nation's capital, busy news couple of days. back stage we're hoping when the a couple of questions about state cyberterrorism issues. one, how will the government respond, how can the government respond to that in a way that will he tolerated going forward? and how big of an economic impact are we looking at in corporate america by state-sponsored cyberterrorism? >> the president spoke to this last night, and clearly this is a serious situation.

if i may go back, i was once part of the private sector, and as a ceo, there was a thought to the risk of business, and depending on what industry you are in or what business you are running, you think about cyber, and what you have done to safeguard your network. making sure that you have safeguarded that network is top of a ceo's list. you are constantly looking at your risks and what you can do to protect your network, it is a top priority for any ceo in this environment. the president has lead this effort, we have a single point of contact in dhs now, which did not exist before, and working very carefully with the private sector on nuclear power plants and at the same time increasing information sharing between the federal government and the

private sector. that said, we do need legislation. the president proposed legislation in 2011. congress has not acted on cyber security legislation. we need legislation that encourages information sharing but at the same time encourages protection. >> do you agree with the notion that something by the north korean government could not be ignore, it must be responded to by the government. >> i will leave it to the fbi to determine who the actor was and what the right legal steps were. >> in terms of quantifying the economic threat merkel faces from actions like this, the hollywood

community is taken aback by the decision to back down in cyberterrorism from the north koreans, in your experience as a ceo and in your role in government now, how big of a threat is this type of cyberterrorism, and are we likely to see more instances like this where state-sponsored cyberterrorists are able to achieve their goals through these type of -- >> i think the wrong focus is on the economic potential in the future, i think now the future as we said earlier, is what can we do to get ahead of this and to protect our networks? every company needs to be investing in cyber protection. we need to do what we can across the federal government, and to work with the private sector, that in order to take this to

the next level, we need legislation. >> let's talk about the cuba news a little bit. doing what he can, and talk a little bit about what he can do in terms of opening up economic ties between the two countries without congress moving forward with the embargo. >> there are duties to work mercifully in focused areas , inuding agriculture supporting residential construction. also importantly, in the opening of more broad access to the internet to cuba, which would be good for the citizens of cuba and potential entrepreneurs. these are historic move moves as part of a change in 50 years strategy that clearly needed a revisit, and as you pointed out, there are some targeted economic

opportunities. >> one place where i read it most was in "the washington post" editorial page, and they said they cuba was on its last leg, and if these liberalizations will put more money into their pocket and not really advance the cause of the cuban people, and that given time, they will advance on their own. >> after 50 years in any sector you revisit your strategy, which is what the president talked about yesterday. the president believes that yesterday's actions will lead to a more open and free cuban society. as i talked about just a second ago, there are targeted economic opportunities for u.s. companies there. >> let's talk about the russian ruble collapse and the impact as

you see it on the united states economy. and generally cover the destabilization of the russian economy and the impact it could have on the u.s. a lot of economists say that we will have minimal exposure to that. are we looking at a potential for a financial crisis to come back? >> we monitor the situation carefully. there are direct impacts in terms of our relationship with russia, but that said, the russian economy is under a lot of pressure. russia and the u.s. are working closely with our european allies to come up with solutions impact certain russian sectors, including defense and energy, and at the same time minimize

the impact of our own economy and the economy of our european allies. those sanctions have had an effect, and more importantly, they are targeted at changes at the russian leadership and its policies, that is the goal here. not to impact the russian people. who drop in crude, which is unprecedented, which i will talk in a few minutes about the positives of that for the u.s. in the global economy, that has had a negative impact on russia because of it dependent on oil and oil exports. so we are watching that market closely and we are tracking any potential disruptions to global capital markets. so far we don't see any major disruptions, but we are watching the situation closely. >> in your view on the potential

for economic growth in 2015, before we leave though, what is the nitty-gritty that has been going on in washington over the last couple of weeks, which we all know is the government ending bill that the president just signed to on the government through september without homeland security. the big question among the democratic left is, why sign that bill when it included the rollback of the part of the derivatives push out of dodd-frank? a lot of outrage on the left about that, it is a bad deal, he did not get enough in return to that, why did the president signed a deal? >> i think the bill is a compromise. it funds 11 out of 12 pieces of the government for one full year. it is really important to have

certainty in washington. if you go backwards a look at consumer confidence or business confidence over the last several years, we have had eight gradually upwards sloping line. however, we have had three or four dips. each of those dips is directly related to have occurred at the same time as a fiscal crisis or a potential fiscal crisis in washington. whether it was a shutdown or a fiscal cliff, each dip -- and if you look back over the last year or so, we have had none of those, and that is part of why we had good economic growth and we have had more job creation in the first 11 months of this year than we have had in any month since the 1990's. unemployed is down to low numbers and we are starting to see wage growth.

importantly, we avoided a self-inflicted wound here. the deal is not perfect and it is a compromise, but there is good in this deal, fighting against ebola, fighting for early childhood education, fighting for manufacturing hubs across the country, fighting to advance our position in manufacturing which create good paying jobs. there are parts of the bill that we don't like, and you mentioned that, the dodd-frank push out. that's not something we were in favor of. but looking at the whole, we thought the compromise was that are than the alternative. one alternative would have been what i just described, another self-inflicted wound on this -- on fiscal which would have , eventually led to economic issues. the other alternative could have been to kick the can for several

months on the whole of government. as we benchmark how we did at this compromise versus how we projected the other compromise would have looked like, we thought it was the right path. >> could you have said to the negotiators, this is unacceptable, take this out, and that us that bill without that in there? given that republicans seem disinclined to create a shutdown scenario. it seems that republican's endgame was to get the majority. >> i don't want to minimize that that provision in there. it was lifting up and looking at the whole situation and edge marking it, as i said, versus shutdown, which we can all agree would have been an awful outcome, but also benchmarking what would have become the default position, which would

have a short-term cr for the whole of government, which meant that we would have had to have another negotiation. i mentioned there are several good things in the full year funding bill, and at the same time some things that we don't like, the overall evaluation here, is that this bill while a compromise, was better than the alternatives. >> let's talk about the potential for some of these financial problems to reoccur next year. when you look at the dips in confidence that occurred over the last few crises, obviously you had republicans in control of both houses soon, but there were as a couple of things they came up around same time in spring or summer, you will have the homeland security meeting to be funded, there are a number of

issues that could come to a head at the same time, how do we avoid this next year when republicans are going to demand some cuts in spending in return or an increase in the debt limit. should we expect that we are discrete have more fiscal crises next year? >> i hear from businesses across the country, small businesses, entrepreneurs, how important it has been the last year in terms of economic growth, and not to have these dark clouds. and i think, and i not on what is i say this, we have learned that lesson. we are hopefully exiting a period of these self-inflicted wounds. you are right, there are some upcoming fiscal milestones, but i remain optimistic that we have learned that there are dips in confidence and we have learned that there is momentum in the

economy, as i mentioned there is job growth, and we look at our position in the global economy and the leadership position that we have, and the list that we are experiencing from lower oil prices, we are poised to have a good economic situation in 2015. i think business leaders, hopefully leaders on the hill understand the importance of doing their business and not having these unnecessary distractions to the economy. .>> let's talk a little bit about your view on the economy more broadly in 2015. it's been a series of good moves forward and a couple of steps backward because of the fiscal crises. are we at a point finally where the president can take some credit for improving our economy

that is going to be stable, and particularly in wages where we did see a faster pace of wage growth, which has been the thing that has really kept a pulse on the economy, there is a lack of income increases, are we going to see that people feel better about the obama legacy? what is 2015 going to look at from the white house? >> we did some benchmarking before and i will do it again in terms of the president's performance on the economy, if you look at our situation versus other advanced economies, we are now 8% above our pre-crisis peak on gdp, whereas europe is 10% below. -- in terms of performance. we have put more people back to work in the u.s. then europe, japan, and all advanced economies combined. so we still have more work to do, but there has been a lot of progress on the economy.

if you unpacked the 320,000 jobs that were added in october, and we look at the jobs that were added in the business sector and the manufacturing sector, and in the slow growth is in areas like retail and hospitality which tend to below are paying jobs. so the mix is very encouraging. wages.some up taken this is a several decades old problem of stale middle-class growth problems. we need to make appropriate investment in training, taking advantage of new training models that can retrain people for high-paying jobs in a very short period of time. we need to invest in our

infrastructure, and we also need to get set up for long-term competitiveness in this economy. as i mentioned, in manufacturing, we are bringing together hubs in cities across america. these hubs are public-private combinations that work with universities, and we want to be the leaders in those technologies, not only creating the technology, but also commercializing them and manufacturing them. manufacturing jobs pay 38% more than other jobs. they have great spillover effects in the community, and two thirds of developer jobs are in manufacturing. what we have here in the u.s. is important for our global competitors.

the president started these a couple of years ago, piloted them by executive action, and they have been very successful. we have now launched eight of these hubs. in the four-year funding bill, they have been made into law. >> there is a lot we can talk about. >> let's take a quick break, a lot of people here know you, and some people don't. tell us about yourself, that you are a washington area native, where you went to school, and how you got this job. >> i grew up right outside the beltway, i left to go to school at duke and then went to a company that i don't talk about

very much, bain, which is in boston. >> no hisses from the crowd! [laughter] >> one opportunity brought me back to washington. i went back into consulting for a year or so, and then got a very lucky break, and went and joined the company that already had a business formula in place. we were about 100 people. it was a company called the advisory board. years wee next 15 , turned into two companies, what one is called the advisory board, one is called the corporate executive board, and they essentially do the same thing on strategies and operations, both are located here in washington, d.c. they now employ over 5000 people

and both are independent, public companies. i was lucky enough to be the chairman of both companies when they went public. i had never stepped foot in the federal government before. i eventually walked into the office of management and budget and had never had experience with that before, so i took my private sector experience into the public sector. i have had a very lucky and interesting run. the fillet is a privilege to walk into the white house and be part of a team that is working on important issues. >> you sell yourself short i not talking about the saving of healthcare.gov, which you spent a little time working on and fixing it. speaking of that, are you please with that? >> when the president asked me to come into healthcare.gov,

with that? when the website was not working, particularly well due to a great team effort, many people from the private sector stepped up to the plate, some people dropped everything at google and came out and spent all day and all night on 60-90 days, stepping up to the plate to be the general contractor on the effort. setting an aggressive deadline we came together and we , accomplish a lot on a short period of time. there has been a step functions in terms of the website, it improves the website very well. lots of demand. 2.5 million people have already been through the site in the last 30 days or so, so that site is in very good shape and health care is in very good shape.

>> there has been some discussion as to the pronunciation of your last name, i don't know if i pronounce it correctly? >> you did just great. >> does it right with "science?" >> it rhymes with "science." >> great. >> awkward transition. [laughter] health care is such an important component of our economy. and when we look at the affordable care act, we have 10 million more people that are insured. it has cut the number of uninsured by 26%. at the same time, health care costs are going down. health care costs have been increasing for the last 50 years, so now you step back and you say simply, what was the president trying to accomplish with the affordable care act, it was to do two things: increase coverage and lower costs.

both are happening. >> let's talk about congress and stuff that is on the president's agenda. specifically, tax reform and trade deals. you have republicans running the show on both sides of the aisle, do you think there is a real prospect for corporate tax reform that would lower the top rate while closing loopholes? do think there would be a package that would be acceptable to liberal democrats? they are wary of losing revenue from operations and giving a handout to corporate america. is it realistic to think that we will see them through, or will it devolved into parsimonious acrimony? -- artisan acrimony. >> we are gearing up for 2015 and legislation, and the

president is clear that there are places that we don't agree, democrats, the president, and the republicans, there are places that they don't agree. where is the potential for the agreement and where will we be making progress to improve the economy, move the dial, for middle-class americans? if you look at the intersection of what could potentially get done and what could move the dial in a meaningful way in terms of the economy and the middle class, i think there are three things that come to the top of the list, and you mentioned two of them? one of them is a good trade agreement or a good set of trade agreements. and second is business tax reform.

third is tax reform linked to funding infrastructure. we talked about the advantages of infrastructure, it puts people back to work in well-paying jobs. it steps up our competitiveness. let me go deeper on tax reform. what makes me optimistic that we can make progress is, if you look at the president's framework, and the former chairman's framework for tax reform, there is overlap. it starts with 35%. we have the highest statutory rate. it is too high. we can bring it down by getting rid of tax expenditures. we can bring it to the 20's. both plans had that is the first piece. the second piece, right now we have a global tax system, which means that if you are operating in a different country, your tax

rate is 35%. that is one system. another system is a territorial rate, where you pay what the tax rate is in the country where you are operating. the problem with that is, it creates a rate -- a race to the bottom as countries compete to have con -- companies located there. what the president has in his framework is a hybrid system, where you set a minimum rate, and if you are paying more than that in a country, you oh nothing else. if you pay less than that, difference between the minimum rate and the rate you are paying in that country, you oh the u.s. both chairman camp and the president had this tax proposal. the third lease is, there is lots of money. estimates are up to $2 trillion, that is trapped overseas. if it comes back, it must pay at

the 35% rate. that is not good for our economy to have that distortion. both proposals have a one time all fee at a lower rate to bring money back. both proposals fund infrastructure, the long-term reauthorization of interest -- infrastructure. that overlaps makes me optimistic. these are not easy deals. there are differences in levels, the new statutory level, the level in the 20's, what level is the hybrid tax set at? getting rid of specific deductions or loopholes, each one of those has a special interest group behind it. this is not an easy piece of business, but it is important. it could bring more companies back home, and create jobs.

the u.s. is the number one place in the world, when you survey global ceos, to invest. we lost that to china for a while. if you interview ceos of manufacturing companies, 54% are looking to bring facilities here. we need to continue to create an environment that encourages that investment, that encourages that in sourcing and getting our corporate tax system up is important. >> is there a scenario in which the president could make a deal, mainly with republicans, and not necessarily bypassed democrats but get republican support on tax reform that democrats are not -- >> anything that needs to get done here needs to be bipartisan. the standard the president has is, is this good for the middle

class? is this good for workers? as part of business tax reform, funding tax structure is good for workers. we have an opportunity to extend the earned income tax credit in a way that is good for working americans. >> does the president expect to get trade promotion authority from the republican congress, and if he gets that, can he push through foreign trade deals in way that is economically beneficial to corporate america that is also raising wages? x those trade deals are done with trade promotion authority. we assume that trade promotion authority will be an early area of focus for the new congress. at the same time, under mike roman's leadership as the trade representative, there has been significant progress in the transpacific partnership. it covers 40% of the worlds gdp. this is a -- for fast-growing

countries. given our competitive advantages , and the fact that we have been rowing exports and getting a good trade agreement in place, that will create good jobs. it is also important for strategic reasons. there's an opportunity here to set the rules of engagement on labor, environment, intellectual property. the transpacific partnership gives us an opportunity to do that, and set those standards. if we do not do it, someone else will. it is important geopolitical he -- geopolitically to get tpp done. it is far along, the president had a meeting on this in china in november. 1500 meetings usdr has done on the hill. the hill is fully engaged.

at the end of the negotiation, you are down to the hard issues. what we need to get tpa done, and tpp across the finish line, in these final sets of negotiations. >> let us talk about what seems to be, and will probably arise in the next congress, tensions between progressive democrats and centrist business friendly democrats. it is centered on a couple issues. one is the swaps push out under the government funding bill. the other is the treasury secretary nomination. obviously, senator warren has come out against his nomination. a couple of other democrats have. there are a number of democrats that are incensed about the nomination. even some republicans are incensed. i want to know why you think it was a good idea to nominate an investment banker for this

particular job at treasury. what he would bring to it. and, does it unnecessarily exacerbate the tensions within the party over whether it is to close to wall street, and should move away from those relationships? >> i have gotten to know antonio over the last year. he is an incredibly talented individual with great values. i think he has very relevant experience. when you are putting together a team for a company, you think through a broad set of experience and skills and talents. the same applies in government. when we have our team at the national economic council, it is the same thing. with the treasury, you need people from different backgrounds, people with academic grounds, people have served in government before,

maybe some people who have not served in government before, to bring a new perspective. people with business and financial experience, lawyers. i think antonio is a great member of the treasury team. that team does have an overall set of backgrounds. to bring 20 years plus of wall street and financial experience to the treasury is valuable. i hope he gets a fair hearing. >> is it true that some within the administration -- that treasury now, you don't have that broad experience in financial markets, particularly position when overseas, 18 trillion in u.s. debt, a good percentage of that is publicly held. there is a lack of understanding in financial markets at the treasury right now, high -- a lack of high-level expertise and relationships of people who buy our debt and management of the debt. that spot where there is a hole in experience. >> i think it is a very talented team with a lot of experience. they have been through a lot. they can handle any situation

that might arise. that said, having some buddy with antonio's experience and talent and commitment would be a great addition to any team. >> i want to take a twitter question. somebody asks, when the next bill, will that be a cost of doing business? where does that drop the line? there is a concern of people who are protective of dodd frank's financial industry decisions. the derivatives shout is the first in what will be a series of changes in the law beneficial to wall street that is potentially damaging to the long-term safety and value of the system. the first inc. in the armor. >> that will not be the case. the president will not allow for dodd frank to be watered down.

we have made a lot of progress. there is now 500 billion dollars of additional capital. we are must less reliant on short-term funding. the derivatives market is much more transparent. there are much higher margin requirements. we will continue to push hard on dodd frank. the president will not allow that to be watered down. >> there are significant dodd frank changes that would water it down? i want to talk about your relationship with business and wall street, there was a lot of criticism in the first term that the obama administration did not have rate relationships of corporate america, and no emissary that could speak to ceos and away that you do.

do you view that as a rule -- your role when coming in? what is your schedule like in terms of talking to executives and having dialogues with the private sector? >> i came into my job at the office of management and budget when the charter was to improve government operations and productivity. when you think about the private sector, year after year, productivity gains of one and a half percent or 2%, that compounds over a few decades to a major improvement. productivity is both cost, meaning cost per unit, and improving service quality. those are correlated. there is not a great measure of productivity in the sector. the gains are probably about one third of the gains of the private sector. we have the private sector, with

these productivity gains, and the federal sector, like this. that creates a productivity gap. our job is to close the gap. we all know it is always incorrect to lead with technology as the answer. technology has been at the center of productivity gains, and therefore closing the productivity gap, technology is central to that. with that goal of closing the gap and getting better technology in my first role, i put together a board of advisors coming from the private sector who are leaders in technology and productivity. that has helped to bring corporate best practices into government to close the productivity gap. in my current role, we are all about, how do we create more well-paying american jobs? in business, and you have a

problem, revenue is not doing what you hope will do, the first thing you do is kick your team out the door and say, go talk to customers and suppliers. visit new countries. in many ways, businesspeople on the front lines are customers. they are creating the jobs. it is really important for all of us in government to be very close in touch with business leaders, entrepreneurs, medium-sized and small business leaders, to understand, what are we doing that is working? so we can keep doing it. what are we doing that is getting in the way, and how can we fix that? what are -- opportunities are we missing? i am disciplined in my own scheduled to make sure we are interacting with the folks on the frontline, creating jobs and well-paying jobs for the american middle class. that is our goal. >> how much does that schedule take you to new york? walk us through a typical day or week and the life of jeff

zients. >> it is a long day. it starts early and ends later than i would like. the best way to think about it is, meetings, either one-on-one or small groups, a couple weeks ago we were at a business roundtable. 10 to 15% of my time is meeting with ceos and aunt burners -- entrepreneurs. >> do you think those relationships have improved in the second term doing administration and private industry in a way that you can see? >> we will not always agree. i talked earlier about, there will be areas where we do not agree with republicans, but that does not mean we cannot work together. there will be areas and

decisions the president will make on regulation or executive action that not everyone will agree with. i think we are in a good space as far as our communication goes, getting esteem back and explaining policies. communications and inputs are good. we have a good working relationship with businesses. >> a few other twitter questions. why hasn't the white house addressed congressional concerns about currency manipulation under tpp? will that get worked on? >> the currency is the view of the treasury department. tell me about -- >> are you a big duke fan? do you go to the games?

>> i am a duke fan. i grew up a redskins fan. i find that more difficult these days. >> tell me about it. >> hopefully there will be better days ahead. >> we have a question here in the front. >> you spoke about tax reform is one of the issues that could make the dial on the u.s. economy. republicans in congress have suggested that any improvement in the u.s. economy and tax reform should be reflected through dynamic scoring and tax changes.

what is your view? >> one place we agree is, business tax reform should be revenue-neutral. therefore, not cost -- have any impact negatively on the federal budget, or we are looking to raise revenue. we are not believers in dynamic scoring. i feel this is not the time to change the rules. let's engage in business tax reform in a revenue neutral way. let's not change how we score the budget. >> another question, in the back. >> one of the surprises in this congress was the inability to reauthorize the terrorism insurance act. do you have a thought about where there will be a lapse? do you see changes, and will that spur congress to move quickly or will they drag it out? >> this is terrorism risk insurance.

this was meant to be the last piece of business before the senate left town. we were disappointed it was not. our assumption and desire, when congress comes back, is that they make it one of their first pieces of business. so we do not have a significant gap. >> is there a possibility that, if there is a gap, and the gap is filled by the private sector, there could be a program that was not necessarily needed? or are you convinced it is essential? >> i don't remember the exact count, it was in the 90's in the senate. this is the right thing to do. congress should of been -- done it before they left town. >> today president obama holds his end of the year press conference at the white house. topics are expected to include cuba policy, combating isis,

ebola, and the presidents immigration executive order. we will have that live at 1:30 p.m. eastern, here on c-span. on the next washington journal, gordon chang on what is next for north korea's leader, kim jong and and the company system -- the country suspected involvement in the cyber attack on sony. on unmannedion aircraft and safety regulations. the u.s. census bureau and kristin more talk about the bureau's recent report on the well-being of children in the united states. we will take your calls and you can join the conversation at facebook and twitter. washington journal, live at 7 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> this month this the 10th anniversary of our sunday primetime program, q&a.

we're featuring an encore presentation of one q&a from each year, highlighting authors, historians, journalists, and leading public policy makers. can as feinberg's interview on the september 11 victim compensation fund, the importance of the african-american experience to u.s. history, robert novak on his 50 years of reporting and watch it. from 2008, the value of higher education in america. from 2009, conservative commentators. a decade of compelling conversations. 22-26 at 7 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> next, a defense department briefing on efforts to combat the terrorist group isis. army lieutenant general james spoke to reporters for about 30 minutes.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> good morning, everybody. i won't make this long, but i wanted to welcome lieutenant general james terry, the commander of the combined joint task force, operation inherent resolve, our anti-isil efforts. i want to welcome him to the briefing room. this is his first briefing in this new command with you all, and we're delighted to have him here. we're going to keep this to 30 minutes. the general has a short opening statement. i will be moderating from over here, calling on you. please, when i do call on you, identify who you are and who you're with before you ask your question, so that the general knows who he is talking to. and i would ask you to please limit follow-ups if you can so that we can get through as many people as possible. so again, we've got 30 minutes from the time -- from the time we start. thank you. with that, general? >> thanks, john. good morning, everyone, and happy holidays to each of you out there. as many of you may know, we recently established the combined joint task force operation inherent resolve. it's a headquarters of more than a 40-nation coalition that is

designed to integrate our collective military capabilities to defeat isil, or as i have picked up in the regional vernacular "daesh". the fact that we have so many nations united in this mission i think is really significant. various countries will contribute national capabilities on different timelines. the strength of this team is in our common purpose. and what unites us is a strong resolve to combat this threat. daesh is why we are here. daesh uses terror and fear to dominate people and reward themselves. it has demonstrated time and time again a disregard for life and humanity. it has also openly stated intentions to apply its trademark barbaric methods not only regionally, but globally as well. while we recognize the ruthlessness and capability of this enemy, we also realize that

the strategic advantage and tremendous strength of the coalition will ultimately lead to the defeat of daesh. the combined joint task force operation inherent resolve is a subordinate command of centcom under general lloyd austin and we have three foundational priorities. first, we will contribute to build and maintain the coalition. the combined joint task force provides an organizing framework that is designed to synchronize and integrate capabilities and amplify our efforts. forty-plus nations contributing to this effort provide a strategic advantage through which we intend to harness the collective strength of all those that are involved. second, as a coalition, we will relentlessly pursue daesh in order to degrade and destroy its capabilities and defeat their efforts. up to this point, we have conducted more than 1,300 airstrikes. in fact, i just checked before coming in. it's 1,361. many of you may be following recent events from two nights ago in support of iraqi security

force operations around sinjar and zumar -- 53 precision strikes that have resulted in allowing those forces to maneuver and regain approximately 100 square kilometers of ground. combined efforts like these are having a significant effect on daesh's ability to command and control, to resupply, and to conduct maneuvering. we will continue to be persistent in this regard and we will strike daesh at every possible opportunity. also the coalition will work to deny daesh safe haven and to deny sanctuary. we will do this not only through precision strikes, but also by enabling our partners to expand their footprint and expand their influence, remove the opportunities for daesh to manipulate youth, harm citizens, deny basic services and recruit fighters. the key is assisting the

government of iraq in improving their security forces, which, after 16 military combat operations are regaining their confidence and proving more capable every day. while several places remain contested, iraqi security forces have retaken many critical areas. examples include mosul dam, haditha, baiji, muthanna, karma, rabiya and zumar. that leads us to our third priority. as a part of the broader diplomatic, intelligence, military and economic effort, the coalition will enable regional partner security. iraqi security forces must be a capable force, one that can restore iraq's sovereign borders, retake territory from daesh, and secure the iraqi people. an offensively minded and trained security force backed by an inclusive government of iraq is the key to future stability. as you know we have been authorized an additional 1,500 u.s. personnel. they will serve in noncombat roles to support additional advise-and-assist requirements,

and the building capacity partner effort. in addition, we anticipate coalition contributions that should produce at least an additional 1,500 personnel in these efforts. we're seeing initial successes in this fight. my assessment is that daesh has been halted in transitioning to the defense and is attempting to hold what they currently have. you will see some local counterattacks in that regard. there will be challenges down the road that will require patience. the government of iraq understands the great threat they face, and they are resolved to defeat it. the combined joint task force represents what i believe is a new chapter of what i assess will be a successful campaign to bring the coalition's power to bear and ultimately lead to the defeat of daesh. thanks for your attention, and i will now take your questions. >> general, thanks for doing this. lita baldor with the associated press. i'm wondering if you could explain a little bit more about some of the coalition forces you expect to be coming in. do you -- are you looking for more than 1,500?

and when do you expect to see some of those forces start to move in? and, although iran isn't, obviously, one of those coalition forces, can you talk a little bit about what you are seeing from iran's air operation? is it consistent? is it sporadic? and is it a help? >> let me get started with the coalition. part of the coalition is obviously already there, so the 1,500 in addition that i'm speaking to are additional capabilities in a relationship to advise and assist in the build partner capacity side. and so, what we -- what we will look at then is how we balance those capabilities as the -- as the coalition comes in, in relationship to the requirements that we see in iraqi security forces, where we have to advise and assist, and where we need to create some of that additional

capability in those forces so that over time they become increasingly capable. as you heard me discuss there, i think the key to success out there will be increasing the capabilities of iraqi security forces, and combining that with an inclusive government. i think that's the key to success down the road. at least, it leads to stability inside of iraq. i see the same reports you see on iran. obviously, iran has interest in iraq. i don't think any of us deny that. what i would tell you is that all of my activities are focused on daesh and that i coordinate those activities by, with, and through the minister of defense and his offices in iraq. so i don't -- i don't directly coordinate with anyone outside the coalition in iraq. >> jamie? >> jaime mcintyre with al jazeera america. two quick questions. one is, is there any way to quantify how much ground has

been retaken from the isil rebels? and then a more broad question, we're told that the key to -- to iraqi forces standing up and fighting is for them to feel that their government is more inclusive and less corrupt. can you give us any idea of what the progress on that is? and also, can you explain this new name that you've given isil? >> daesh is a -- it's a term that our partners in the gulf use, and in fact, it's -- it's -- it speaks a name that's very close to isil in -- in arabic, and it also speaks to another name that means to crush underneath the foot. and so, you know, it's -- it's a regional acronym for -- for daesh. and i would just say that our partners, at least the ones that i work with, ask us to use that, because they feel that if you use isil, that you legitimize a

self-declared caliphate, and it actually -- they feel pretty strongly that we should not be doing that. so i'll slip back and forth every now and then, isil or -- or daesh. i apologize. the other piece is? >> so is there any way to quantify how much ground has been retaken, or territories were retaken? and what about progress on more inclusive government? >> yeah. i would -- i would say the -- the way i look at the progress is more in line with the effects that we're -- we're having against daesh. as -- as an example, we are not seeing a broad offensive movement like we saw in may and june and even into july. i mean, we've -- my headquarters has -- has really been there since about the july timeframe and moving to a cjtf later in the september-october timeframe. and so that broad offensive

becomes important to daesh as they try to gain territory and populations for the caliphate, the self-declared caliphate. and so what that allows them to do then is message, and that's one of the things that they do well. i think we're all familiar with that. and they do it in two ways: it becomes attractive to some populations out there, so that they can recruit, and i think the -- we know they intentionally do it then to create some fear inside the minds and the perceptions of some of these populations. and so a large part of countering that ability to message is the fact that, you know, broadly, i see them as transitioning to the defensive piece of this. you will see some local counterattacks, and again, some of these areas will be contested. again, i would just say it takes some patience as we continue to build the iraqi security forces out there. and then there -- as a

transition like this, it provides an opportunity for iraqi security forces specifically to become more offensive in nature that now starts to uncover daesh and certain capabilities and allows us to strike them. so i would just broadly characterize it as that and say i think they're having a hard time in terms of communicating right now, in terms of resupply. and we're seeing indications -- you -- can go to the social media and see some of the stuff that's coming out of places like mosul in relationship to the inability of the self-declared caliphate to govern populations out there. >> general, i wonder if you could talk a little bit about mosul. there were reports that iraqi forces want to take mosul sooner rather than later. what's your estimate when the iraqi forces can retake mosul? what will the u.s. element be on the ground? general dempsey's talked about jtacs.

and also, you said several places are still contested. what are those places? >> okay, that's about four questions. so my georgia public education -- let me start with mosul. and that -- specifically, you want to know about conditions inside mosul or -- >>when do you think iraqi forces can retake it? what will the u.s. role be may be -- >> right. >> maybe on the ground? >> we -- we continually, you know, 24/7 work -- work with the iraqi security forces. a large part of that goes into the planning, but also part of the planning has to be how you generate force to do operations. up -- up -- up to this point, the iraqi security forces have been challenged with continual redistribution of forces out there, is i guess is the best way to say it. so now how do you get into a place where you can generate some capability, pull some units back so that you can make them better, and then now start to

put those against operations down the road in a more campaign plan like fashion. i don't want to disclose any timelines, but certainly i think part of the build partner capacity effort that we're doing right now will certainly play into resourcing those capabilities and move the iraqi security forces forward. two places, not -- not just mosul, but, you know, you ask about contested places. there are places in anbar that are certainly contested. the reports i'm seeing certainly indicate places like ramadi are contested. the center of ramadi is, i think, is being cleared and secured in a lot of ways by the iraqi security forces, but the east and the northeast part of it still contested as an example. we have some contested places in and around baiji right now. i think we can expect that as -- especially as iraqi security forces continue to conduct some more of these offenses operations and -- and daesh's

ability then to -- to counter that at the tactical level will create some of the contested spots. >> phil stewart with reuters. quickly, how -- when do you think that 1,500 u.s. force, additional forces will be in place? and -- and on the issue of national guard, i heard a report this morning -- i don't know if it's true -- but describing fears that that plan is, you know, entirely on hold, that it wasn't going to stall entirely. what -- what are you -- what's your estimation about the national guard plan? >> still 1,500 iraqi national guard. the -- the -- the 1,500 i think we'll start see flowing in a, you know, couple of weeks. but what -- what you need to understand is we're not -- we're not waiting on those 1,500. we've actually used some of the forces and capabilities that are there, like the regional force from the army and the special purpose magtf that's there in the region. that's what they're there for, provides general austin a lot of flexibility to react, a lot of

operations like we're seeing up in iraq. so, they are starting to move forward and have moved forward in many cases to make sure that we are preparing the -- the sites out there. we've got the -- we've got the legislation moving through that gives us authorities to train. and we want to be ready, and i -- we certainly will be as the iraqis now start to designate in a deliberate way which units now will go to those partner capacity sites, either pull them out of the line somewhere or creating new capabilities out there. second question again? guard? >> national guard, again, as many of you realize, we've got this initial tribal

5,000-bridging strategy that the department of state is working directly. and of course, all these activities go through the government of iraq. so we've got the initial 5,000 started; 250 trained and contracted; more coming to do that. and again, this is iraqis. we -- we participate with the iraqi security forces in training them on how to train, you know, this initial tranche of capability there. that's important because for this program to be successful, i've firmly assessed that it has to be done by the government of iraq. now, over time, then, there are several versions of legislation, as i understand it. i talked to ambassador jones last -- the 14th, before departing. there are several versions of that language that have to go before their council of representatives to be approved. but i am -- i'm optimistic that it is going to go through.

there are many that see this as a way to not only bring those tribes back in, the national guard piece, but also to bring some of those ungovernable militias back in also. >> general, thanks for your time this morning. i was hoping you could clarify how airstrikes are being conducted without any jtacs on the ground in most cases. and also how you assess civilian casualties in those cases, if at all. >> let me -- let me start with the civilian casualty piece. you know, the coalition is really very deliberate about how it conducts strikes out there. we -- we have some great capability in terms of precision. what's in the balance here if you're not careful is you can be precisely wrong. you could strike, you know, tribes. you could strike iraqi security forces. and you could create a very bad situation. to date, we've got a very good

record. i am tracking no civilian casualties. where we -- if we even suspect civilian casualties, we would immediately direct investigation, determine the cause, and then seek to understand the lessons learned from that and apply those lessons learned. so, that's the -- the civilian casualty piece of this, and again, a very, very deliberate process. and the second question? >> how you're working without the jtacs. >> so, it kind of reminds me of back when i was a lieutenant and a captain. and it starts with a good operational scheme of maneuver on the part of the iraqi security forces. what that helps you do, then, is to understand the concept of control measures and graphics on a map. it allows us then to track iraqi security forces and understand where they are.

and we have capability in the form of isr platforms that we can actually, with that understanding of where iraqi security forces are, can actually see -- see daesh's capabilities on the ground. what we have done through our advise and assist teams, and again, these are typically at the operation centers, as an example, the baghdad operations center or the jazeera operations center, you know, as might be an example down the road, or with some of these division headquarters that are out there. but, certainly, they're backing something we call the combined joint operations center, which is at mod. and we also have another one that works up in irbil. and so, we bring the right people into that to actually help us identify units, and then what we call deconflict of fires and the clearance of fires, so there are iraqis in the process when we do all this.

>> thanks. general, justin fishel, with fox news. >> so, why hasn't the vetting process of the syrian rebels begun now, three months into this? and does the u.s. would consider the kurds to be its allies? and if not -- if so, why not arm, do more to arm them directly? gen. terry: so, the syria train-and-equip piece is what you're specifically asking? >>yeah, that's the first part. gen. terry: you know, i think part of that has been, this one is not

cleanly in my lane, and i'd -- well, i'll have to punch you back up to centcom in some ways here. there is -- you may be aware, there's a separate task force being established to actually handle the train-and-equip peace. i would just tell you, i think a large part of that has been getting the legislation right to get the authorities and the funding to do a lot of -- a lot of what you're talking about. >>and, the kurds, are they u.s. allies? and why not do more to arm them directly? >> again, i'd have, i would have to defer you back up to state and back up to centcom on that particular one. they are considered our allies, and i think in a lot of ways we are enabling them. when you look at the strikes have been going on in places like kobani and some of the other places, i'm pretty comfortable that we are supporting them right now. >>hi, missy ryan, washington post. >>hi, thanks for being here. just two quick questions. on the airstrikes in syria, could you just give us an update on what's going on with the khorasan group? there was a spate of airstrikes against them, and there hasn't been for a while. are they effectively a debilitated organization? and, secondly, you mentioned the bridging strategy with the 5,000 tribesmen, and 250 trained. can you give us any additional

detail on that? who's doing the training? where are these people being drawn from? and when you say 5,000, what does that mean? are those people who have been identified, but not yet trained? thanks. >> so, syria first? okay. the khorasan group was your question. >>yes. >> okay. my focus is daesh, and where we find violent extremist organizations, we will -- we'll continue to work that effort in terms of precision strikes. i -- i hesitate to give you any type of affect achieved on those groups out there. whenever we do that, we always wind up with them re-creating themselves someplace and creating problems for us. and, again, my principal focus in syria is to, while we are working iraq first, is to make sure that we shape that deeper fight out of there in terms of sanctuary in some places, in

places like raqqa, so that it has an enduring effect on what we're doing in iraq also. second question was? >>if you could just give us any additional details, and who's training, who they're training -- who the trainees are. >> the -- and, again, these -- this gets executed through the government of iraq. there is -- as we see the isf conducting operations, not -- not only in -- in anbar but in some of the places in salah al-din, as an example, and nineveh. a lot of these tribal members are wanting to come together and participate. and so how the iraqi government pulls those in over time, like i said, is going to be -- going to be pretty critical. and i -- and, you know, exactly what their approach is in relationship to that, they're trying to link it to assert the campaign plan in relationship to

a concept of operations. and so i'd -- in terms of sequencing that, i'd like to not answer that, because we might probably give away some -- some capabilities there. >> tony, go ahead. >>sir. hey. tony capaccio with bloomberg news. what heavy weapons does the iraqi security force need that they don't have now? apparently, you mentioned this to secretary hagel when he was there last week. did he articulate what they needed? what's your understanding of what they need, what they don't have now to pursue major offensives. >> yeah -- and again, i'll -- i'll answer it. i'd defer you for further question to the office of security cooperation who works that particular challenge there. one of the things that we're trying to do is we get in certain places then and advise and assist, is how do we now get an advise-and-assist team that starts to look at what you actually have on hand in

relationship to getting visibility of those heavy weapons and capabilities that are out there. a large part, i think, of their challenge there right now is -- is repairing what they actually have on hand. and my -- my -- my kind of basic answer to you is we're going to -- we're going to try to help them baseline that, especially as they -- as they start to bring units into these build partner capacity sites and then give them a little bit more accurate picture of potentially what they need out there. >>okay. so bottom line is they don't really know what they need to think they do, but you're going to help them decide what they need. >> we're going to help them see themselves in this effort, and then let them determine them. again, we work with the ministry of defense directly. we'll give him an assessment and let them determine what it is that they need. thank you. >>general jim miklaszewski with nbc news. what progress, if any, is being made in the reawakening of the sunni awakening? are -- are any of those sunni tribal leaders being convinced that the iraqi government that they felt betrayed them is now an alternative to isis control?

and -- and is that absolutely key to defeating isis in iraq, to have the participation of those sunni tribes that were so critical in war in iraq in u.s. operations there? >> jim, i hesitate to call it an awakening. i would just tell you that the -- the tribal piece of this i -- i think is coming around, and we see more and more of it everyday. the difference between now and then is that the government of iraq is in charge of the program, and i think that is an essential point in relationship to the future. and so i see a lot of opportunity out there, especially as the isf conduct operations in places like anbar, for the government of iraq to -- to reach out and contact some of these tribal elements and some

of the tribal fighters that you're very familiar with and then bring them back into the side of the government of iraq. >>initially, though, they were reluctant to rejoin -- to create any alliance with baghdad, which they felt had betrayed them. can you somehow quantify in any way the progress that may or may not be being made? >> let me back up a little bit -- just remind everyone here that, you know, this -- this current government is i think a little over 100 days old. and they've started several initiatives out there, one of which is this kind of tribal outreach, tribal engagement; one of which is this national guard piece that they're trying to move the legislation through the council of representatives to do that. i would just way that what -- what i see in relationship to bringing some of those tribes around that i think is going to be important to not just the fight, but long -- long-term enduring stability, that the

conditions are getting better for that every day. i see the current prime minister at least moving in that direction and we'll continue to support them and encourage them to bring the rest of those that want to come to the side of the government of iraq, support them to bring those around. >> we're going to take a couple more. joe? >>general, this is joe tabet with alhurra. four months of airstrikes against daesh, and that group is still in control of large parts of syria and also in iraq. when do you think your mission will reach a turning point in the fight against daesh? and also, how do you assess daesh influence along the syrian-lebanese border? >> okay. i -- i would just tell you, i think we're in, you know, some patience in relationship to turning daesh. they have proved to be resilient. and again, as i look at it from

a military standpoint, you know, the first -- the first strikes were, what, 8 august? and so this is december. what's that? four months. i think we've made significant progress in halting that offensive that i talked about, the ability for them to continue to expand, you know, in terms of terrain and geography out there. i think what we must do, especially inside of iraq, is continue to build those capabilities. i think you're at least talking a minimum of three years. now, that -- that doesn't mean we haven't started turning daesh in a certain direction. and that's going to be the power of the coalition. not only from a military perspective, but how do you apply all those elements of -- of national power, along from the different nations, along those lines of effort that have been laid out out there.

so i hesitate to give you a time, but i'll show up in six months and you'll ask me why we haven't gotten there. i think a lot of it, i see the conditions for it right now being set for a pretty stable environment, but i still think we're, in terms of building some of the capabilities that are required there, probably about three years down the road minimum. >> what about the daesh influence along the syrian-lebanese border? >> the syrian-lebanese border? you know, certainly daesh has a desire to expand. i am not -- i'll have to get back to you on that one. in terms of influence, you're talking ability to enter and exit lebanon or influence the population? or specifically, what are you asking? >>they do exist along the border. >> on the border -- right. >>since your mission is to

defeat daesh anywhere. will you be willing to strike them in that area? >> inside syria, where we see daesh, and we have an ability to target them, we will conduct precision strikes. >> last -- and one last question. gopal. >>gopal ratnum reporter with foreign policy magazine. during a visit of secretary hagel, one of the things that the iraqi prime minister asked was an increase in air strikes. and just yesterday, there was a big spike in the number of strikes that were reported by the task force. why is the iraqi prime minister asking for more air strikes? and is that something now that you're agreeing that they do indeed need more air strikes? >> i -- i would have to ask you to ask the prime minister that question in relationship to -- to why he's asking.

my answer to it would be simply this, when the iraqi security forces plan operations, conduct those operations, we plan to support them, as i've described here today in -- in terms of delivering those precision fires. and again, we're very conscious of any collateral damage, civilian casualties. and again, i -- my assessment is we've been very effective in delivering those fires. and i think we've -- i think we've got it just about right. the key here is building the capability inside the iraqi security forces, give them an offensive mind set, and we'll continue to strike and be effective. >> okay, everybody, that's all the time we've got. >> thanks . >> here's a look at some of the programs you'll find christmas day on the c-span networks. holiday festivities started 10

a.m. eastern on c-span with the lighting of the national christmas tree, followed by that white house christmas decorations with first lady michelle obama, and the lighting of the capitol christmas tree. then celebrity activist talk about the causes. then supreme court justice samuel alito and former florida governor jeb bush on the bill of rights and the founding fathers. on c-span two at 10 a.m. eastern, venture into the art of good writing, and at 12:30, see the feminist side of a superhero in the secret history of wonder woman. authors talk about their reading habits, and on american history tv on c-span3 at 8 a.m. eastern, the followed the berlin wall, with c-span footage of president george bush and bob dole, with speeches from presidents john kennedy and ronald reagan. at noon, fashion experts on first lady's fashion choices in how they represented the styles of the times in which they live.

tom brokaw and his more than 50 years of reporting on world events. that is christmas day on the c-span networks. for complete schedule, go to www.c-span.org. >> gordon chang on what's next for north korea's leader, kim jong-un. and the countries suspected involvement in the cyber attack on sony. the discussion on unmanned aircraft and safety regulations. more laughlin and kristin talk about the bureaus recent reports on the well-being of children in the united states. we will take your calls so you can join the conversation at facebook and twitter. washington journal, live at 7 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> today the brookings

institution hosted a discussion on the military health care system with jonathan woodson. live at 10 a.m. eastern on c-span two. >> this week on q&a, katie pavlovich on what she perceives as the hypocrisy of liberals on their war on women rhetoric. what is your problem with ted kennedy? >> the idea where the book came from us when they were showing this tribute video for trading him as a women's rights champion, when he left the young woman to drown in his car. if he had not gone back for nine hours and try to save his own behind, she would have probably survived. you can't do an entire video at

a convention claiming to be preaching and fighting about the war on women and glorify someone like that while not including that part of his life in a video about his women's rights record every click sunday night at eight eastern and pacific. to mark 10 years of q&a, were erring one program from each year, starting december 22 at 7 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> russian president vladimir putin took questions on relations with ukraine. russia's economy, amid fears of a currency crisis, and you sanctions imposed by the united states. this warship came to us courtesy of the english language channel, russia today. came to ussion courtesy of russia today. >> distinguished colleagues, i'm glad to see you all here. in a good mood.

the desire to ask questions, as we did last year, i will begin by telling you about some results of our work for the year , and then i will try to answer your questions. thing is, and the main the economic parameter, the growth of the gdp. beenhe last 10 months, has 0.7 or maybe 0.6%. yesterday we had a meeting with my colleague and we made the figure more precise. the trade balance surplus has grown by our team .3 billion be $148.4rs to

billion. after last year we have had some increase in our industrial production. for the last 10 months the growth was 1.7%. the level of unemployment is quite low. it was even less than 5% before, now it is about 5.1%. the agro industrial complex is continuing to develop. at year-end, its growth will be 3.3%. we had aow, this year record harvest, 104 million tons of grain. despite all the turbulence on

the financial markets, the federal budget this year will be a profit in it. that means income will be higher than spending five 1.2 trillion rubles. .hat's about 1.9% of the gdp the outcome of the year in the social sphere is a positive mcgrath the dynamic. the natural growth of population for the last 10 months was 37 point 1000 people. the death rate is decreasing now in the birth rate is increasing, which is a very good trend. and of course we must do itrything in order to keep

up. as we promised, we are continuing to index the amount of capital. ,408 rubles.as 429 we have achieved and even parameterse target of the salaries in 10 categories of employees for the 2014, we're speaking about teachers at schools, professors at mediumities, senior and and junior medical staff, doctors, etc. -- since the first of february by 6.5% and by 1.7%

since april. have paid a lot of attention this year to increasing the combat capacity of our armed forces. i will not name all the things here, just the social parameter. , 11,700 military servicemen of the ministry of defense have received permanent 17,300 servicemen have received their corporate housing. that's 100% of our annual plan. these have been some figures, and some words about the current .ituation i believe that all of us understand that the main question of today, which is of interest to the citizens of our the state of economy,

the national currency, and the future development of the situation in the social sphere in this regard. to describeriefly the situation to you and to say -- to inform you on my opinion on how it will develop. after that i believe the press conference will be finished. if you have some questions to guide me, i will try to answer those. of course, the situation has been provoked by external factors. we believe that a lot has not which we by us, of our companyefining for the last few decades. it was quite difficult to do everything. into account the favorable economic situation

when the money was invested by business to the areas with the maximum and quick rough it's. it was quite difficult to remove the mechanism. today the situation has changed, as you know. for an economic factors are influencing it. first of all, i'm speaking about the oil price which is followed by the gas prices well. i believe that the central bank and the government are taking adequate measures in the current situation. of course there are questions to the government and the central about the timeframe of these measures, whether they are timely. but on the whole, the direction is correct. yesterday's and today's increase of the exchange rate of the foreign currency and

growth of the cost of the ruble will maintain. is that possible? yes. whether oil prices will continue too.ll, that is possible, what are we going to do about this? we're going to use the measures which we use quite successfully , and in this situation, we will have to focus our attention on assistance to people who do need it. i would like to highlight that alleed to keep or maintain our plans parameters social issues and problems. first of all, i'm speaking about of thesions, salaries budget employees, etc. of course the situation may develop in an unfavorable manner and we will have to make some

adjustments to our plans. of course we will have to reduce course, and i of would like to highlight that, as first the growth of the global economy will maintain -- i'm speaking about the rates of growth or slowing down but the economy will grow and our economy will overcome the current situation. how much time is needed for that? i believe about two years, in the worst scenario. i repeat that after that growth is imminent, because the economic situation will change and growth of the global economy will need additional energy time,ces, but for the

which i have no doubts about, we will be able to do a lot in divers find our economy because life itself will be making us do that. we wouldn't be able to function and survive otherwise. ,o on the whole, and i repeat it is imminent we will fulfill all our social obligations based on the existing reserves which and theythank god, have even grown this year. i will remind you that the are $419ank reserves billion in the central bank is , whichng to waste them is correct, and there is also the government, the national welfare fund and reserve fund have wrong this year by about 2.4 trillion dollars -- 2.4

trillion rubles. the total amount of the reserve rubles.rillion i believe we will diversify our economy and it is unavoidable and imminent that the situation will become normal. with this, i would like to finish the introduction. we may finish the press conference as well, but if you have questions, i will answer them. >> this year i would like to begin with those who have been working for the whole year together with the president. -- ild like to begin with floor to the doyenne who has been working with the president for many years.

>> i would like to ask you, there is a deep foreign currency crisis now. how do you think for the two years which you have mentioned, we would go through a financial and economic crisis? there has been a lot of criticism during the black monday and tuesday, there has been a lot of criticism for the government. do you agree with the criticism? >> i said that in the most unfavorable scenario of the economic situation, that it would last for about two years. not abelieve it is necessary scenario because the situation might improve earlier. it might begin improving in the

first -- in the middle of the next year or the end of next year. no one can tell that for sure. of factors of uncertainty exists there. as far as the central-bank activities are concerned, i do not take i could call the situation of crisis, or you may call it whatever you want him a but i believe that i said quite andrly to the central bank government on the whole are acting correctly and adequately to the situation existing. things --that some the criticism his voice from the experts as well. i believe some actions could , but ien made quicker quickness must be the dramatic approach which the central bank and the government

is doing. raised a key interest rate, and i believe this rate for allt be raised those difficult circumstances linked with the foreign economic situation, but in this or that way, i believe the economy will adjust. why am i optimistic? because the economy will adjust theife and work in conditions of the low fuel prices. low oil prices. this will have tacit this will happen. quickly suchis how adjustments will take place, prices will remain low or be even lower than $60 or $40 per barrel. the figure doesn't matter here. the economy will structure itself, how quickly it will do difficult to say, but

it will happen, and i would like to highlight it. what is the central-bank doing? what does it have to do and what is it doing -- what else is it doing? in order to stabilize the we mightcurrency, squeeze out liquidity a little bit. we might give access to the participants to the currency -- foreign currency liquidity. the rate own currency is 0.5. the central bank must see we musthave to act read not give away our reserves and not waste them in the market, but we must keep the low resources to people and the central bank is doing that. one of the tools is the so-called repo, which happens that they give alone to a month,

year, a week, or a day. this is returnable money which gives an opportunity to use the currency resources. it must be done a bit more quickly. course i hear the criticism for the central-bank and the president of the central-bank. criticism might be grounded or not, but the government must not forget about its responsibility either. you must work with the same exporters which have good currency benefits. the chairman of the government lets the leaders of our largest companies, and there are some results that have come from this meeting. of course some of them, are many of them need to a their loans -- pay their loans, and need to think about the situation in their companies, because a

company just as a citizen always thinks about how to save something for the worst times, etc. it is the correct economic behavior or not. economic logic shows it is not, but the companies are doing that nevertheless. we see there are still positive results for them, and we need to take some other measures. i mean the government. what am i talking about? talking about fighting inflation , but there are some things which we have mentioned publicly , or when we met with the government, which must be matched by the government. for example, fuel prices -- i mean the gasoline prices, food prices. this has to be tackled by the government. you must work with that manually. you should monitor it every day and every week you should meet

the producers, the market participants, trade networks, retailers, the oil companies which have monopolized our market. actions should not intrude with the inner confidence of the central-bank in the government, but the coordination must be there. it should be timely. forgetwhole we mustn't that the policy is adequate. it is not under the central-bank which is responsible for the economic situation in the country alone. >> first of all, i have something to say. mr. putin, i think a lot of us have been waiting for your press conference now and everyone was

thinking what was the mood of mr. putin, because the mood of the country depends -- thank you for your optimism. we hope that everything will be as you said. now to my question, since 2008 we have been speaking about --ng away from the rebuilding and restructuring our economy and making it more efficient. the current situation shows that we are still on that oil needle and we do not know how long we will remain there. what do you think? will we be able to use the , inent crisis for good order to restructure our economy -- of course i understand that it would not be done quickly, but still.

second, in your address to the federal assembly, you have a number of benefits for the business and, for the economy, and you understand that the main danger in russia is stalling of like the implementation of correct decisions, including the decisions of the president. that yourre now thoughts and decisions which you expressed in your speech will be implemented this time, and this optimism will be confirmed with real steps? thank you. with can only be sure when we have insurance. in this case we can only assure ourselves by implementing the

right economic policy and having economic reserve on issues. this could make us feel confident. that is what i can tell you. some colleagues here from the european union -- you realize that in our country bureaucracy is nothing compared to the european union. democracy is not the main problem. saide beginning when i [indiscernible] the press conference could be over, it was not meant to be a joke. problem -- the thing is [indiscernible] no matter what the government to tax order to ensure

and regulate in the non-commodity sector. we do not have enough market resources to implement those reforms. for many years now we have been facilitatemprove and improvement of the sector. it is especially difficult when you can get more process -- about 80% of requests the government a not related to investment in technology areas. for a chance to produce energy theurces, but you know when economic conditions get , [indiscernible]

we will have to face them difficulties and deftly have to address some social issues and to fulfill our social .bligations the decree signed by the president in 2012, i suppose you can benefit from the situation in order to diversify our economy and create beneficial conditions for businesses. i do hope that today's economic situation will help us to move forward. could you please make your questions shorter so you can putinnd -- listen to mr. longer. 2012,the beginning of your pre-election articles have been present -- transform into

, youresident's decree describe the current situation and quoted mr. gorbachev that russia is focusing. what you think is happening to the country at the moment? what do you think the country is doing? concentrating or our is it trying to just relax finally? what you have to do is to work. nothing has basically changed in this regard, and as i just said, , tocurrent conditions further continued their reforms. what you had to do is to work. usernal conditions only make work more. what we need for the future of our economy is to create favorable conditions and a

friendly business environment. we also have to guarantee property rights. we have to stop using law enforcement to punish everyone. we have to stop using those tools as tools of competition. we also have to work on our provideal sector and focus on the areas that require more attention. we have been doing that for quite some time already. we have also provided for tax holiday's. enterprisesto those

that were not criticized for any violations of tax law. what you have to do is go on concentrating and to take practical actions. >> we recently celebrated the fall of the berlin wall. there are many restorations [indiscernible] this is an anniversary year where we are witnessing building a new wall, not a concrete wall, but a wall of mutual suspicion.

, where dour forecasts you think this trip will take us? world are can we do anything to restore cooperation? you just mentioned the berlin wall fell and what you're -- i'ming at the moment going to answer your question and hope that you will agree with me. in yourself are an expert our relationship with germany. after the berlin wall fell, did was a natos there expression? it is a virtual wall.

this is the problem, no one talks. stopnvolvement did not [indiscernible] what we had to do was exercise more pressure. building newstop walls, in spite of spite of all our attempts and gestures. we wanted to work together in europe and in the world, and i in situations like to ukraine crisis, and the best ways to stop building those and start building a single, united human space.

i would like to give the floor to our colleague from ukraine. to shortike to ask questions, please. the first question is about the operation organized in the east of our country. the operation was intended against the russian speaking up election. that russianecret militants are fighting there. how many of them did you send their? how many russian militants did you send? how many people died? and you, being that commander in chief, what do you say to the widows and families of those who died? a man named victor is hiding in

the territory of the russian federation. prison -- at the .oment the number one in his party is , andng in a russian prison at least 30 more ukrainian war prisoners are serving their terms in russia. >> let me start with your second question and then i will definitely answered your first one as well. [indiscernible] is position on the issue absolutely transparent.

the journal it -- that me emphasize that the journalists who died here did not take part in any military action. , and it is theed responsibility of every state structure including the military to provide for their health and security and to give them a chance to fulfill their professional duty in order to .isseminate the information it is what is accepted everywhere in the world. however, those people were .urdered targets?ted them as if during the investigation we that she was

guilty and she took part in the , then i believe that the russian court will take the right decision and she will serve the sentence accordingly. at the same time, in advance, no one can claim this person is guilty of committing any crime, especially keeping in mind the presumption of innocence is in force in our country. so we will see what the investigation will discover. troops, theyher are serving their terms in prison and there is a pretrial on their cases. they are suspected of terrorist activities.

my answer to the second part of your question. now let's go back to the first question am i thinking about who is responsible for what. in our country, and russia, and presidenteaking, the is held accountable for everything. as for the troops, as for their destiny, the commander-in-chief is responsible for that. people who by their own will want to fulfill their duty and voluntarily take part in some military action including in the east of ukraine are not mercenary. and our public opinion, what has taken place in the east of

organized definitely by the ukrainian authorities and not by anybody else. this is not the militia of the those are the ukrainian army who moved there shelling system to the southeast of ukraine. let me explain what the problem is and how we can find a way out of the situation. the problem is that after the coup d'état, no matter what you said about it, it was definitely a coup d'état that happened in kiev. overthrow.rceful instead of starting a political dialogue, the new authorities when it didn't--

work out, they sent the army. that didn't work out either, and they started to apply other methods. blockample, the economic and the cutting off of economic ties. this is unacceptable for the , they are ready to participate as mediators and we hope we can start a political dialogue and use political means to restore the space. let us continue. >> vistaprint and, what is going on in our economy -- mr. putin.

this is how we have to pay -- to preserve our nation, to maintain our state. offering the question of your colleague, i mention that after the berlin wall fell, and i already mentioned that we but what we open, saw was that they directly supported terrorist in the caucus. i'm not going to go into details , but everyone his fellow -- very well aware of their actions. no matter what we do, they are always against our actions.

remember how enthusiastic they were about the olympics. what we saw -- against themselves. i don't know who wanted to do that and why, but that is what we are witnessing all the time. . quoted an example the thing is that if we go on , and this islogies what comes to my mind. bear should just sit and relax

and eat honey instead of hunting animals. what they're trying to do is chain the bear his fangs and claws. this is how it is working at the and we could even hear that from officials saying that -- but how can they say it is unjust? to snatch texas from mexico but it is unfair that we are working on our own land no, we have to share.