NEW YORK — Thousands of people, including from other parts of the country, descended on Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday afternoon for former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally.

The NYPD said it had drones over the area, robots, and a helicopter, as well as antiterrorism units outside monitoring the situation to keep everyone safe.

With just nine days to go until Election Day, a new CBS News poll has the two presidential candidates neck and neck, with Vice President Kamala Harris at 50% and Trump at 49% among likely voters. In battleground states, both are polling at 50%.

The focus of the respective campaigns has been on issues, including immigration, the war between Israel and Hamas, and crime.

JD Vance, Elon Musk, Melania Trump spoke

Sunday’s rally marked a detour from the battleground states for Trump. Among those who took the stage before the former president spoke were former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Staten Island activist Scott LoBaido.

“President Trump grew up here. He’s a New Yorker,” Giuliani said. “That’s why people get a little bit annoyed at him. He speaks his mind.”

When Trump entered the arena there was applause, a standing ovation, and everyone started chanting. Every seat appeared to be filled from the floor to the highest sections. In addition to Trump, vice presidential nominee JD Vance, billionaire supporter Elon Musk and Trump’s wife, Melania, all spoke. 

Trump supporters revel in former president’s appearance

The former president is from Queens. CBS News New York met supporters from his home borough, but also a couple from Chicago.

“I just love him, and he’s the best. I want the economy to get better,” a woman said.

“We have an influx of migrants, illegal migrants. Our economy is … just go to the grocery store,” a man from Dutchess County added.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman was one of several Long Island representatives who came to the Garden in the Trump motorcade.

“Just look around. This is incredible. We’re in New York City in the middle of, you know, this is liberal … one of the most liberal cities in the country, and it’s amazing,” New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov said.

Vulgar language during the introductions 

Before Trump took the stage, there was some vulgar language in the speeches. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who goes by Kill Tony, referred made a crude joke referring to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” and made other offensive jokes about Black people and Latinos. 

Sid Rosenberg, a radio host that Trump often talks to, called Hillary Clinton a “sick son of a b***,” and referred to migrants as “f—ing illegals.” 

David Rem, a childhood friend of Trump’s, called Harris “the antichrist.” 

Grant Cardone, a business owner, said Harris “and her pimp handlers will destroy the country.” 

Lisa Rozner

Lisa Rozner joined CBS News New York in 2017. She covers a wide range of stories.

When Russia invaded Ukraine it sparked international outrage. It also triggered a wave of international sanctions designed to cripple Russia’s economy so badly…it couldn’t fight the war. 

And yet…two-and-a-half years later, the fighting continues and the International Monetary Fund predicts, this year, Russia’s economy will grow over 3%. More than the U.S. and Europe.

The architect behind the United States sanction strategy is Daleep Singh – the deputy national security advisor for international economics at the White House.

We first interviewed him in the weeks after the 2022 invasion…when he told us he expected a barrage of sanctions to bring Russia’s economy to its knees.

Earlier this month, we went to Washington to ask Daleep Singh about those early predictions of a nosedive.…and he told us something we don’t hear very often on 60 Minutes.

Daleep Singh: So let’s be– let’s be honest. This is not the nosedive that I predicted two years ago. But– I don’t think anybody should mistake Russia’s rebound with resilience. On the surface, Russia’s economy may appear to be a fortress, but underneath the foundations are fragile.

Hours after the invasion, the U.S. began striking that foundation.

At the White House, Daleep Singh announced the administration’s strategy…

Within 72 hours, the U.S. and its allies…. blocked Russia’s central bank from accessing $300 billion it stashed around the world, then froze the foreign bank accounts of dozens of Russian billionaires …later, seizing their trophies for good measure.

Since then, 45 countries have directed over 5,000 sanctions at Russian targets… everything from diamonds and semiconductors to Vladimir Putin himself. And yet…

Sharyn Alfonsi: The war is still raging. The Russian economy is growing. It looks like sanctions have been a failure.

Daleep Singh: No, not at all so he’s turbo-charged government spending to fuel the war machine. He’s frozen infrastructure and education spending. And– yes, that’s lifted GDP growth. But there’s a cost. Sky-high inflation, almost 9%. Nosebleed interest rates, almost 19%. Both are choking off growth.

But the sanctions have not been able to curb the flow of cash from the Kremlin’s most valuable asset… oil. Russia is the third largest producer in the world…and this year, its oil and gas revenues are expected to increase 2.6% to nearly $240 billion.

We wondered how – despite all those sanctions- the Kremlin is still making so much money from its oil. We found the answer in an unexpected place.

Twenty miles off the coast of Greece. 

We went there with Samir Madani….

Madani runs a company from Stockholm that tracks oil tankers for dozens of international clients…such as insurance companies or shippers…who want to know exactly where oil is moving in case of a spill or accident.

But he took us to see this oil tanker…called the Sprite. It’s part of Russia’s “dark fleet” – one of an estimated 200 ships that move a million barrels of Russian oil around Western sanctions every day.

Madani and his team monitor satellite images, signals from ships, and photographs from the ground to track tankers. 

He told us, one day, in January 2023, he noticed something suspicious on his dashboard…a tanker sending signals from a port in Japan…a country that doesn’t export crude oil.

Samir Madani: That didn’t make sense. So I was able to review that with satellite imagery and saw that there was no vessel at the port. Instead– it was a spoof where in fact we saw the vessel in Kozmino, in Russia.

Sharyn Alfonsi: So they’re able to lie about their location?

Samir Madani: Yes: in real time.

Sharyn Alfonsi: And so that allows them to move wherever they want to move–

Samir Madani: Absolutely.

Sharyn Alfonsi: –undetected.

Sharyn Alfonsi: And that happened how quickly after the sanctions took place?

Samir Madani: Immediately. Immediately.

Sharyn Alfonsi: When you’re sitting at your dashboard and you’re watching all of this, what makes you know that’s part of the dark fleet?

Samir Madani: Yeah. The ownership– will change, the vessel– age is beyond 15 years– that’s a red flag. And so these vessels were supposed to be scrapped. And then somebody makes a bid in the last minute, with a– with a million dollars, and gets to extend the life of this tanker.

The Sprite is one of those tankers. 21 years old, it was last purchased in February and is registered to a shell company in the Caribbean. So what was it doing floating off the coast of Greece?

Samir Madani: SPRITE here is acting as a dropbox for Russian oil. If you can see on her starboard side on the right side there you have the 4 buoys. And that means they placed those there for contact with other vessels.

Other dark fleet vessels that will transfer oil onto or off of the Sprite…Madani spotted one of them, the Zambra, a mile away.

These are images Madani’s team provided of Zambra moving oil from Russian ports on the Black Sea through the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey and then transferring it onto the Sprite just off the coast of Greece.

Sharyn Alfonsi: We were there with you, we’re watching you know transfer, transfer, transfer. What’s going on there?

Samir Madani: The transfers are an additional layer of obfuscation when it comes to– transferring oil. So when you have a “floating dropbox” act like that, you know, where it’s able to take in any kind of oil, and then output any other kind of oil, it confuses things.

The point of this tanker shell game is to get around Western sanctions…specifically a price cap that was supposed to limit Moscow’s oil profits.

In 2022, the G-7, which includes the U.S., Canada, Japan, and four European countries…banned the import of Russian oil. But they didn’t want to risk a global price spike. So, they allowed Russian oil to continue to flow internationally but imposed a $60 a barrel price cap on the purchase of Russian crude oil.

Russia’s workarounds are paying off…. almost all of its crude oil is selling above the price cap. In the last two years, Russia’s dark fleet has moved an estimated $45 billion worth of crude oil.

Sharyn Alfonsi: And where is all that oil going?

Samir Madani: Yeah. Most of the oil that– departs Russia by sea– nowadays is going to China and India.

60 Minutes analyzed four years of data from India’s Ministry of Commerce. We found the value of India’s imports of Russian crude oil increased by more than 2,000% since the invasion of Ukraine.

Much of that crude goes to an Indian port called Sikka…where it is refined into other oil products, such as gasoline. But those products don’t necessarily stay in India.

Sam Madani helped us track a tanker of “refined products” from India’s port … around the tip of Africa …across the Atlantic Ocean…and ultimately, here …to New York.

Sharyn Alfonsi: We saw the ship coming from India into the New York Harbor. How often is that happening?

Samir Madani: It happens around– twice a month, and they bring in around half a million barrels of refined product. Fuel. 

Sharyn Alfonsi: So, is the Russian crude oil untraceable?

Samir Madani: After it becomes refined it’s untraceable. Yeah.

The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned 38 Russian “dark fleet” tankers… but Sam Madani says he’s identified 170 others that are still active, moving Russian oil.

Sharyn Alfonsi: They’re not doing it in the middle of the night. They’re doing it in broad daylight. How do you stop that?

Daleep Singh: First, identify them. Second, let them know– that– they’re subject to our sanctions. And then, three, deliver those sanctions. Any player in Russia’s shadow fleet network would be subject to our sanctions. 

Sharyn Alfonsi: Why not do it right now?

Daleep Singh: What we’re trying to balance right now is– is to continue to move the global oil market into balance, to continue to have– a downward movement in the level of inflation across the world, and to sustain unity. We can’t sanction Russia’s shadow fleet by ourselves: so, there’s a diplomatic component to this too. This is about stamina more so than it is about shock and awe.

There’s another market the U.S. is trying to keep in balance – American nuclear energy.

The U.S. is still paying Russia $1 billion a year for enriched uranium to help fuel 94 nuclear reactors that provide about a fifth of America’s energy needs. 

In May, Congress took notice and banned the import of Russian-enriched uranium. But the ban won’t go into full effect for four years.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Does the U.S. have the capacity right now that it needs for enriched uranium?

Amir Vexler: No. So un– unfortunately– about 25% of it to 30% has been imported from Russia.

Sharyn Alfonsi: We don’t have it.

Amir Vexler: Right. We– we are dependent.

That’s because the United States stopped making enriched uranium a decade ago. Amir Vexler runs Centrus Energy. 

Last year, Centrus began enriching uranium inside this Piketon, Ohio facility. The only American company with that capability.

Vexler showed us how it’s done — those 40-foot-tall centrifuges spin uranium gas until it’s enriched and can be used as nuclear fuel.

But these 16 centrifuges can only make a fraction of the enriched uranium the U.S. needs. See those squares…on the ground? Those are placeholders for 11 thousand more centrifuges Centrus wants to build.

Sharyn Alfonsi: And how long in the best-case scenario would it take to get those up and running?

Amir Vexler: It will take about six to seven years to get to full capacity.

Sharyn Alfonsi: And to not be reliant on Russia.

Amir Vexler: That is correct.

In Russia, businesses quickly pivoted. When Western companies left the country at the start of the war, Russian versions replaced them. Starbucks with Stars Coffee…Zara with Maag. Coca Cola …Dobry Cola. even authentic Western products– such as the latest iPhones are still getting into the hands of Russians.

Sharyn Alfonsi: When we first started hearing about sanctions against Russia, we anticipated seeing, you know, bread lines in Moscow. Has that happened?

Richard Connolly: In a word, no. The most goods that Russians would have accessed before the war are available now.

Richard Connolly is an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London and a specialist on the Russian economy.

Richard Connolly: Sanctions prohibit the sale of western cars to Russia, Mercedes or Chryslers. But a lot of them are still making their way to Russia via third parties, like Georgia and the South Caucasus, or Kazakhstan, or China. Now, of course, if you’re gonna have to send an American or German car on this roundabout route to reach Russia, the price of that car when it’s sold is much higher than it was before the war. But, a lot of Russians with a lot of money in their pocket who are prepared to pay that higher price. There’s an incentive for lots of Russian small businesses to acquire goods on foreign markets from sanctioning countries, bring them back to Russia, and sell them at a very healthy markup.

Sharyn Alfonsi: So evading sanctions has become good business in Russia–

Richard Connolly: It’s become a business– sector of its own in Russia, yes. 

Sharyn Alfonsi: What kind of businesses are we talking about?

Richard Connolly: Some people are selling goods that were previously sanctioned. They’re producing them at home. The number of small- and medium-sized businesses registered in Russia is at an all-time high. Before the war Russia had a big problem. It wasn’t investing enough. But since the war began the single biggest source of investment is in trade and logistics.

Sharyn Alfonsi: It almost sounds like, from an economic perspective, that the war’s the best thing that’s happened to Russia.

Richard Connolly: It certainly changed the economic trajectory. This is the fastest it’s grown for a consecutive period in over a decade and a half. Whether they can sustain that over time is, of course– the big question. It’s possible they may confound expectations in the future as well.

Produced by Lucy Hatcher. Associate producer, Erin DuCharme. Edited by Robert Zimet.

Countries have imposed thousands of sanctions on Russia since it launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, but more than two years later, Russia’s economy is growing.

In 2022, the architect of the sanctions, Daleep Singh, predicted they would bring Russia’s economy to its knees. But Russia’s economy is predicted to grow over 3% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund – that’s more than the U.S. and Europe. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also turbo-charged spending to fuel the war machine, Singh, the deputy national security adviser for international economics at the White House, said. His plan has come with a cost of sky-high inflation around 9% and interest rates of nearly 19%.

“I don’t think anybody should mistake Russia’s rebound with resilience,” Singh said. “On the surface, Russia’s economy may appear to be a fortress, but underneath the foundations are fragile.”

Breaking down the Russia sanctions

After Russia invaded Ukraine, 45 countries directed more than 5,000 sanctions at Russian officials, institutions and companies, targeting everything from diamonds and semiconductors to Putin himself. Putin called it an “economic blitzkrieg.”

Within a week of the invasion, the U.S. and its allies blocked Russia’s central bank from accessing $300 billion it had stashed around the world and froze the foreign bank accounts of dozens of Russian billionaires.

G7 nations also wanted to limit what Russia could earn from its oil supply without taking that oil out of the market, worried a shortage would cause a global price spike. Instead, they imposed a $60-a-barrel price cap on all Russian crude oil.

How Russia works around the price cap 

Russia is the third largest oil producer in the world and this year, despite the price cap, its oil and gas revenues are expected to increase 2.6% to nearly $240 billion. The Kremlin has circumvented the price cap using the dark fleet.

The dark fleet, or shadow fleet, is used to move a million barrels of oil around Western sanctions every day. The term shadow or dark fleet refers to aging vessels with opaque ownership that moves oil to evade sanctions.

One of the vessels, the 21-year-old Sprite, was purchased in February. It’s registered to a shell company in the Caribbean. While off the coast of Greece, oil was transferred onto and off of the Sprite.

The transfers act as an additional layer of obfuscation, according to Samir Madani, who runs a company from Stockholm that tracks oil tankers for international clients. He said the dark fleet is made up of an estimated 200 ships.

Most of the oil leaving Russia nowadays goes to China or India, Madani said. A 60 Minutes analysis of four years of data from India’s Ministry of Commerce found that the value of India’s imports of Russian crude oil increased by more than 2,000% since the invasion of Ukraine.

Much of that crude oil goes to an Indian port called Sikka, where it’s refined into other oil products, such as gasoline. Those products don’t necessarily stay in India. Madani helped track a tanker of refined products from Sikka, India’s port, as it went around the tip of Africa, and across the Atlantic Ocean before ending up in New York. It happens around twice a month, Madani said.

“After it becomes refined, it’s untraceable,” Madani said.

Russia’s workaround is paying off. Almost all of its crude oil is selling above the price cap. 

Stopping the dark fleet requires identifying the vessels and making it known that they’re subject to sanctions, Singh said. 

“What we’re trying to balance right now is to continue to move the global oil market into balance, to continue to have a downward movement in the level of inflation across the world, and to sustain unity,” Singh said. “This is about…stamina more so than it is about shock and awe.”

Russia’s uranium business

It’s not just India that’s fueling Russia’s economy – the U.S. is playing a role, too. Most enriched uranium purchased by the U.S. is now of foreign origin, with around a quarter of the enriched uranium entering the U.S. coming from Russia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. 

In 1993, Russia and the U.S. signed a 20-year agreement, dubbed Megatons to Megawatts, under which the U.S. agreed to purchase enriched uranium from Russia after it stopped making its own enriched uranium — a critical fuel for nuclear-power plants — around a decade ago. 

The U.S. is paying Russia around $1 billion a year for enriched uranium to help run 94 nuclear reactors that provide about 20% of America’s energy needs. Congress in May banned the import of Russian enriched uranium, but there’s a waiver process in place until 2028. 

Last year, the energy company Centrus started enriching uranium inside a Piketon, Ohio, facility. It’s the only American company with that capability. 

Using 40-foot tall centrifuges, Centrus spins uranium gas until it’s enriched and can be used as nuclear fuel. But its 16 centrifuges can only make a fraction of the enriched uranium the U.S. needs. Centrus wants to build 11,000 more centrifuges. CEO Amir Vexler estimates that, under a best case scenario, it would take six to seven years to get to full capacity and to end U.S. reliance on Russia.

Companies in Russia pivot 

Companies in Russia pivoted quickly when the war started. After a number of Western companies pulled out of Russia or suspended operations there, Russian versions quickly replaced them. Instead of Starbucks, there’s now Stars Coffee; instead of Zara, there’s Maag, and instead of Coca Cola, there’s Dobry Cola. 

Evading sanctions has become a business sector of its own in Russia, Richard Connolly, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London and a specialist on the Russian economy, said. 

“The number of small- and medium-sized businesses registered in Russia is at an all-time high,” Connolly said. 

Banned Western goods still make their way into Russia, too. Most goods Russians would have had access to before the war are still available now, Connolly said. 

While sanctions prohibit the sale of cars like Mercedes or Chryslers to Russia, they’re still making their way into Russia through third parties, such as Georgia, Kazakhstan and China, Connolly said. Prices are higher because of the roundabout import route, but there are wealthy Russians willing to pay. 

“There’s an incentive for lots of Russian small businesses to acquire goods on foreign markets from sanctioning countries, bring them back to Russia, and sell them at a very healthy markup,” Connolly said. 

Before the war, Russia wasn’t investing enough, Connolly said. Since the war began and sanctions were put into place, the economic trajectory has changed. It’s the fastest Russia’s economy has grown for a consecutive period in over a decade, Connolly said. 

“Whether they can sustain that over time is, of course, the big question,” Connolly said.