years amid fears that the country is heading into a recession. it s a challenge for president biden as he attends a dnc event and tries to sharpen his midterm message. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we begin our coverage tonight in ukraine where bogus referendums are under way as moscow tries to solidify its hold on occupied territory. our senior international correspondent ben wedeman is on the ground for us. ben, is this so-called voting essentially happening at gunpoint? reporter: basically it is, wolf. we re seeing video and hearing reports of election workers going house to house, door to door, with ballot boxes, accompanied by armed men, in some cases armed men wearing balance cla vas. we re wear the election workers are going door to door. people are locking their doors and simply not answering to avoid voting. in fact, the ukrainian authorities have urged residents of the occupied t
that people were having. i talked to doctors that were having these patients, talked to the patients themselves, scientists. also went down to cuba, wolf, to see where these incidents actually occurred. but it was one senior intelligence officer they interviewed that gave me the most insight, wolf, into what may have been behind all of this. and i want you to take a little listen. bill avanina was director of the u.s. national security center at time of the incidents in havana. later that, he lead the cia s efforts to combat espionage against the united states. so if anyone knew what the russians were up to in cuba, it was likely him. the obama administration reopening the embassy in havana, right? the russian government was not happy with that. but the russians and the chinese were facilitating new intelligence collection capabilities, 90 miles from our shores, in cuba. so it was an opportunity for us to not only open that embassy,