this is cnn breaking news. >> greetings and welcome to cnn's special coverage of the meeting between u.s. president

donald trump and russian president vladimir putin. i'm jake tapper. >> i'm christiane amanpour. we're hours away from the meeting between the two presidents. that will happen right behind us in the finnish presidential palace. right now they're in the finnish presidential residence. >> where president trump is having a working breakfast with finland's president. this is just moments ago. the shots you're looking at right now, this is expected to last about an hour before trump heads to his meeting with president putin. earlier mr. trump was on twitter referring to the russian investigation. he said the "relationship with russia has never been worse thanks to many years of u.s. foolishness and stupidity. and now the rigged witch hunt," a remarkable statement from the president of the united states blaming the investigation into the russian cyber attack on the united states and not blaming the cyber attack itself.

president trump says he'll ask mr. putin about russian interference in the 2016 election. he's more focused on the investigation than he is on the actual cyber attack. one of a long list of issues the two men could discuss. sources a on the russian side and american side there is no set agenda. president trump earlier predicted what might result from the meeting. >> nothing bad's going to come out of it and maybe some good will come out of it. i'm going in with high expectations. i don't really -- i can't tell you what's going to happen but i can tell you what i'll be asking for. we'll see if something comes of it. >> joining us right now, white house correspondent kaitlan collins and international diplomatic editor nic robertson. >> so, i can tell what you i'm going to be asking for. what do you think he's going to be asking for? what do you think since you're traveling with his people. >> well, he has said he wants to

hear, it was interesting the way president trump framed this, hear from president putin on syria because that framed it as president putin putting across his views and president trump not putting across his views. ukraine, the issue of the minsk agreement. these issues are fundamental to both countries. they can both bring their influence to bear the a critical time particularly syria where the conflict is winding down. it seems every what we've heard from president trump so far it's going to be perhaps about the weapons treaties, imf treaty which both sides criticized each other for abrow gating and the start agreement, strategic arms limitation agreement which is due to expire in a few days into it was president bush po pulled out of the imf. they have a legitimate gripe about that. what do his officials say about that? >> syria and arms control will be two things at the top of the agenda. a lot of the overarching what

the team theme is going to beings is donald trump trying to have a better relationship with vladimir putin than barack obama did. a lot of things trump has done is trying to one up obama and do things, undo things he did or do things he believed he couldn't do. having a good relationship with putin is one of those things. barack obama and vladimir putin had a very frosty relationship. the president wants to do that. that's why we see him talk so much about normalizing relations with russia saying that has more to do with u.s. decisions what barack obama did and past presidents not that they assaulted add american election. shot down a passenger plane, invaded crimea among many other things that they did. a lot of it is president trump trying to do something he feel noes other president has done before. we all in singapore during the summit with kim jong-un. he wants to do things that he feels other presidents couldn't do. that's a who the lot more than just account policy goals they'll try to accomplish here.

>> no u.s. president and no country is infallible. i would certainly never argue that the united states is blameless in the u.s./russia relationship. but when you talk to white house officials and about the rhetoric from president trump where he blames the united states for the poor relationship between the united states and russia, when he blames the investigation into the cyber attack by russia on the united states and not the actual cyber attack, do they even understand where you're coming from when you say how can a u.s. president be towing the russian line? >> it's not just president trump that feels this way about this relationship with russia, blaming it on the rigged witch hunt which is an investigation into not collusion just with trump officials and russian officials bus them attacking the election. they can't hold them in different hands. they think anything that has to do with the russia investigation is implying they are guilty of doing something. they can't take it this is an

investigation into russian meddling into the election with the aspect of did any trump officials coordinate with the russians to help try to win the election. they can't separate the two. it cops from the top down because of the president saying no collusion, no collusion. you saw that in the white house statement they put out after department of justice announced those zips against the russian officials. it said nothing critical of russia or the intelligence officer who's interfered in the election. instead they said this is what we're saying all along, none of the americans are guilty here. it t said nothing about what the indictments were about that they attacked the election. it's not just the president. the white house has a whole as trouble separate the investigation into collusioning from russian meddling in the election. >> for how the summit is being viewed in russia, sam kylie joins us live from moscow. sam, tell us, president trump said earlier he's going into there meeting with low

expectations. any indication what putin's expectations are? >> there is expectation that this could be a personal relationship that could lead to an unen thawing of what is being called in the media the second cold war. that, jake, is a consequence of the illegal annexation of crimea by russia and russia's role elsewhere around the world that has been perceive by western allies of the united states and the united states as highly destabilizing and therefore subjected to very tight sanctions particularly tight sangs coming less from the united states which matters relatively little 0 russian economy but to europe where the sanctions are very, very tight and where there are already sibs particularly coming from italy and some of the former soviet bloc countries now part after the european union they would like to ease off on sanctions. there have been a lot of

criticism by donald trump of the european union as a block on its own right. he's a supporter of brexit. in that he's in lock step with putin. they may well find that ultimately, the russian agenda here senior playing a much longer game but trying to warm this relationship at a personal level, jaking. > all right. thank you so much. back in the united states, the summit could have major political implications for president trump. >> indeed it could. to discuss that now, how it's going to be viewed in the united states we're joined by john prudhoe, u.s. editor for the economist. we spoke to you when president trump was in london. we've talked a lot over the last couple of hours anticipating this meeting what president trump is tweeting that mostly blaming the bad relations on the united states. take us back a little bit. you've been covering u.s./russian presidents and relations for last several

years. go back george w bush. >> there's an element of this meeting quite conventional in one sense. in the american presidents since george w. bush with the first really tore have to deal with vladimir putin have long wanted to have a warmer relationship with russia. they've tried. george w. bush looked into his soul. we had the reset from the obama white house. the reason for that is quite sound i think. vladimir putin's hold on power in russia depends on a story he can tell about the relationship with the west. the idea that he the west is out to get russia. only vladimir putin is strong enough to stand up to the west. warmer relations with america, to some extent are a threat to putin's hold on power. that said, and the way that russia babes towards america, towards other allies makes it very, very hard to have those warm relationships. we've been talking about some of these things. the annexation of ukraine, the u.s. election meddling and so

on. so it's really the timing and the context of this meeting that makes it so extraordinary rather than the fact that an american president is try too have warmer relationships with vladimir putin. >> one obviously for years now, one of putin's goals has been whatever he can do to create to foment discord in the european union, to photo meant and undermine the nato alliance. talk if you would about the concerns that u.s. allies have about what might happen here. president trump keeps reaffirming this morning how strong nato is which assuredly might come as some reassurance i would think 0 some european leaders. but there are concerns what theents is actually up to. >> that's right. just on nato quickly. the allies are freaked out by the beginning of that meeting where trump was in the room and said that germany was controlled by russia and so forth. he then patched it up a little

bit i think and left declaring victory saying nato countries are now going to spend more money on their defense. on trade, european allies are freaked out by what the president seems to be doing. they think he's trying to break apart this large trading bloc. that would be great news for vladimir putin. there's a real concern what happens in the room today particularly for europeans on the issue of ukraine and crimea. let's not forget that the annexation of crimea was the first act of sort of hostile territory taking in europe since 1945. you know, people in europe take that pretty seriously. a lot of countries we're sitting here in finland which has a thousand mile boarder with russia, a country that's invaded a couple times. people i think are kind of nervous about the kind of reinsurance president trump might give vladimir putin how he sighs the crimea issue before we get on to nuclear weapons,

proliferation, election hacking which is an enormous story in america now. also, russians have intervened in lots of european elections, as well. there a lot of worries and not a huge number of upsides. >> i wonder what you think of the very similar psychological profiles that putin and trump have. both of them in control of strong countries. obviously america is stronger than russia on every level. both believing the world is making a mockery of them. both believing we are no longer great. we need to be great again. whether that psychology creates something constructive or something you know worse. and i just can't help remembering that look, after the fall of the soviet union, there were pretty good relations under yeltsin with the united states. really good relations actually. it was only when vladimir putin came in that the whole thing started to head down. >> let's not forget vladimir putin considers the biggest cam

mit of the 20th century to be the fall of the soviet empire. i think you're on to something there. both trump and putin have a sense of grievance. both trump and putin have risenton power on waves of nationalism. and i also think that there's something in president trump very clearly that admires strong men. you see him praising people like the leader of the philippines duterte and the leaders of turkey and egypt. he praised the chinese for how they put down the massacre, how they massacred at tiananmen square. he admires that. >> and that's just an extraordinary departure for an american president, right? breaking every single norm we've become familiar with since forever. i mean, i agree with you about the sort of similarities to some degree. you could say that vladimir putin's slogan for russia has long been make russia great again. he has a real sense of kind of

grievance, the idea electorate fall of the soviet union was the greatest geo-clack cal catastrophe of the 20th united states is and he thinks that the west kind of kicked russia while it's down and he's now asserting his country on the world stage. this is playing pretty well back home for him. >> what trump says to his base. >> pretty similar. obviously president trump is constrained by the institutions we have in the united states that the russia does not have and often he expresses concern and dismay that he is restrained by those institutions. president trump has a reputation for mixing up america's diplomatic friends and foes. >> so his latest target is one of the united states biggest allies. how that could impact his talks with putin coming up after a break. my name is jeff sheldon, and i'm the founder of ugmonk. before shipstation it was crazy.

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welcome back to helsinki, finland live from the sea pool. >> indeed we are. the finnish presidential palace is behind us. that is where the meeting between presidents trump and putin will take place. the finnish president is hosting that. >> a few moments ago we saw president trump along with first lady melania trump being toured around the finnish president's residence by the finnish president and his spouse. >> we did. president trump's critics and

even members of his own party are asking and his own administration trying to find out exactly what, who, and where he will consider a friend or foe. on sunday, mr. trump turned on one of the united states biggest allies in an interview with cbs. take a listen. well, i had i we have a lot of foes. i think the european union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. you wouldn't think of the european union but they're a foe. russia is a foe in certain respects. china is a foe economically certainly. they're a foe. but that doesn't mean they're bad. it doesn't mean anything. it means they're competitors. they want to do well and we want to do well. >> so asked for a list of foes, president trump mentioned the european union first and european -- he tweeted america and the eu are best friends. whoever says we are foes is spreading fake news.

>> you know, this fake news business is really taking on a whole life of its own. to that point, the helsinki newspaper has taken out massive ads saying welcome to the home of real news, mr. president. might as well say that to president putin, as well. during that interview with cbs on sunday, president trump also said that russia was a foe in certain aspects. joining me now to discuss russia's diplomatic agenda is sir andrew wood. he is the former uk ambassador to russia and joining us live from london. sir, can you tell us from your perspective, given the nato summit that just happened, the infamous or should i say famous trump visit to the united kingdom and his conversation with the prime minister, what do you expect from this meeting? what is the best and worst that could happen here? >> well, i think it does show you can't be fully prepared for whatever is said next. the other thing to think about

is what is the reality behind it. you were discussing earlier the question of whether there were similarities or why it was that president trump tended to admire strong men. i think he's making a big mistake in the case of putin being a strong man. strong men always are followed by disaster in one way or another because there's no way of them succeeding being managed properly because they get stuck in a rut. he's stuck in a rut right now. this story about russia being persecuted by the united states in particular but the western in general, that we are bent on its destruction and so on does fortify his position at home but it's intellectually completely untrue. he's in a bit i've bind there. i don't think he's going to change at all. >> let me ask you, give as a sense of in fact where exactly

russia stands with respect to europe and even the united states when it comes to its military spending. its military might. its economy. and how what other people have said i wonder if you agree that president putin in fact plays a weak hand very well. >> well, the very well question depends what you think is decoo sishl, what is really in russia's national interests. i think the proper concern of a president is the welfare of his people and the improvement of health, infrastructure, education and so on all of which is underplayed. i don't think myself that spending a lot of money on military supplies and building up your armed forces is sensible unless you sincerely believe that you have an enemy to face. the west is not a military enemy to russia. russia can now bring its forces to bear on particular areas near

to it with great effect. but i don't think that that advances the real interests of the russian people. >> perhaps not domestically but internationally, putin thinks that he is gathering that whole sphere of influence that he and the soviet union used to have. i hope you can hear me okay. i see you're having some trouble with your earpiece. >> i was too vigorous. >> you yeah. he's trying to get the west, president trump, to buy into his notion of russian sphere of influence. it's not just made up. look what he's done in syria. he's got plans to interfere in macedonia. he's also got big bases in the balkans. and there's a lot of putin action, russian action around that part of europe and that part of the middle east. >> that is true. and that is dangerous. ultimately, my only point is i don't see how it can possibly be in the interests of the russian people.

it gives president putin the sensation of being in charge of a major power. but none of those are solid achievements. the involvement in syria is very complex. and will get more and more difficult. his involvement in ukraine has created a sense of ukrainian hatred is too strong a word but dislike of russia which is new and quite unnecessary. so i think it's a mistake for us to think of him as a great man who is throwing his weight around to great effect. >> and just briefly before i said good-bye, do you think putin will come out of this as a winner? >> the meeting with trump? >> yes. >> if you meant the meeting with trump, yes, he will because the fact of the meeting itself shows a respect, if you like, for the russian president which he

hasmied before. secondly, if the president tweets the way he does saying everybody's made mistakes but i'm going to set it all right, that implies something will happen. what i don't know. >> ambassador, thanks so much for joining us from london. >> president trump plans to bring up russia's election interference in the 2016. we are told. but will actions back up those words. we'll look at how the indictments of russian spies may affect the talks. stay with us.

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. >> hello, and welcome back to cnn's special coverage of president trump and president putin's summit meeting. i'm christiane amanpour here in helsinki. >> i'm jake tapper. we're live here in finland. just behind us, president trump has been in a working breakfast with his finnish counterpart. during the meeting, we saw him thank the finnish president for hosting this summit with putin. president trump was was rather coy what he thought the outcome of that summit will be. >> mr. president. >> i'm going to see him in a little while. >> we'll do just fine.

>> so earlier, however, mr. trump said that he would bring up the accusations of election meddling. he wrote in a tweet just a little while ago, the relationship with russia has never been worse and he blames that on what he calls u.s. foolishness and stupidity. now the rigged witch hunt. republican congressman trey gowdy tells cbs the issue is too important for the president to just take putin at his word. >> this is an attack on all of us. our elections are just that, margaret. they're our elections. republicans and democrats are free to fight among and with themselves. but that fight ends at the border. i would ask the president to give some serious consideration. your first request of vladimir putin needs to be, tell us which airport we can pick up the 25 russians that tried to interfere with the fundamentals of our democracy. if you really claim you had nothing to do with it, then you

should be as shocked as we were that your military was being used to impact our election. tell us where you're going to extradite those folks because an american grand jury indicted them for undermining our democracy. >> republican senator rand paul had a different take. he explained to me why he views this differently on sunday's "state of the union." >> i think it would be a moot point. i don't think russia is sending anyone back over here for trial. the same way we wouldn't send anybody over there for trial. no country with any sense of sovereignty is sending anybody to another country for trial. we have to protect ourselves so because we waste time saying putin needs to add this and apologize, he's not going to admit that he did it. we can't take on face value anything they tell us. we have to assume and if we proof they did it which it sounds like we did, we should spend our time protecting ourself instead of having this witch hunt on the president. >> let's talk all about this

with global fairs analyst match boot and u.s. security analyst steve hall who will join us again from new york. steve, let me start with you. when you see a tweet from president trump blaming the poor state of u.s./russian relations on the u.s. and foolishness by the u.s. and taking issue with the what he calls witch hunt which is to say the investigation into the russian cyber attack instead of taking issue with the attack itself, what's your response? how do you read that tweet? >> you know, jake, it's amazing. it just gets more and more ridiculous as we move forward. trey gowdy got it right. i would disagree with him on one small point though which is you can't go in and make demands of putin. he's not going to admit to anything. he's not going to do anything. what that argues for in terms of u.s. policy is look, we know because our intelligence

agencies, the entire -- the if you pull all of the intelligence community's assessment together and say what is the likelihood that these 12gru officers came and attacked the united states and if you just look at the panoply of things russia has done against the united states the past couple years, the appropriate response is don't have the meeting with putin. you're going to simply say that is a very, very bad thing you did and' say what are you talking about? we did nothing. so the idea, rand paul is right at least on one thing although he's missed the forest for the trees. the russians are not going to give us russians. they're simply not going to do it. given you've got a lose, lose, lose situation you're not going to get anything out of putin or russia, why give him a victory, give him the ability to stand next to the president of the united states and say look, we're a great power.

we did it. we're at the same table. it's incomprehensible frankly. >> max boot, obviously the finnish president believes there has to be something constructive that comes out of such a destructive relationship. in other words, get them talking, see whether something can change in this very, very downward spiral of dynamic. i want to ask you specifically about syria. we understand that's going to come up. you've seen all the reporting around it before this trip that somehow there's some kind of quid pro quo in which the israeli prime minister tries to convince president putin to tell president trump to let bashar assad stay, but in response, for putin trying to get iran out of syria. what is your analysis of that? and how real do you think that is even likely or possible? >> i think there this is a dangerous delusion. you're right to highlight it because this seems to be the most likely, quote unquote, deal

to come out of the summit. of course, we all know donald trump wants to walk out of any meeting saying he's achieve the greatest deal ever which has never been the case. yes, this is certainly an area where putin appears ripe for some kind of bargaining, pushed by benjamin netanyahu, the prime minister of israel who keeps visiting moscow and just there just a few days ago. the notion being that putin will somehow convince account iranians to pull back from the israeli border, maybe about 50 miles away from the border which is what the israelis are asking for. in return for that, the u.s. will do something like, for example, pulling out our 2200 or so military personnel currently in syria or in a more fanciful version which is popular in israel, perhaps recognizing the russian annexation of crimea which would be a catastrophe for the world. even if we don't recognize the annexation of crimea, this is

not a good deal because a, putin cannot force iran to do anything. yes, they are allies but iran has a very strong presence within syria and they're not going to leave syria no matter what putin says. b, why would anybody take vladimir putin's word for anything that he promises? he is an inveterate liar. eli constantly and nonstup. there's no reason to believe he would be serious and in fact, we know he's not serious because a year ago, putin and trump reached a deal on deaconfliction zones in syria which the syrian regime is now violating. one of the things we've seen recently is that iranian troops have been reflagged and reuniformed as syrian government forces. the militias on supports are now wearing syrian army uniforms. so it would be almost impossible to tell whether they are in fact complying with this deif it's made. this would be a very, very bad idea but my concern is that in fact, putin, that, trump will

think this is a great idea because it will give him an excuse to pull u.s. forces outs of syria which will be a real betrayal of our kurdish allies who currently control about a third of the country and having 2,000 troops with the kurds gives us real leverage over the future of syria. we control the oil fields. it would be a big mistake to give that up based on promises from putin he has no intention of keeping. > let's just do a quick round if i could. and just ask each one of you, if you were advising president trump and assuming that the summit is happening, the meeting is happening in a few hours, what would you want him to convey to president putin specifically about election interference and future cyber attacks? what would you specifically have him say? steve, start with you and then max. >> you're right, jake. the horse is already out of the barn. we can't stop the summit from happening although that would

have been my first advice to the president had i had the opportunity. don't have the summit. given the fact that's water under the bridge, he wants his moment, you've got to lead with that. you've got to say look, this is absolutely unacceptable what you did. i don't want it hear how you didn't do it. we have all sorts of intelligence that you did so. so this must stop. if it doesn't stop, then you need -- he will need to remind putin of the old cold war phrase mutually assured destruction. i'm not talking about necessarily nuclear attacks but the cyber equivalent of that. he needs to make it clear to vladimir putin if anything like that ever happens again, that the retribution in a cyber fashion from the united states and its allies is going to be so who are rick for russia, that he will not want to do it. there ought to be a whole bunch of other things he tacks on to that, continued sanctions and isolation. he should not take anythinging

from vladimir putin. saying how it's not true. he should make those points, drop micah and do what he said he would do with the north korean leader if necessary which is leave the room if it didn't go the way it should. what the chances of him doing any of that, close to zero i think. >> max? >> i would say that leave the room and bang the table and denounce putin is a pretty good option from the u.s. standpoint to make clear that we're not going to put up with this russian behavior. fundamentally, i think you know, trump has made a big mistake going into this meeting by suggesting that he's concerned about a relationship with putin instead of changing putin's behavior. that should be the goal. certainly changing his behavior with regard to interference in our elections has to be a top priority especially with dan coats saying a few days ago that all systems are blinking red in terms of russian interference. it's pretty interesting because the mueller indictment which came out on friday has

extraordinarily detailed information what the russianss are up to. what the mueller indictment shows is the u.s. intelligence community knows which individual gru officers were at the keyboard whether he they were hacking into the democratic national committee. this ought to worrier putin. this is a surreptitious across putin's bow. we know what's going on within the russian intelligence community. this gives credibility to what trump could say but he's not going to say but he could say you know, we know a lot more than we're letting on, including he could threaten to reveal information about vladimir putin's own ill gotten assets quildly believed to be stashed in the west. he could threaten to impose greater financial sanctions especially on putin and the oligarchs who have all this property in places like london and new york and bank accounts in switzerland and malta and

elsewhere. these are all ways could you really hurt putin where he lives and make it clear this is what's going to happen if he continues monkeying around in our elections. of course, we all have pretty much zero confidence trump is actually going to do that, right. >> max and steve, thank you so much. syria, ukraine, sanctions all of which could be on the table at the summit. analysis of what have vladimir putin hopes to gain from his one-on-one with donald trump. stay with us. in control. i need to shave my a1c. weekends are my time. i need an insulin that fits my schedule. ♪ tresiba® ready ♪ (announcer) tresiba® is used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. don't use tresiba® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar, or if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. don't share needles or insulin pens. don't reuse needles. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause dizziness, sweating, confusion, and headache. check your blood sugar. low blood sugar can be serious and may be life-threatening. injection site reactions may occur. tell your prescriber about all medicines you take and all your medical conditions.

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welcome back to live coverage from the summit in hel kinkc sink can i, finland. moments ago the trumps departing the residence of the finnish president where they had a working breakfast. next on the agenda is the actual meeting. president trump has said he's going to bring up russian cyber attacks and interference in the u.s. presidential election when he meets putin in a few hours. let's talk about this with our guests with us now west moscow bureau chief anton try noski and the economist moscow's correspondent arkady. you have some information for us? >> information, gosh, apparently putin is supposed to bring his new big car. this is big news because that

new car completely dominated his inauguration. it was basically russian media seized on this new beast which is apparently bigger than trump's. very important. also russian made. >> there's so many directs you can go with that. >> i know. and beak, this is vehicle which is supposed 0 deliver russia into sort of a bright modern future. and the entire coverage of putin's presidential inauguration was dominated by this car. because in the past, russian presidents used the mercedes and western -- limousines. but this is a russian-made car. it was almost like a russian spaceship. it's something an object of great pride. given they're going to have within to one meeting and there will nobody there, i almost wonder whether they should be -- given it's in finland they probably should be meeting in a

sauna. >> previous summits have had sauna breaks. >> this stands in my mind as entertainment. >> finland is known for saunas. they're everywhere. hotel rooms have saunas. >> the next one they do in moscow. >> even an the president here, they convert aid ship container into a sauna. >> have they. >> anton, president trump sent a tweet a few moments ago in which he blamed the bad relations of the current state of bad relations of the u.s. and russia, blamed on the u.s. this is president trump on the u.s. and on the investigation into the russian cyber attack. not actually blaming it on the cyber attack but the u.s. investigation. how is that any different from what russians are saying? >> it is in tweet form what we see on russian state television every night and what we hear from putty and pis supporters in

moscow that everything that's wrong in u.s./russian relations is the fault of the washington establishment. you see in the leadup to the summit how much the russians are playing to trump's aversion to president obama in particular. and when we hear now the talk of everything that's wrong in ukraine and can we fix crimea somehow, the russians keep saying look, mr. trump, ukraine was obama's project. hayes how one putin ali put it to me in moscow the other day. this is boep's fault and now mr. trump, you have a chance to fix it your own way. >> they see to know how to handle mr. trump. trump making no secret of how he feels about the u.s. media. now the finnish press is sending a message to the united states of how they feel details straight ahead. this is not a bed.

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if president trump passed by the music center in helsinki on his way to the talks, he'll get a message from one of helsinki's newspapers. the paper put up a sign reading mr. president, welcome to the land of free press.

will either president putin or trump get that message? christiane amanpour, i think it's fair to say that putin is far worse when it comes to respect for time frame of the press. but president trump continually attacks journalists. >> he does. this business even just his latest one calling the press the enemy of the people, obviously putin, you know, there are scores of journalists in jail. there are political assassinations of opponents and journalists. it's a whole different level. but it is a very troubling thing obviously to see the leader of the free world with the first amendment to the united states and a constitutionally guaranteed free and safe press to be under attack by their own leader. these are really, really big issues. not just because of us and our hurt feelings but it's about truth and lies and about democracy and dictatorship. no democracy can thrive and no public sphere can thrive without truth and a free press. >> thomasever son said if you had to choose between having a

government or a free president, he would pick a free press bus because that's where accountability comes from. but neither president putin nor trump represents that notion. >> no, they don't. what we're seeing now as president trump says, is it a competition. president putin sees it as a competition, too. who is going to come out of this ahead. already for president putin it's a victory. because he will be treated to a summit. there's no agenda. there's no multitalks. it's just hour or two of a meeting into no preparation, no deliverables. >> exactly. we don't know whether there will be a joint communique, whether there will be joint press availability and questions. putin will win because he will be on an equal stage with the president of the united states as kim jong-un was, as well. all the western allies especially as this comes from nato and britain where all sorts of president epithets were thrown at the alliance, will

they be able to trust that the president of the united states will hold the western alliance position as he goes into these very important talks with the principal foe right now who is vladimir putin. >> one of the questions president trump attacking the free press at his press conference in england attacking cnn, attacking nbc, attacking the sun newspaper. what example will president trump show here when it comes to respect for journalism, when it comes to respect for the fourth estate? will we see any demonstration president putin of this is what a strong leader looks like, he takes questions. he's held accountable. that is the great strength of a liberal democracy as opposed to just attacking the president and as you have noted putin obviously far, far worse putting journalists in jail, murdering them, as well. thanks so much for joining us for cnn's special coverage of the u.s./russian summit in helsin helsinki.

i'm jake tapper. >> i'm christiane amanpour our coverage continues. . . .

this is cnn breaking news. >> welcome to cnn special live coverage of the summit of vladimir putin and donald trump. i'm jake tapper. >> i'm christiane amanpour. we are a couple of hours away from the face-to-face meeting which will happen in the presidential palace. >> within the last few minutes, they put up flags, russian and american participating in a breakfast meeting with the president of finland. he was at the innato summit in brussels. nato has never been stronger. mr. trump was on twitter again taking