‘Here’s ill’: Anderson Cooper reacts to recent Russia file

Another vehicle as well with another missile. Matthew, appreciate the report, thank you. Now that you report which is going to uncover the extent to which Moscow is conducting the extensive campaign to take Ukrainian children to Russian sometimes even giving the.

Military training to forcibly adopt them. Authors had constitute war crimes, possibly even evidence of genocide, the report was produced by the Yale humanitarian resource lab as part of a state department program for gathering evidence of Russian war crimes. It.

Identifies 43 facilities that are part of a network stretching from the black sea to siberia. The primary purpose appears to be political reeducation. Daniel Raman as a humanitarian research lab executive director and oversaw the report.

>> Nathaniel, I saw that you called this an amber alert for Ukraine's children. Could you explain what you mean? >> Anderson, what I mean is that while we know now that these 6000 children have been through the system, we think the numbers are actually far.

Larger. We are basically dealing with the largest network of children's camps, seen in the 21st century that stretches from the black sea all the way to the eastern pacific coast, about 1300 miles from Alaska. In these 43 facilities we have.

Four-month-old all the way to 17 year Olds. Many of which have not been able to contact their parents and months. >> How is this organized who is in charge of this, and how high up does it go in Russia? >> This goes all the way to the Kremlin. The leader of the.

Program is a woman known as Maria, who is under U. S. Sanctions. She is the child's rights commissioner for Russia. What we identify in this report is 12 individuals, some of which are reporting directly to her that are not under U. S. Sanctions yet. Or international.

Sanctions, including four regional governors. This is very important. Russia is running what could be described as a twisted sister city's program, where communities in Russia are sponsoring communities in Ukraine on an individual town by town basis.

To bring those children into Russia for reeducation purposes, including military training in two instances. >> In some instances they are actually giving children, teenagers, military training and they are doing reeducation in the sense of Russian focused.

Reeducation, they are trying to make them into Russians, is that right? >> Yes. It does constitute a potential crime against humanity and violation of the 1998 Rome statute in the — it is illegal under international law, even temporarily, to.

Transfer one group of children to another group for purposes of erasing national identity and ethnicity. That was actually the first trial held against the nazism. >> The government seems proud of this. It is not as if they are doing all of this in.

Secret. They are embracing the says a national project, it seems. >> 100%. The primary audience here for what is dubbed the humanitarian project is described as a performance for Russia's domestic citizenry. At the end of the day, this is.

Part of an effort to re-brand the invasion. But what is clear is that it is a violation of the conventions, we are basically talking about thousands of children that are in a hostage situation, where they could be used as a bargaining chip in any future.

Prisoner exchange with the Ukrainians. And first and foremost, the Russians have an obligation under Geneva conduct prevention to move to a third party country, not to Russia. That right there no matter how long they are staying makes it a war crime.

>> Correct me if I'm wrong, some of them who may have parents are labeled orphans and are being adopted into Russian families or fostered by Russian families. >> We found two locations including a 70 out truck hospital, and what the Russians.

Call the family center in Moscow, where infants and toddlers are being adopted and fostered by Russian families. After the invasion, Putin and the Kremlin changed rushes adoption law to allow for the first time adoption of Ukrainians. Additionally, they.

Added a 200 dollar a month bonus in basically Russia's social security system to encourage adoption so at the end of the day our number one information source is the statement of Russia's own officials as they are promoting the program and speaking about.

It as something that they were proud of. >> This is truly sickening, this is sick. >> I have been a war crimes investigator for 24 years and I have worked on everything from torture to large-scale massacres. This has been one of.

The hardest reports that I have worked on because I am watching a disaster that is a human rights emergency that is going to radiate for decades for these children. It is happening, and so far, there is little we can do about it. >> What can be done?.

>> Well, we have submitted a report to the U. S. Department of state. They are reviewing the information in the report to see if there are steps such as sanctions or other efforts that the U. S. Can do against these specific individuals in this program and we will see.

What the U. S. Government does. I think that there are four things that can be done, Anderson. First, and most critically is registration. Going back to bosnia, many recent conflicts, having a clear internationally monitored registration system is the.

First up to reuniting families. Second, communication. The phones of these children when they have not been taken in many cases, they are reestablishing means for them to call home. Call mom, call dad, it is a critical first up. And we need international.

Monitors and there from the united nations and other international government organizations because right now it is only Russia's word. That is not good enough. Fourth, and finally, there needs to be a movement of these kids to the third party country as required.

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