advisers can be candid in making decisions inside the white house. notably, sources tell cnn the pence aides only declined to answer a few questions during their hours-long interviews, and they did answer questions about conversations they had with the vice president. but, erin, the fact that these aides, including former pence chief of staff mark short, former general counsel greg jacob, the fact they drew the line at conversations with trump at the direction of the trump legal team is notable and it suggests that trump still wants to use any option available to keep secret his actions around the insurrection. and look, at this point, it's not clear whether pence will testify. sources tell cnn he would prefer that his aides act as his proxies so he doesn't have to appear, and then he can also make it seem like he is deferring to trump on executive privilege. but, erin, another point reminder today that even when you get a witness in front of the committee, doesn't always mean that huh makers are going to get any information. today, sources telling cnn

jeffrey clark, the former justice official who pushed trump's big lie, he invoked the fifth amendment more than a hundred times during his interview with the commit degree and it is unclear, erin, if this will prompt them to restart the criminal contempt proceedings they had begun. >> paula, thank you very much. and after that reporting, i want to go straight to zoe lofgren of california because she is a member of the select committee. congresswoman lofgren, pence's former chief of staff and former counsel sat down for lengthy un uncontentious interviews with your committee. did you learn important new things from them? >> well, let me -- as you know, the committee rules prohibit us from discussing the contents of these interviews without a vote of the committee which has not occurred. but the committee is learning new things every day. um, and, you know, the press has found out that mr. short came in for an interview and it went on

all day so you can reach your own conclusions on whether it was substantive. >> right. right. but important, that you are -- i know, you know, many things -- you are connecting dots, you are reconfirming. you are, indeed, as you say, learning new things each day. we have also, congresswoman, learned that pence's aides would not talk about their conversations with trump because his legal team, you know, are -- are saying this is under executive privilege. now, obviously, you know, core to your committee is knowing what trump said, what trump did, and his state of mind. so, knowing what happened in conversations with him, obviously, would be crucial to all of those things. so, do you have other people right now in your web who were privy to all those conversations between these individuals and -- and the president who have been able to tell you the details? or do you still have significant gaps of what you know of the president's conversations? >> well, we don't know everything there is to know, yet. but obviously, when you have a conversation on the phone, there

are people usually on one side overhearing it and people on the other side overhearing it, often. so, there is ways to put together what was said in its entirety, in some cases, not always. so, we are piecing this together. and, you know, the committee is -- got four or five witnesses in every day. we meet frequently and we're putting the pieces together. >> four or five a day. obviously, that -- that's a lot and i know your numbers here several hundred here -- more than that. and sources tell us that -- that pence -- you just heard paula reporting -- would prefer close aides to sort of act as his proxies, so he himself would not have to testify. um, obviously, there is a lot you can get without him but having him could be hugely significant. what do you feel about that right now? do you still hope and want him to come to the committee himself? >> well, we haven't made a decision on that, yet.

um, we are piecing together what we know and what we still need to find out. and then, we will make a decision on whether to invite mike pence in or not. i served with mike pence when he was in the house, and i know that chairman thompson did, as well. we're respectful of the office of the vice president and the office of the president. but we also know that we have to go wherever this leads us. so, a decision hasn't been made but we are going to get all the facts. >> so, jeffrey clark, the justice department official who helped trump try to overturn the election, drafted a lot of the legal arguments for that. appeared before your committee yesterday. i understand it was a couple of hours, and he pleaded the fifth more than 100 times to your questions. did he answer anything? and if not, are you gonna hold him -- i mean, obviously, you already voted to hold him in contempt but are you going to go ahead and refer that to the justice department? >> well, it's worth knowing that

what the fifth amendment actually says -- it says no person shall be held to answer and then there is a lot of verbiage. nor, shall be compelled in any criminal case be a witness against himself. that is basically what he is saying. he does not want to be compelled to be a witness against himself in a criminal case and that's been extended to testimony in a civil matter that could be used against you in a criminal proceeding. so, that's pretty serious. now, you -- in a criminal case, you can't make an inference from that use of the fifth amendment but certainly in civil matters, people do all the time. and there's no prohibition. so, it's very disappointing that this happened. one other option the committee eds to look at is whether we provide use immunity to mr. clark. what that means is that the testimony you give to the committee could not be used in the criminal case. if the justice department finds out about it some other way,

they're not precluded from proceeding. we haven't made that decision but we are sorting through those issues right now to see whether that is an appropriate step to take. >> that obviously could be important. and -- and in terms of the public hearings, where are you on that? when do you anticipate those beginning? >> we think, you know, this spring, we will be in a position to have some presentation of what we found to date. we want to make sure that when we do that, we have the coherent set of facts that we can present, not something that's partially -- it needs to be professional and complete and that's important to us. >> absolutely. congress woman, thank you very much. i appreciate it. >> thank you very much. take care. >> all right. you, too. and next, president biden traveling to new york to appear next to the city's mayor. someone who has made it clear his number one priority is

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new tonight. president biden traveling to new york city to appear with the city's crime focused mayor, eric adams. the president pushing his plan to crack down on gun vie hence acro violence across the country less than two weeks after two nypd officers were fate hi shot in the line of duty. biden pushing his mans which include $300 million in funding to increase community policing. biden praising law enforcement and the mayor of new york's tough stance on crime and trying to say that he supports adams, although to be clear, he has not supported several of adams' key lists of reforms.

>> you know, mayor adams, you and i agree. the answer is not to abandon our streets. that's not the answer. the answer is to come together and place in communities building trust, and making us all safer. the answer is not to defund the police, it's to give you the tools, the training, the funding to be partners, to be protectors, and community needs you and know the community. you know -- [ applause ] >> out front now, dana bash, the co-anchor of cnn's state of the union. and, dana, eric adams is a former police officer. he has been unabashedly supportive of his police officers. but he is also supported a lot of things that are not popular among the progressive left, right? he has, you know, wanted to change the bail reform that was so pushed by many progressives. he wants to change some of the rules in terms of, you know, how old someone has to be before you can charge them for certain

things. those are not things that the biden administration has supported, thus far. but the president very much wanted to appear with mayor adams today. >> he did because he and his administration is realizing -- and a lot of democrats and other political strategists you talk to say -- that they are late to the game on this. that crime is a very, very resident issue. now, to be fair, the president has had a lot of resonant issues on his maplate namely covid and bunch of other issues that he has had to deal with. but this is really -- this is something that people feel in big cities, and not just in big cities. it's not just in places like new york or where i am in washington, d.c. crime is up all across the country. and it adds, erin, to that overall feeling of unease, of

fear, of -- of mistrust and distrust. and just, this feeling that things are not going well. whether it's with regard to violence or with regard to your po pocketbook with inflation. and so, this is one area, you are right, he and his administration, they don't agree on everything and certainly progressives don't agree with mayor adams on everything. but it's more a question of emphasis at this point and that was the goal today, rather than the content of the policies. >> well, it -- it's also interesting, dana. you know, you think about, you know, in education where the administration is certainly feeling that -- that -- that they need to at best modify how they have handled certain things. you know, we ever seen that across the country. but, you know, you -- you know the polls so well here. abc/ipsos poll, 34% of americans right now say they approve of how president biden is handling the issue of crime.

64% disapprove. that is 30 percentage points underwater. it was almost even in august. that is a pretty stunning thing, and that is part of why he was in new york today. >> no question about it. it is stunning. those numbers really do tell the story. and they tell the story of a lot of -- of, again, unease and fear across the country. and it -- look, it's all related. it's all -- the pandemic and everything that wept nt along w that, all the fallout from that, people not working, younger people home. uh, the -- the crime up. i mean, this -- it's all related and i talked to people inside the biden administration who are seeing this coming from a mile away and they have wanted the president and people with big megaphones in the administration to be talking about this more aggressively because this is one of many data points but a very big one that they know is

working against them in -- not just in politics but in policy, and just in the overall feeling of how the administration is doing. >> all right, dana, thank you very much. >> thank you. and next, the state department putting belarus on notice. warning it could face the same consequences as russia if it allows putin to invade. next, i am going to speak to the opposition leader. and a crippling winter storm sweeping across 25 u.s. states tonight. we will show you the latest. and we're not alone. we've all had to find new ways to keep going. and cue has made that easier. with cue, you get lab-quality covid-19 test results in just 20 minutes. speed and accuracy. it's just for the nba; it's for you too. cue health. the official covid-19 home test of the nba. go cue. go you. i'm searching for info on options trading, and look, it feels like i'm just wasting time.

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. new tonight, a top state official warning that belarus will face the same consequences as russia if it allows an invasion into ukraine, which is exactly what it's doing right now. the u.s. says there will soon be 35,000 russian troops along the ukraine border of belarus. president lukas alashenko is

doing this against the wishes of his country. he declared himself the winner of the election even though he lost. she took over her husband's campaign after he was jailed for alashenko. i spoke with her today. thank you so much for being with us tonight. >> hello, everyone. thank you. >> so the secretary of nato today, just today, said that russia's military buildup in belarus is the biggest and most significant since the cold war. we have new satellite images showing that buildup along the belarus/ukraine border. the united states has said that putin is putting in 30,000 additional troops on that border. do you believe that putin effectively controls belarus

right now? >> you know, i think that alashenko thinks that he controls everything, that he controls drills, that he may be controlling credit somehow and that this is the price of what russia has to pay for giving alashenko the moment, so he participates now in this show that puts pressure on ukraine, puts pressure on europe and other critical countries. >> lukashenko has wrapping up his attacks on opposition, leaders like you, who have fled the country. he gave an address to the nation on friday, of course, which you are well familiar with. but he said to you, come home on

your knees groveling. those were his exact words? >> representatives of the regime should beg some people to pardon them. because we are people who had to flee the country or who are in jails now or there are people in belarus who are living in fear every day but continue our underground fight. we are people for future, for builders where people will feel free. so the regime made a lot -- committed a lot of crimes against persons, and it's them who are guilty, everything that's going on. >> you have made incredible sacrifice for the fight for your country, and you talk about what the regime has done.

i understand now that there are at least 1,000 political prisoners in belarus, one of whom is your husband who was sentenced to 18 years in a high security penal colony. one of your best friends was sentence to do 11 years, also for challenging mr. lukashenko. this is your husband, the father of your children, and now you're separated for what could be decades. do you think they will ever be released? >> for sure. it will be the real years of prison, and we fight for people to be released because they want to give us an opportunity to

continue. we can't betray those people, and every child, his father or mother, and we are fighting mostly for those people. and i have never imagined that 18 years of so-called imprisonment of my husband will be years. my children are waiting for their daddy every day. >> as the opposition leader, you yourself face great risk every single day. you know, everyone, of course, around the world is familiar with the opposition russian leader and what happened. he's in a pe nal colony there, after being poisoned, and he got a kgb agent to admit what happened and say they put poison on his underwear.

that kgb agent is also gone. do you fear every day for your life? >> i hope that in the country where we are we are more or less in safety, and it depends on dictatorship. even if i knew my life was at risk, i would continue doing what i'm doing. because all the people who are behind bars now, they didn't think about their own safeness. they thought about our country, about our future, about our children. so it's time to care about yourself. it's time to care about dignity, about human rights, and everybody has to sacrifice something to gain what we are

asking for. >> i have such great admiration for you. i know so many around the world do. in times as dark as these to see someone like you fighting so hard for what you believe in and truly putting your life on the line is such a sacrifice. thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. next, one-third of the u.s. feeling the frigid effects of a massive and deadly winter storm tonight. a very rough stretch of weather is ahead. . get decision tech. for insights on when to buy and sell. and proactive alerts on market events. that's decision tech. only from fidelity.

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incredible weather is slamming the united states right now. that's one-third of the population. it goes all the way north from north dakota to texas and all the way to the east coast. scenes you see right here are what many millions of people are dealing with tonight. and the forecast calls for more possibly deadly conditions. it's not going to get above freezing in indiana and surrounding states until sunday afternoon. thanks so much for watching. anderson starts now. good evening. tonight the very latest on what president biden calls limiting capability for terrorist threats around the globe. a pre-dawn raid in northwest syria near the turkish border. when it was over, the leader of isis was dead. in a moment my conversation with pentagon spokesman john kirby of what wen