welcome back to our viewers and united states and around the world. i m john, those cnn center in atlanta. it is now 1 am on the u.s. u.s. east coast. the entire state of florida, embarrassing for the hurricane in. a massive storm stretching 100 miles across, which early made landfall on western cuba. knocking out the islands electricity grid causing a nationwide blackout. 11 million people right now in the dark waiting for more process to damage. as of this hour, no reports of any fatalities. since leaving cuba, it has gone in strength fueled by the warm waters of the gulf of mexico. as it heads to florida, now category three, sustained winds of about 120 miles per hour. along with life-threatening storm surge, florida is facing catastrophic flooding, strong powerful winds, all day long, tuesday, visitors across the state to make landfall, now expected sooner than first forecast, and further to the south. but in some parts, it has always been felt, conditions tore throughout
illegally seized upon one way or another. by russia. with, us this hour, is my guest, staff writer to the new yorker, and prolific author writing on topics like russia, vladimir putin, donald trump, it s a long, long list, the most recent book is surviving autocracy. welcome to cnn newsroom. thank you for having me. okay so the referendums in the four russian occupied ukrainian provinces are straight from putin s playbook after the occupied occupation of crimea. which means any annexation, illegal annexation, is likely next. the vote, result, all being announced by ukraine, u.s., and europe, and the mayor of one occupied city in eastern ukraine to brett scribe the voting process of being carried out and gunpoint. saying that your times, they banked loudly, rang doorbells, they gave people a ballot and point with the rifles where to put the mark. the referendum was a sham in 2014, and crimea, it s a sham now so from the kremlin s point of view what is the value and all of this?