about syria. they're about 2,000 american special force in syria. they have been fighting against isis. they have been working with kurdish allies. happen to those american forces in syria. president trump has said in the past he wld love to see them go. he thinks they are at risk. they thinks u.s. involvement in syria in the middle east in general is -- has played its course, ando it's time wrap it up. i've spoken to military commnders. i've b with those troops in syria. they believe their presence is important, vital to kee up pressure on isis, and they say that our kdish allies would be betrayed if we left them at this stage and handed over the country to russia or some combination of russia and syrian control.

>> it is a beautiful, warm day here in helsinki, finland, the capital of finland on the gulf of finland, a place not -- that has hosd internation conferences of this sort before, kristen. that's ght. this is seen as sort of a diplomatic bridge between the u.s. and russia. this i the location of past meetings betwe u.s. presidents and russian leaders, including u.s. president bilclinton back in 1997 and george h.w. bush in0 who met with gorbachev then. this iseen as neutral te territory and neutral ground. this is important, and the ambassador can speak to this as well that the day started out with president trump having breakfast with the president of finland. it was a way to sethe tabl set the stage, and i think to sort of strike that diplomatic tone. n i'll let you weigh on that, ambassador. >> that's right. you always have to have that bilat before the big meeting, and it does have a cold war overtone to be back here in

helsinki, but i think from everything, the indications we've seen the big difference will be back then our leaders met during t cold war. people have to remember our leaders met all the time, but theyever tried to be friends with soviet leaders. they oftentimes pushed back, sometimes summits were confrontational events during the cold war. that's not what i suspecte're going to be seeing here today. >> richard engel, what about that? the assumption is a summit is always a good tng. is that the case? >> reporter: well, i think that's what you're going to hear president trump say time and me again, and he's already said it a few times, that we should be friends. isn't it a good thing if he has a good r ationship with vladimir putin. after all, the two are traditional adversaries and two have nuclear weapons. what's wrong with a president sitting down with a russian lead? and frankly there is nothing wrong with it, but you have to -- that's what presidents do. they meet with their friends. they meet with their vals, but you have to look at the -- this europeanlmination of a

trip that on the first leg of the trip he cticized and undermined nato and then he stabbed one of his closest friends theresa may in the back help. criticized germany, and now he's going out of his way to meet with vladimir putin, and when you look at it in that context, it is not simple police just having a meeting with an adversary to try to make the world safer. it is thet meeting t comes on he end of a series of criticisms, a series of calling into questions the basic tens of the world order that has kept the united states in its position of power reallyhe for last 50 years. >>hallie, i hate to be the person in the back seat saying are we there yet? you know what the delay is here? we were told it was just a couple of minutes. >> reporter: lester, we don't know what the delay is, but ere was acomess, a bit of one in the room, as you may have seen. we're being toldhere is a journalist who was asked to

leave, to talk out of the area ewhere are. he said he was from an organization called thehe natio. id not answer questions as to whether or not he had the credentials to be here but obviously he got into the room. two peoplecame, escorted him out. his things, his personal belongings are still in the room, and -- and we are working to figure out why exactly he was asked t walk out. this is worth noting, lester, because of what we have seen with journalists in russia, with members of state media, with members andeople whoave been critical of leaders in the past, the president himself, president trump just on his way to the summit in helsinkied twe again calling members of the media enemies of the people. er have no idea if this is connected to be clear. so i'm going to try to find out why exactly this gentleman was taken from the room, and we'll let you know as soon as we know. >> appreciate that. peter alexander standing by at the white houseow peter, you we talk a lot about the president and what he may do and his foreign policy.

do his statements though necessarily jive with what is happding on the gro at the state department, at the defense dehertment? are different levels of his policy working almost in >> yeah.? lester, that's been most striking from the president. sort of cozyrelationship, his language as he speaks with russia and vladimir putin this morning just predicting that the president, the u.s. in efft and russia would have an extraordinary relationship is what he says is far askew from what we've heardho thro his administration. the director of national intelligence dan coates recent days said we saw the blinking red lights after the indictments came out about the russian military intelligence interfering ng in, in the u.s. election. what's been striking to hear from this president, among other hings, is what he has said has been out of step with traditional presidents. he's focused so muchn having is good relationship, but as you look at the live pictures,

lester, i'll send it back to you. hallie. go to >> let me explain what's going on in the room. the journalist from the nation is being forcibly removed. he said he was told he had a sign, a malicious item as he described i and then held up a piece of paper that said nuclear weapon ban.er are now one, two, three, four members escorting him outr of the mem forcibly. you can see they have their hands on him physically, trying to move around the cameras that are in the room and being walked out at this pnt. is has not happened in a press conference obviously in the tr he is now being walked out of the room, lester. so as he leaves, we areo going work on finding out where exactly he is going. let me just recap what happened. two people walked in and asked this journalist to come with them for what he described as iquestioning. s from, again, the nation. those -- thatir journalist f refused. it was a bit of a standoff, still calm and still and you probably saw some of the video there.

he returned into the room. he had left his personal things ou there, and when i asked him, sir, can y explain what happened, what did they wantlk tao you about? he said they have told me, they say i have a malicious ite h they claim ie a sign. he then pulled out of his backpack, lester, a piece of paper, 8 x 10 piece of paper that hadar nuceapons treaty ban. we'll get to that v aeo in moment and was sort of holding it up as members of the media were beginning to take pictures. i just wanted to askibout it. just wanted to ask about it. that's the point when the commotion reallyte esca and you saw those what i believe are agents come in. there's somebody now t aing getting this gentleman's personal belongings, his laptop, his phone, hck ck has all remained in the room, and you can see now thispe on, this security person is walking out this man's personal belongings, because this is remarkable in a word, lester. it is not clear how these members tf security knewt this man had some kind of a piece of paper or sign in h backpack, and, again, the sign

said nuclear weapon ban treaty. he was holding it facing forward, so i don't know if there is anything on the back of that piece of paper, lester. you might know based on the but about, s here, again, the room as you might now is now buzzing. it's not clear if that specifically was the reason for this delay, but i will tell you that in a room with maybe a couple hundred journalists there's onlyne empty seat, maybe two, and it's where that gentleman is sitting it's a packed room, and he's now been physically removed. we had had, as you noted, that two-minute warning, which is an indication at any moment the u.s. delegation would have been filing in followed by both vladimir putin and donald trump. clearly we are way past that, so now i imagine there will be a time for the room to settle and then get on with this incredible highly anticipated event. >> the sign said nuclear weapons ban treaty. let me ask you how these things typically work. the american reporters, are they in a separate area froru the ian reporters, or is it

first come firstserve? >> reporter: typically, and i'm going to try to step back, lester, for a moment.s the u delegation is walking in. typically -- >> we see the first lady. >> reporter: so the camera folks can get images. typicall we're all comingled and all come up together. this was a particularly chaotic way of filling the media room. the yptailsally don't matter in that the press gets in the room and that's the most important at this point though almost immediately after that gentleman was escorted out, you can see y the first l walking in along with the rest of the u.s. delegation. we see obviously the topse ad to president trump, including the national security adviser who are filling the ow front three as well as the russian delegation. it's an indication, lester, we're about to begin any moment. >> yeah. the ambassador with the delegation there, they will be paying as close if not closer attention to the journalists in the >> this is where they will make news, where the president of the united states can make policy. what he says is binding, and

they hope he says what they think is policy. >> they don't want to hear a surprises. >> yeah. a, they don't want surprised, and b, as you were talking earlier. there's a big disconnect in the trump administration about policy towards russia. seems like the whole administration has one policy which is rher confrontational. >> it is tougher. >> but the president doesn't seem to agree with it, and today we'll learn who makes policy. >> so the two presidents, we expect to come out any moment. we're watching that door. seen the american delegation come out. i' i not clearthe russian delegation is seated at this point, but they will take questions from -- from russian and american journalists who are gathered in the room. we want have some sense of what happened. we noted there was no agenda, and here is president trump and prt putin. >> thank you so much. >> distinguished mr. president,

adies and gentlemen, negotiations with the president of the united states donald trump took place in a frank and business-likephere. i think we can call it a success and a very fruitfu round of negotiations. thearefully analyzed current status of the present and the future of the d russia-uniates relationship, key issues of the global agenda. ar to everyone that the bilateral relationships are going through a complicated stage, and yet those impediments, the current tension, the tense atmosphere essentially have no solid reason behind it. the cold w is thing of the past. the era of acuteog ideal confrontation of the two countries is a thing of remote past and vestige of the past. the situation of the world changed dramaotcally. today russia and the united states face a whole new set of osallenges. include a dangerous

maladjustment of mechanisms for maintaining international security andbi sty. regional crises, the creeping threats of terrorism a transnational crimes. it's the snowballing problems in the economy, environmental risks andther set of challenges. we can only cope with these challenges if we join the ranks and work together. hopefully we will reach t s understanding with our american partners. today's negotiaons reflected our joint wish, our joint wish with president trump to address this negative situation in the bilateral relationship. outlined of first steps were improving this relationship to restore the acceptable level of truffle and going back to the previous level of indirection on all mutual interestssues. as major nuclear powers, we bear special responsibility for

maintaining international security. and it's vital, ande mentioned this during the negotiations, crucial that we fine tune the dialogue on strategic security and global security and none proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. submit our american colleagues with notes and a number of specific suggestions. we believe it necessary to work together further to interact on the disarmament agenda, military and technical compilation. this includes the extension of the strategic offensi arms limitation treaty. it's a dangerous situation with the global american anti-missile defense system. it's the implementation issues with the imf treaty and, of course, the agenda of non-placement of weapons in space.

we favor the contie efforts in cyber security and maintain security. i would like to point out our services are cooperating quite successfully. e most recent example is their operational cperation within the recently concluded world football cup. in general, the context the special services should be put to a systemwide basis, should be brought to systemic framework. i reminded president trump about the suggestion to re-establish the working group on anti-terrorism. we alsoentioned a plethora of regi regional crises, not always that our positions dovetail and we have to look for points of

context and move forward jointly. clearly we mentioned the regional crisis, for anin, syria. as far as syria is concerned, the task of establishing peace and reconciliation in this country could be the first showcase example of a successful joint work. russia and the united statesre aply can act proactively this sume leadership on issue and organize the interas to overcome humanitarian crises and help refugees to help go back to their homes. in order toccplish this level of successful cooperation in sya, we have all the required components. let me remind you of that. both russian and american militacq havered useful experience of coord flakes of their action, established the operational channels of communication whicho permitted avoid dangerous incidents and nt uninnal collisions in the air and near the gund.

also, crushing terrorists in the southwest of syria, the south of syria, should be brought to the full compliance with the treaty of 1974 about the separation of forces, separation of forces of israel and syria. this will bring peace to golan heights. and bring more peaceful relationship between syr and israel and also to provide security to the state of israel. mr. president paid special attention to the notiations, and i would like to confirm that russia is interested in this development and thus will act accordingly. thus far, we will makte a toward creating a lasting peace in compliance with the respect of resolutions of the security council, for example, resolution

338.t we're glad the korean peninsula issue is starting to reatlve. to a g extent it was possible thanks to the personal engagement of president trump who opted for dialogue instead of confrontation. you know, we alsoti med our concern about the withdrawal of the united states from the jcpoa. our u.s. counterparts are aware of our posture. let me remind you that thanks to the iranian nucdear , iran became the most controlled country in the mirld, sed to the control of iaea and effectively ensures the peaceful nature of the iranian nuclear program and strengthens the non-proliferation regime. while we discussed the internal ukrainian crisis we paid special attention to the bona fide implementation of minsk agreement by kiev. at the same time, the united

states could be more decisive in nudging the ukrainian leadership and encourage it to work activelyai and more attention to the economic ties and economic cooperation, clear that both countries, the business of bo countries are interested in this. american delegation was one of the largest delegations in the st. petersburg economic forum. it featured over 500 representatives from american businesses. we agreed and president trump, we agreed to create the high-level working group that would bring together captains of russian and american busines after all, entrepreneurs and businessmen know better how to articulate this successful business cperation. we'll let them make their proposals and suggestions in this regard. onceruagain, president

mentioned the issue of the so-called interference of russia in the american elections, and i had to reiterate things i said several times, including during ts, that the cont russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into internal american affairs, including electio process. any specific material, if such things arise,dye are r to analyze together, for instance, we can analyze them through the joint worng group on cyber security, the establishment of which we discussed during our previous contacts. andlearly the past time that we restore our cooperation in the cultural area, in the manitarian area. as far as i think you know that recently we hosted the american congressmen delegation, and now

it's perceived and portrayed almost asri an his event, although it should have been just a current affairs, just business as usual, and we mentioned p theposal to the president. we have to think aut the practical tis of cooperation and also about the russian o logic it, and we have to engage experts on bilateral relationships who know history and the backound of our relationship. the idea is to create an expert council inclung political scientists, prominent diplomats and former military experts from both countries who would look for points ofct con between the two countries, that would look for ways on putting the relationship on the trajectory of growth. in general, we are glad with the ouome of our first full-scale meeting becauseou prey we only had a chance to talk briefly on international fors.

we had a good conversation with presidentrump and hopefully we'll understand him better and i'm clearly grateful to donald for that. clearly there are challenges left where w were not able to clear all the backloss, but i think that we mad fst important step in this direction, and in conclusion, i want to point out thit atmosphere of cooperation is something that we are especially grateful for to our finnish hosts. we're grateful for finnish people and finnish leadership for what they have done. i know that we have caused some inconvenience to fin and we apologize for it. thank you for your attention. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> thank you. i haveclust ced a meeting with president putin on a wide range of critical issues for both of our countries.

we had direct, open, deeply productiveog di, went very well. before i begin, i want to thank the president of finla for graciously hosting today's summit. president putin and i were saying how lovely it was and what a great job they did. i also want to congratulate russia and president putin for having done such an excellent job in hosting the world cup. it was reall one of the best ever, and your team also did very well. it was a great job. i'm here today to continue the proud tradition of bold american diplomacy. from the earliest days of our a republicrican leaders have understood that diplomacy and engagement is preferable to conflict and hostility. a productive dialogue is not only good for the united states and goodor russia, but it is good for the world.

the disagreements between our two countries are well known, and president putin and i discussed them atay length t but if we're going to solve many of the problems facing our world, then we're going to have to find ways to cooperate in pursuit of shared intn ests. too of both recent past and long ago we have seen the consequences when diplomacy is left on the table. we have also seen the benefits of cooperation. in the last century our natioug alongside one another in the second world war, even during the tensions of the cold ked much the world l different than it does today, the united states and russia were able maintain a strong dialogue, burr o-- but our

relationship has never been worse than it is now. however, that changeds of about four hours ago. i really believe that. nothing would be easier politically than to refuse to meet, to refuse to engage, but that would not accomplish anything. as president i canno make decisions on foren policy in a futile effort to appease partisan critics or media or democrats who want to do nothing but resist and obstruct. constructive dialogue between the united states and russia forward the t opportunity to open new pathways towards peace world.bility in our i would rather take a political risk in pursuit ofeace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics. as president i will always put what isest for america and

what is best for the american people. during today's meeting i addr wsed directlyh president putin the issue of russian interference in our elections. i felt this was a message best delivered in person, spent a great deal of time talking about it, and predent putin may very well want tot address and very strongly because he feels very strongly about it, and he has an interesting idea. we also discussed one of the most critical challenges facing humanity, nuclear proliferation. i provided an update on myet g last month with chairman kim on the denuclearization of north korea, and after today am very sure that president putin and russia want very much to end that problem. gousg to work with and i appreciate that commitment. the president and i also

discussed the scourge of radical islamic terrorism that both russia and the united states have suffered horrific terroris attacks, and we've agreed to maintain ope communicati between our security agencies to protect our citizens from this global menace. last year we told russia about a planned attack in st. petersburg, and they were cold.o stop it they found them. they stopped them. there was no dou about it. i appreciated president putin's phone call afterwards to thank me. i alsomp emphasized thetance of placing pressure on iran to halt its nuclear ambitions and to stop its campaign of violence throughout the area, througho the middle east. as we discussed at length, the crisis in syria is a complex

one. cooperation between our two countries has the potential to save hundreds of thousands o lives. i also made clear that had the united states will not allow an to benefit from our successful campaign against isis. we have just about eradicated isis in e area. we also agreed that representatives from national security councils will meet to follow up on all of the issues we addressed today and to continue the progresse have started right here in helsinki. today'seeting is only the beginning of a longer process, but we have taken the first steps towards a brighter future and one with a strong dialogue and a lot of thought. ourre expectations grounded in realism, but our hopes are grounded in america's desire for

friendship, cooperaon and peace, and i think i can speak on behalf of russia when i say that also. president putin, i want to thank you again for joining me for these important discussions and for advancing open dialogue between russia and the united ates. our meeting carries on a long tradition ofiplomacy between russia, the united states for the great good of all, and this was a very constructive day. this was a very f constructiv hours that we spent together. it's in the interest of bh of our countries to continue our conversati w, and have agreed to do so. i'm sure we'll be meeting again in the future often, and hopefully we wi solve every one of the problems that we've discussed today so, mr. putin, thank you very much.

>> now the journalists will have a chanc to ask two questions, two sets of questions each. first the russian journalist will ask a question and please give youraffiliation. >> good afternoon. y name is alender meskov, interfax agency. a question for president trump. during your recent european tour you've mentioned the implementation of the northstream 2 pipeline makes europe a hostage to russia and you could free europe from this by supplying american l & golut this winter actually showed that the current model, current mechanm of supply of fuel to europe is quite viable.im at the same as far as i know, the u.s. had to buy even russian gas forboston. i have a question. ideamplementation of you

has a political tinge to it or a practical one because there will a gap formed in the supply and demand mechanism and fst it's the consumer countries that will fal into the great and before mting with president putin you called him an ard versery, rival, and hoped to bring this relationship to a new level. >> i called him a competitor and a good competitor he is, and i think the word competitor is a complement. i think thawi w be competing when we talk about the pipeline. m not sure necessarily that it's in the best interest of germany or not, but that was a decision that they made. we'll be y competing, as know. the united states is now or soon will be, butnk i t it actually

is right now the largest in the oil and gas worl so we're going to beli s l & g and compete with the pipeline and i think we'll compete successfully and there is an advantage. i just wished him luck will, i did. i discussed with angela merkel in pretty strs,g to but i also know where they are all coming from, and -- and they have a very close source, so we'll see how that all works out, but we have lots of sources now, and the united states is much different than it was a number of years ago when we weren't able to extract what we can extract today, so today we're numbene in the world at that, and i think we'll be out roere competing very ly. thank you very much. >> ifma i i'll throw in my two isn't. we talked to mr. president including this subject as well. we areware of the extent of

president trump, and i think that we as a major oil and gas power and united states as a major oil and gas power as well, we can work together on regulation of international markets because neither of us is actually interested in the plummeting of the -- of theic , and consumers will suffer as well, and the consumers in the united states ll suffer as well, and the ailed gas production will suffer, because beyond a certain price bracket it's no longer profitable so produce gas, but -- nor we are interested in driving prices up because it will drain from all other sectors of the economy so we do have space for cooperation here is the firstn thing and t about the northstream 2. mr. president voiced his concerns about the possibility of disappearan of transit

through ukraine, and i reassured mr. president that rsia stands ready to maintain the transit. moreover, we stand ready to extend this transit contract that's about to expire next year in case if theiste between the economic entities dispute will be settled in the stockholm court. >> the first question from the united states goes to jeff mason from reuters. >> thank you. mr. president, you tweeted this morning that it's u.s. foolishness, stupidity and t eller probe that is responsible for the decline in u.s. relations in russia. do you hold russia at all accountable for anything in particular, and if so what would you consider them that they are responsible for you? >> yes, i do. i hold both countries responsible. i think that the united states has been foolish

i think we've all been foolish. we should have had thise dialo a long time ago, a long time frankly before i got to office, and i think we're all to blame. i think that the united states now has stepped forward along with russia and we're getting together and we have a chance to do some great things whether it's nuclear proliferation in terms of stopping, have to do it. ultimately that's probably the most important thing that we can be working on, but i do feel that weave both made some mistakes. i think that the -- the probe is a disaster for our country. i think it's kept us apart. ated.kept us sep thereto was no collusion at all. everybodit knows and people are being brought out to the fore. so far that i know virtually none of it related to the a campaign they will have to try really hard to find somebody that did relate to the it was a clean campaign. i beat hillary clinton easily

and frankly we beather, and i'm not even saying from the standpoint. on that race, and it's a shame that there can even be a little bit of a clo over it. people know that. people understand, it but main thing, and weed discu this also is zero collusion, and it has had a negative impact upon the relationship of the two largest nuclear powers in the world. we have 90% of nuclear power between the t countries. it's ridiculous. it's ridiculous what's goi on with the probe. >> for president putin, if i could follow up as well. >> why suld the americans and president trump believe your statement that russia did not tervene in the 2016 election given the evidence that u.s. intelligence agencies have provided, and will you consider extraditing the 12 russian officials that were indicted last week by a u.s. grand jury? >> i'm going to let the president answer the second part of that question, but as you

know the whole concept of that came up perhaps a little bit before, but it came out as a reason why the democrats lost an election which frankly they should have been able to win because the electoral college is much more advantage for democrats, as you know, than it isoepublicans. we won the electoral college by a lot, 306-223 i believe, and that was a well fought -- that was a well fought battle. we did a great job, and frankly i'm going to let the president speak to the second part of your question, but just say it one time again, and i say it all the time. there was no collusion. i didn't know the president. there was nobody to collude with. ere was no collusion with the campaign, and every time you hear all of these 12 and 14 and stuffo that has nothing tod frankly they admit these are not

people involved in the campaign, buto the average reader out there, they are saying, well, maybe that does -- it dorngesn' involved,the people some perhaps told misstories and in one case the fbi said there was no lie. w ther no lie. somebody else said there was. we ran a brilliant campaign, and that's why i'm president. thank you. >> as to who is to be believed and who is to not be believed, you can trust no one. where did you get this ideat hat presidump trusts me or i trust him? he defds the interests of the united states of america, and i do defend the ierests of the russian federation. we do have interests that are common. we are looking for points of coreacts. there issues where our postures are diverge, and we're looking for ways to reconcile

our differences, how to make our efforts more meaningful. we should not proceed from the immediate political interests people's e certain powers in our countries. we should be guided by facts. could yo name a single fact that would definitively prove the collusion. this is utter nonsense. just like the president recently he asked the public at large, and the united states had a certain perceived opinion of the candidates during the campaign, and there'sothing particularly extraordinary about it. that's a usual thing. president trump whe was a candidate he mentioned the need to restore the russian-u.s. ip relation and it's clear that a part of the a rican society felt sympathetic about it and different people could express their sympathies in ,fferent wa but isn't that

natural? arn't this natural to be sympathetic t a person who is willing to restore the rey,tionship with our coun who wants to work with us? we heard the accusations about it. as far as i know this company hired american lawyers, andhe accusations don't have a fighting chancen the american courts, so there's no evidence when it comeshe actual facts, so we have to be guided by facts and not byor r now, let's get back to the issue of the 12 alleged intelligence officers of russia. i don't know the full extent of then, situatut president trump mentioned this issue, and i will look into it. so far i c say the following. off the top of my head. we have an existing agreement between the united states of america and the russian federation and a treatyhat

dates back to 1999, the mutual asstance on criminal cases. this treaty is in ful eect and works quiteie effly. on an average we initiate about 100, 150 criminal cases upon requests from foreign states. for instance, last year there was one extradition case upon te request sent by the united states, sos treaty has specific legal procedures. we can offer that the appropriate commission headed orney by special a mueller, he can use this treaty as a sole foundation and send a formal and official request to us so that we would inter or hold the questioning of these

individuals w he believes are privy to somerimes and our enforcement are perfectly able too the questioning and send the appropriate material to the united states. moreover, we can meet you halfway. we can make another step. we can actually permit official representativesstf the united es, including the members of this very commission headed by mr.mueller, we can let them into the community and theyse c be p for this questioning, but in this case there's another condition of this. these kinds of efforts should be mutual w ones. th would expect that the americans would reciprocate and they would question officials including the officers enforcement and intelligence service of the united states whom we believe are -- who have something to do with illegal o

action the territory of russia, and we have t the presence of our law enforcement. for instance, we can bring up mr. browder in this particular case, business associates of mr. browder have earned over $1on mil in russia. they never paid any taxes, neitr in russiaor the united states, and yet the money escaped the country. they were transferred to the united states. they sent huge amount of money, $400 million as a contribution to the campaign of hillary clinton. that's their personal case. it might havelegal, the contribution itself, but the way the money was earned was illegal so we have reason to believe that some intelligence officers these nied and guide transactions so we have an

interest of questioning them. that could be a first step and we canlso extend it. options abound, and -- and they all can be found in an al appropriate l framework. >> did you want mr. trump to win theelection, and did you direct any of your officials to do that? >> yes, i did. yes, i did, because he talks about bringing the u.s.-russia relationshk to normal.he i think can be three questions from the russian pool. you have the floor. >> thank you so much. good evening to everyone. my name is ilia petrenko, rt-tv channel. . president, would you please go into the details o possibly any specific arrangements for the u.s. to work together with

russia in syria if any of these kind oarrangements were made today ordi ussed? >> police question to president putin, tince we brought up issue ofba fo, several times i asked -- i use the football language. mr. ppeo mentioned that when we talk about the syrian cooperation, the ball is in the syrian court. mr. putin, inou russian is it true, and how would you use this ft of havin the ball? well, i'll geth guess i'll answer the first part of question. we've workel with isr long and hard for many years, many decades. i think we've never -- never has any one country beennloser t we are. president putin also is h israel, and we both spoke with

tabe ahu, and they would like to do certain things with respect to syria having to do with the safety of israel, so in that respect w absolutely would like to work in order to help israel, and israel w working with us, so both countries would work jointly, and i think that when you look at all of the progress that's been made in certain sections with the eradication of isis, we're about 98%, 99% there, and other things that have taken place that we'vene and that frankly russia has helped usn withertain respects, but i think that they are working with israel is a great thing and creang safety for israel is something that both president putin and i would like to see very much. one little thing i might add to is the helping of people. helping of people because you have such horrible -- if you see, and i've seen reports and i've seen pictures.

i've seen just about erything, and if we can do something to help the people of syria geto back i some form of shelter on aanitarian basis, and that's what the word was earlier. humanitarian basis. i think that both of us would be very interested in doing that, and we are. we will do that. thank you very much. >> excuse me, but for now noec ic agreements, for instance, between the militaries? >> well, our mies do get along. in fact, our militaries have actually gotten along probably better than oural polit leaders for years, but our militaries do get along very well and they do coordinate in syria and other places, okay, thank you. >> yes. we did mention this. we mentioned the hanitarian track of this issue. yesterday i t discusseds with french president mr. macron, and we reached an agreement that

together e withopean countries, including france, we will step up this effort. on our behalf we'll provide military cargo aircraft tode ver the humanitarian cargo, and today i brought up thi issue with president trump. i think there's plenty of things to look into. the crucial thing here is that huge demd of refugees are in turkey, in lebanon,n jordan in the states that border or are adjacent to syria. if we help them, tha might create pressure on the europeans states, and the drop will be i many fold and believe it's crucial from many points of view, humanitarian point of view, from the point of vancouver helping people, helping the refugees and in general i. agr i concur with president our militaries cooperate quite

successfully together. they do get along and i hopey that tll be able to do so in future. we will keep working in the russia, turk i and iran which informed president trump about, but we do stand ready t link this effort to the so-called smallroup of states so that the process would be a broader one, a multi-dimensional one and so that we ll be able to maximize our fighting gather the ultimate success on the issue of syria, and speakinu the -- having the ball in our court insy a. president trump has just mentioned that we've ccessfully concluded the world football cup. speaking of the football actually, mr. president, i'll give the ball to you and now the

ll is in you court. all the more that the united world cupl host the in 2026. >> that's right. thank you very much, we do host it, an we hop we do as good a job. very nice. that will go to my son barron. in fact, melania, here you go. >> okay. >> the final question from the united states will go to jonathan lamire from the ap. >> thank you. a question for each president. president trump, you. fir just now president putin denied having anything to do with with the election interference and every u.s. intelligee agency said russia did. my first question is who do you believe? my second question is would you now wit the whole world watching tell president putin, would you denounce what happened in 2006 and would you warn him

to never do it again? >> so, let me just say that we have two thoughts. you have groups that are wondering why the f never took the server, why haven't they taken the why was the fbi told to leave the office of the democratic national committee? i've been wondering that. i've been asking that for months and months, and i've been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. where is the server? i want to wnowre is the server and what is the server saying? with that being said all i can do is ask the qstion. my people came to me, dan coates came to me and some others. they said they think it's russia. i have president putin. he just said it's not russia. i will say this. i don't see any reason why it would be, but i really do want to see the server, but i have -- i have confidence in both parties. ihaeally believe this will probably go on for a while, but

i don't think it can g on without finding out what happened to the server. what happened to the servers of the pakistani gentleman that worked on the dnc? where are those servers? they are missing, where are they? at happened to hillary clinton's e-mails? 33,000 e-mails, gone. just gone. i think in russia they wouldn't be gone so easily. i thinkt's a disgrace that we can't get hillary clinton's 33,000 e-mails, so i have great confidence in my intellince people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely a stro powerful in his denial today, and what he did is an incredible offer. he offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people.t' i think t an incredible offer, okay. thank you. >> i would like to add something to this.

after all i was an intelligence officer myself. and i do know how dossiers are made up. just a second. that's theirst thing. thing. second i believe that russia is a democratic state, and i hopere yo not denying this to your own country. you're not denying that united states is a democracy. do you believe that the united states is a democracy, and if so if it is democratic state, conclusion in this kind of dispute can only be delive ad by trial, by the court, noty the executives, by the law enforcement. for instance, the concorde company that was brought up. if being accused,t's been accused of, but this company does not represent the russian

state, andro iht several examples before. well, you have a lot of individuals in the united statesrg take g soros, for instance,ith multi billion capital but it doesn't make his posture the posture of the united states, no, it does not. the same case. the issue ofe trying a c in the court and a final -- the final say is for the court to deliver. we're now talking about the private -- the individualsnd not about particular states, and as far as the most recent allegation is concerned,ru abou ian intelligence officers, we do have an intergovernmental treaty. please do send us the request. we will analyze it properly and we'ld a formal response, and as i said we can extend thi

cooperation but we should do it on a reciprocal basis becse we would like our russian counterparts to provide access to the persons of interest for us who we believe can have something to do with intelligce services. let's discuss the specificis es and not use the russia and u.s. relationship as loose change for this political struggle. question for president putin, thank you. two questions for you, sir. can you well met plump may have indicated to you about officially recognizing crim as part of russia, and then secondly, sir, do you -- does the russian government have any compromising materials on president trump or his family? >> president trump -- well, the

posture of presidentrump on imea is well known, and he stands firmly by it and continues to maintain it was illegal to annex it. we held a referendum in strike clines with the u.n. and now to the compromising material. yeah i did heard these rumors that we allegedly collected mpromising material on mr. trump when he was visiting moscow. let me tell you this. when president trump visited moscow back then i didn't even know that heas in moscow. i treat plump with utmost respect, but back then when he was a private individual, a businessman, nobody informed me that he was in mosco well, let's take st. petersburg economic forum, for instance. there werever 500 american

businessmen, high ranking are and highevel ones. i don't even remember the last names of each and every one of them. do you thinkhat we try to collect compromising material on each and every single one of them? it is difficult to i nonsense on a bigger scale than this. well, please just disregard the issue and don't think about this anymore again. >> i have to say, if they had it, it would have been out lon ago. if anybody watched peter strzok testify over the last couple of days, and i was in brussels watching it, it was a disgrace to the fbi. it was a disgrace to our country. you would say, that was a total witch hunt. thank you very much, everybody. thank you. >> an absolutely fascinating news conference featuring the two leaders, two super power leaders, president trump,

president putin, covering a lot of ground. as we expected, a lot of the iestioning had to do with russian interferenthe 2016 election. imir putin flatly denyin it. at the same time, acknowledging that he wanted donald trump to win the presidency. the other big headline here, and i'll go around the horn here in a moment, but the other big headline is the president's refusal to acknowledge the findings of u.s. intelligence agencies, that there was a russian move to interfere wi the u.s. election. nor did he acknowledge the 12 nd indictments down against russian intelligence oicers. suggesting that russia had no reason to hack the u.s. election. let me bring in now, if i can, kristen welker, our house correspondent. michael mcfaul, former russian ambassador -- u.s. ambassador to russia. each of u, headlines? >> i think you hit the nail on the head. the fact that president trump said he did, in fact, want

president trump to win the ection, but at the same time, denied that he had interfered in the election. he did respond to questions out those 12 individuals who were indicted on friday. he said he would bring u.s. inveigators to russia to hav them question the individuals. that is what it seemed like he was offering. well, will that actually happen? we'll have to see.bi lester, thmoment for me was when president trump was asked to ftly denounce russian meddling, to say to putin, it won't be tolerated, and he didn't do it. instead, he again went back to i the familiar t points, blaming the democrats, trying to shift the subject, talking about the fact that he ran this ca fantastiaign, and missed an opportunity to say, this is not going to be tolerated. he also -- the final point i'll makewhen he was asked if he blamed russia for anything, he said, effectively, there is plenty of blame to go around. it was a similar response to the one we heard in the wake of the charlottesville ot. i think those who are looking for president trump to be very

firm on the issue of russian meddling did not hear what they wanted to today. >> ambassador mcfaul? >> i agree completely. it was easy. could have hit it out of the park. could have pushed ba. he could have agreed with his own intelligence team.pp he had thetunity to do it. he decided not to. he obviously decided not to do that. i was deeply disappointed by that. the other thg is, there was no substance in the meeting. they talked about lots of issues. all of the hints we heard about deliver rabble able on and ath? >> no only thing acerca de la seguridad >> yter we know did we they did d what i hear. our president not pushing back toefend our sovereignty against a hostile intervention

in our elections makes me very nervous about any cybersecurity working group between our two countries. >> the press corps, the questions were very, very direct here. they get to the heart of the ngestions. what was the feen the room as the president refused to blame russia? >> reporter: i'm going to think how to characterize the feeling of the room. extraordinary.er i have c this president the moment he was sworp in and have never been to a press conference like this one.ti st just moments before the first lady and the rest of the delegation went in, watching the president side by side with vladimir putin, u.s. intelligence agencies have agreed, leave the country that did interfere with the 2016 election and president trump standing side by side with vladimir putin simply did not condemn that.