it's a local election but a test for vladimir putin the russian president's party takes a hit in moscow's poll that's come after weeks of protests against the government so how will you deal with this set and is he losing influence this is inside story . hello and welcome to the program i'm homage enjoy him it's sparked some of the biggest demonstrations the country has seen in decades thousands took to the streets over the summer in russia after some of the kremlin's fiercest critics were barred from a regional ballot but despite moscow's attempt to silence them the ruling party lost a 3rd of its seats in the capital in sunday's local election president vladimir putin's united russia still holds a majority but the opposition communist party has almost doubled its number of seats so what does this mean for the national elections in 2 years time is putin beginning to lose his popularity we'll be speaking to our guests in a moment but 1st step fasten has more from moscow. pretty interesting developments here in moscow and also a politically complicated scheme that has played out for sure un

he still owes putin on that, right?id him a favor and he hasn't repaid the favor yet. so that's also going on here. >> good point. neera, on the one story piece here, it has always been about donald trump and vladimir putin, and the phone call with zelensky with the president of ukraine is also about donald trump and vladimir putin. >> i mean, the first, second, and third order of business is to do what we should have done a long time ago, which is to get the putin call, to get the transcript of the call, his public behavior was basically insane. he's basically kowtowing to putin in front of the cameras. i can only imagine what he did behind the cameras. the one thing i would say just about republicans very briefly, they don't know where the bottom is. that is the problem for donald trump. because when they don't know where the floor is, where the ground is, it will freeze them into continuing the investigation. the longer they allow the investigation to continue, stay silent, the longer, the greater his opposition will

putin will go after these people." joining us for the interviews joseph augton, a 28-year veteran and former director of the cia defector operation center. mr. augton, super intem dated to meet you. >> thank you. >> let me ask you as i tell my layman's version of the spy stories anything i've talked about the last secretary strikes me wrong -- >> you pretty much got it right. i would like to start saying on this specific case, i didn't know much about this case until the news broke and the rest of the world heard about it. that said, you know, the defecto operation center brings in and resettles those people who get in trouble overseas if you will and according to a little known law called public law 110, goes back to 1949, the united states government is allowed to bring up up to 100 people a year including family members. >> a ceiling on it? >> a ceiling. we rarely get to if ever but up to 100 people who provided key information to protect in defense of the united states and its security. okay? so we -- in the defect

putin would be in attendance.ediately after that report, he told me that he was no longer attending that conference, that he would no longer be speaking at it. and when i asked why, he told me it was because he had been informed by the reporters that putin had been there despite the fact that it's listed on the website of the conference. and he said that, you know, he didn't want to give the swamp press -- those were his words -- any more distractions. so it's the sort of thing that, to me, is emblematic of the fact that not only does rudy giuliani not have a strategy, the white house doesn't seem to have a strategy. you know, over the course of my reporting this last week, it's become pretty clear to me that with the myriad media appearances that giuliani has done on behalf of this president from the time that he was a candidate, none of those are ever really cleared by the white house. this is something he just sort of does on his own accord. he'll let trump know most likely that he's going to go on a show. but

you make a reference to put in type $1.00 and you go on to claim that putin is quote trying to get us to treat russia as if it were much more than 1.7 meters tall is that analysis well i mean that is actually a cheap shot obviously but it is a way that a straight shooter has written for a general audience the fact that actually russia is a country with an economy the sons of italy which is nonetheless seeking to punch its weight as if it's a global power in the world but if you're making it about size and russia is still the largest country in the world in terms of its territories at least you know on the level you got your matter 1st misaligned but what i mean i think it's a perfectly adequate metaphor in that sense i mean sure russia has a lower country but simple science in this respect for quite a phrase doesn't matter while i well in fact do you claim that it does because you're not sure i only taking a person's immutable characteristic such as high but you're actually applying the whole country and inferring something from a release me to ask how tall are you. i only don't find

you get the security that you think you don't need and that's when putin -- that's when putin attacks that's what we saw with skripal, presumably with this chechen guy. long memories. >> and we have these families, exactly, and we -- we don't want defectors in the united states. if we recruit someone over seas, we would rather have them work in place, provide the information that they can and when their exit ends, we want that to be. we don't want defectors but we have a moral obligation to bring them in when they're in trouble. your viewers who watch the americans. this is the americans in reverse. >> yeah. >> we have people here who weren't spying on us, they were spying for us. now they're living in our midst. >> joseph augustyn, thank you so much. >> thank you very much. >> really appreciate you being with us. more ahead. stay with us. award winning interface. ♪ ♪ award winning design. ♪ ♪ award winning engine. ♪ ♪ the volvo xc90. our most awarded luxury suv. ♪ ♪ but when i started seeing things, i didn't know what was happening... so i kept it in. he started believing things that

to putin, this must be a stroke of genius. trump is killing two birds with one stone by redirecting these funds. he's dividing us from our european allies in the face of russian aggression and dividing the american people with his politics of hate. i've said it before and i'll say it again. investing in donald trump's candidacy was the best decision putin ever made. this patron at 1600 pennsylvania avenue will drop at nothing to repay the debt. indeed, it might be the only debt businessman donald trump has ever worked so hard to repay. my friends, we've witnessed a real summer of love between trump and putin. consider the g-7 meeting in france last month. so clearly was the united states not the leading voice at the table. so tragically have we lost the confidence of our closest allies. and so predictably about our president once again make an appeal on behalf of his patron in moscow, repeatedly calling for the expansion of the g-7 to include russia. sometimes i wonder does president trump actually think that russia is a democ

putin published earlier this year called we need to talk about putin why are we and why do we need to do that well the subtitle of the book is why the west gets in rome. the we is the outside world and this book which i freely admit is many ways some people rant and there are some who say why everyone else gets it wrong and why i am right tackles many of us think the very dangerous myths that surround putin as a result of russia are heard you say. was in part a response to your frustrations about how russia is being portrayed in the western media and the amount of caricature is in cliches that misguide discourse and yet in chapters 3 you make reference to put in type $1.00 and you go on to claim that is quote trying to get us to treat russia as if it were much more than the 1.7 meters tall is that analysis what i mean that is actually a cheap shot obviously but it is a way that a straight shooter has written for a general audience the fact that actually russia is a country with an economy the size of italy which is nonetheless seeking to sort of punch its weight as if it's a global po

the leader was killed, gunned down because he opposed the putin regime and no other reason. >> putin'sas denied involvement in nemstov's murder. and in may 2015 he suddenly became violently ulrr. ill. it turned aught to be poison. he recovered but in 2017 was poisoned again. >> i woke up because my heart was racing. my heart was racing faster and faster and faster. >> you woke up to the feel sng. >> yes. i can't say the words to describe it. the words to describe when you can't breathe and your whole body giving up. >> he spent nearly two weeks in a medically induced coma. he has never found out how he was poisoned. >> i can only presume this was done by people who have accused the connections to the special services. >> since the 2016 u.s. presidential election a number of russian diplomats and operatives have been killed or died under mysterious circumstances around the world. in march 2017 the u.s. sept held hearings on russian involvement in the election. >> the russian people need to fully understand what we must do to protect ourselves in the future. >> former fbi agent was calle

, and anybody who has, you know, access to that is sometimes in meetings with putin, sometimes sees putin's work product. that's very valuable to the cia. to get an early warning, if you would, on what putin's up to. >> frank figliuzzi, i want to read you more of julian and his colleagues' reporting. "the informant's information was so delicate and the need to protect the source's identity so important that the cia director at the time, john brennan, kept information from the operative out of president obama's daily brief in '16. instead, mr. brennan sent separate intel reports, many based on the source's information, in special sealed envelopes to the oval office." i can't even extrapolate how someone like this would share information with this president who basically makes a joke out of russian interference and has his political ally, william barr, still investigating the origins of the russia investigation. >> yeah, it's not unusual for extremely sensitive high-level sources to be treated in this kind of eyes-only manner of personal courier handed only to the president, stamped "presiden

personalization of this regime has been in many ways accidental that there are some who believe that putin or it has some grand plan for power and so forth i don't believe so i think actually this is been much more responsive as you say to the moments and changes and individual circumstances but absolutely we now have a system which is basically built around the shape of one man and it's very hard to see how my friends build around the shape of one man i think there's some truth in that there's a lot of mythology all systems have a lot of mythology about the moment at the moment both sides in the u.k. trying to mobilize their sort of particular image of how they think the british system ought to work well likewise in russia yes there is absolutely this personalization but i think it is actually true that this is a system which has come to depend on the central of the of one man not least as the sort of final arbiter of all kinds of different disputes within the at leat the countrywide welting that i mentioned in the beginning of the program it is coming on september 8th and it's going to i

and yes many probably like you won't be voting the frustrating things i understand the president putin's district doesn't have a kind of a pro fishel candidate he's been charged choice between the communists the liberal democrats who are into the just russia i don't know if he'll be voting. well i think for now here try to kind of stay above the 5 but how do you think this thing may be conceptualized in the kremlin because this ultimately will define the course of action because if that thing is seen as you know. a couple of troublemakers supported by the west trying to stir trouble bad calls for. you know course of action but if you actually see that as a social demand for you know an evolution of the electoral system to require something else yeah i mean this is one of the things which from from point of view of it outside observer it's an incredibly hard to really get at what actually what is what is going through the minds of the people that relative handful of people who make decisions the interesting thing is that i think that just as this is a dispute in the struggle in wider soci

the eyes of the world are upon russia and specifically upon putin. putin is in his glory.were over, russia and putin in particular got very embarrassed. a huge pro-democracy uprising took over the streets of the capital city of ukraine. russia had taken care in ukraine to prop up a pro-putin strongman as the leader of that country. he employed paul manafort, donald trump's soon to be campaign chairman as his top political adviser. in 2014, in the face of mass protests by ukrainians demanding their country be a western facing country, it integrate with europe, it no longer be controlled as a corrupt outpost of russia and the kremlin, that pro-putin ukrainian leader initially responded by killing lots of civilian protesters. that looked just terrible alongside the olympic coverage. didn't it? ultimately, he ended up fleeing. he fled first to eastern ukraine and then he ultimately fled to moscow. the protesters had won. ukraine would turn west and start to disentangle itself from the kremlin. of course, putin was not having it. ultimately, in 2014, putin would choose to addre

they tried to bury information about calls with vladimir putin. and saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman. coming in the midof out rage over the murder of jamal khashoggi. impeachment possibly as soon as thanksgiving. resigned just one day after the complaint was made public. that after rudy giuliani told cnn he spoke to the state department. at least ten times about his work in ukraine. insisting he has quote a feis little trail of text messages with ambassador. to prove his story. also tonight secretary of state pompeo subpoenaed by the chairman of the house foreign affairs, intel and over sight committees. why? failing to turn over adopts on ukraine. documents on ukraine. they have given him until next friday to comply. also scheduled depositions with five state department officials including the ambassador. as house intel committee chairman schiff says he's negotiating to interview the whistleblower. the one who wrote the explosive complaint that alleges that president trump pressured ukraine to investigate joe biden. all in effort to dig up

himself it understand the point not just about food and i mean i'm happy making fun of putin because i mean i find it to be the oldest cliche out how they are i mean it's the most i mean it's essentially you're making an argument about penis out of if you're saying that putin is short and that's why he's trying to make russia greater than it is showing you that sometimes only read the bible because we're for you know for trying to just know that for you to experience a narrative about russia that's highly ironic to have that in the book now no i mean again you sort of someone who hasn't read the book was thinking that somehow this is a sort of central strand one throwaway line the crucial point is nothing to do with penis envy or whatever it is to do with actually the kind of. totally predictable post-imperial issue of when a country which was once a superpower literally overnight suddenly goes through this the psychological trauma of becoming another power an infant in fact one of the rest of the world thinks that is either it is negligible or a problem it is not about putin himself

he stood right beside putin in helsinki. just to refresh everyone's memories, tack a listen. >> all i can do is ask the question. my people came to me. dan coats came to me, some others, and said i think it's russia. i have president putin say it's not russia. i'll say this. i don't o have any reason why it would be. >> kevin, there must be mounting pressure for a release of any transcripts of conversations that we now understand were kind of in a secret database, conversations between president trump and vladimir putin and that of the crown prince of saudi arabia. how will those transcripts -- would they be produced in. >> in the case of putin, it certainly raises the stakes of democrats who have long tried to get ahold of conversations with the russian counterpart. at this point it doesn't seem like the extreme release will be done. you remember the president has met one on one with putin many times. he met with him one on one in helsinki. that was before that clip you just played. >> there was a time, right, where reporte

so this person, while he wasn't in putin's inner circle, "the times" reports, he saw vladimir putin on a regular basis and had access to his decision making. and he was the source of the information that putin directly ordered this 2016 election interference campaign, directly ordered the hack of the dnc and wanted to hurt hillary clinton and help donald trump. we had reported and others reported during the election campaign that that information came from human sources, and it was a cia assessment. and now we're learning that it came from in particular this high level source who apparently has been exfiltrated from russia. >> ken dilanian, i know you're going to be developing more on this. i can kind of tell the way this story was unfolding today that by 10:00 p.m. tonight, we would know a lot more than we knew when we were thinking about it this afternoon. thank you very much for joining us, ken. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> we're joined now by mieke eoyang. she's a former staff member of the house intelligence committee. also joining us john heilemann, national analyst for

our president putin and i have set. targets years for india russia cooperation i might add some a moment homely we have added new dimensions to our relations and also diversified . we have taken our relations beyond the scope of the government. concrete collaboration between private industry. what are we have taken them beyond the limits of the capital to other states and regions and we have included all areas of cooperation within the framework of our special and privileged india private a center owned remote speaking there the 5th konami for revival start we thought we just dip into it through the talk of the president putin as you speak shortly when that happens we'll go back to the game he was going to say but as you have probably heard there warm words i'm from india for russian president putin there he said india wants to work hand in hand with russia he talked about how detailed india's preparations have been going into that for him he said a lot of deals have been signed 50 of them no less everything from energy

also coming up russian media say that president putin's united russia party has moved up to blow losing seats in moscow father with yesterday based local elections opposition leader alexina vali advised voters to cast their ballots for anyone other than students party and after a taliban attack killed a u.s. soldier in the afghan capital kabul the group warns that more u.s. lives were to his last peace talks with the west up to last but officials on both sides say there is still a chance that they will resume plus in tennis and i take you as open final rafael nadal feeding daniel medevacked in pot boiling sabs it is the spaniards 19 grand slam title and now just one off the madness of all time records to move. close. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program reporters an indian. administered kashmir are struggling to do their jobs without internet phone lines or mobile phone service more than a month after india suspended the region's autonomy reporting from kashmir still faces severe restrictions and an unprecedented communication shutdown now our correspondent. traveled to srinagar india

tearing up in front of putin's face the march resolution of the european parliament which proclaimed that russia was no longer a strategic partner of the e.u. back home was saying that russia has to be a strategic partner of the e.u. so in terms of the e.u. as a body. this is absolutely in contradiction with the official texts and the policy of the brussels institutions but it is not in contradiction with the bilateral policy of other european states because what we haven't been noticing president putin has been all over the place in europe he was in rome in july it was in finland in august he was received in austria last year he's been to hungary he's been to serbia it's not as if russia is isolated anymore from any european state except from britain. and therefore france is initiative is european in the true sense of europe in the old tradition of european diplomacy but not of the faith diplomacy of the brussels institution you know luke luke weigh in on this here because i mean it i get it this is a great idea in my personal opinion it's something if in something that the russians

putin's inner circle but saw putin regularly and access to high level kremlin decision making.is person was meeting in the same room with putin telling us what putin's up to, what a source they had at the cia. cnn reports we could even provide images of documents on the russian leader's desk. he could take pictures of what it looked like. this was how close we got. this wasn't made up by the intelligence agencies. they said a spy. they had somebody who was reporting from russia. astounding revelation a testament to the incredible reach of the cia intelligence gathering effort. the cia ultimately decided to exfiltrate the informant following mounting concerns that the individual could be discovered by the russian government. i'm joined now by shane harris and david corn. i'm going to go with shane first. this is staggering because for months now, almost three years now trump has been in a battle with the agencies saying they make up all this like he does with the media. but it turns out they had a source very close to vladimir putin to find out the role he was playing directing

president vladimir putin's united russia still holds a majority but the opposition communist party has almost doubled its number of seats so what does this mean for the national elections in 2 years time is putin beginning to lose his popularity we'll be speaking to our guests in a moment but 1st step fasten has more from moscow pretty interesting developments here in moscow and also a politically complicated scheme that has played out for sure united russia the ruling party of lattimer put in has lost more seats here in moscow than ever before but on the other hand they still have a majority so it's more like a psychological loss for a party that is simply not used to losing and has been having a monopoly position here in the city duma for such a long time and has been in power in russia for such a long time on the other hand it doesn't mean that now there's an independent opposition in the city duma because they were simply banned from running in these elections the opposition has then called for this so-called smart fold voting for anyone basically who can beat united russia and thi

at the age of 86 some of the most heartwarming comments coming from his personal friend president putinof france who president putin of russia sorry who will be coming to this memorial service here in france his plane has already landed in these 2 to pay his own tributes to the former french president and he did in a statement last week on the hearing when the new. of the death of his friend saying that he was a wise and far sighted statesman he said russia will remember the great contribution to the development of friendly ties between the 2 nations and of course they were great personal friends these are the 2 individuals that enjoyed each other's company for example. on the 74th birthday he was attending a nato summit in latvia this was back in 2006 and he decided to celebrate his 74th birthday with none other than his friend president putin some people saying the time that that meeting that celebration together was actually quite a snub to the then u.s. president and then british prime minister and jacques chirac himself showed how much of a relationship and how important that relat

trump clearly a great admirer of putin.eone who thinks have putin inside the fence is more important than antagonizing him. therefore, does not really want to get involved too much over the controversy over ukraine. he essentially is throwing, to use an expression popular in britain, he's throwing zelensky under the bus and to the wolves with the russians. >> it makes you wonder, when it comes to the relationship between putin and trump, would this essentially ask the question of why russia is holding trump to be so spellbound in that case? >> well, russia and putin has been in trump's mind for a long time. trump's admiration of putin predates his presidential run even. you have to give him points for being consistent in that. he has a track record, we've seen this not just with putin but across the world. he likes what he regards to be strong men, strong decisive people, clearly people who have no interest in the rule of law, no interest in legacies and in nice at thises like constitution and democracy. he likes people who

of calls, for instance, between russian president vladimir putin and president donald trump. these comments follow the release of a transcript of a call in july between ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky and president trump. certainly this is a matter of concern for the russians, and it's also interesting to note this is part of a pattern of secrecy that we've seen on the part of president trump when it comes toen conversations with putin. we know, for instance, that president trump took the notes from a translator following a meeting in 2017 with president putin and instructed that translator not to discuss the content of that conversation that had happened. so certainly this is something that is being watched closely on the russian side, christi. but we're still awaiting news that has emerged from overnight, christi. >> the kremlin says it hopes the white house doesn't release the calls between putin and president trump. how is this received by the people there in russia because i think a lot of people here in the u.s. probably look at that and may wonder about the legi

by the mere putin meets asian leaders on the 2nd day of the eastern economic forum invited full stop with the iran nuclear deal hi on the agenda. ati speaks exclusively with the malaysian foreign minister on the sidelines of the forum expresses his country's concerns over the probe into the downing of flight m.h. 75 years on. some people who really. did making it can see the ship as the investigation was deemed to be already. solved effort by some quite close to a q a but to the country. and that the 7 people were killed in a mob violence against migrants in south africa sparking a regional boycott of the country. and 1 am here in moscow and you're watching international live from our studio with me in india to welcome to the program. a trove of leaked documents seemingly expose the u.s. as a major supplier of illegal weapons a bulgarian journalist claims america has been buying serbian weaponry which has ended up in the hands of terrorists across the middle east washington allegedly purchased weapons from 2 serbian state owned arms companies apparently for police in afghanistan but

got him a putin how is key leaders a problem on the 2nd day of the eastern economic forum in front of all starting with the iran nuclear deal and arms race high on the agenda. and the un report highlights the role of the us britain and france and that violations committed in yemen. there are certain states who are well known to be supplying weapons that includes united states includes united kingdom. 3. it's 9 o'clock here in moscow and you're watching r.t. international live from austin with me an idiot welcome to the program. a trove of leaked documents have seemingly exposed the u.s. as a major supplier of illegal weapons a bulgarian jenna's claims america has been buying millions of serbian munitions which have ended up in terrorist hands across the middle east washington allegedly purchased weapons from 2 serbian state owned arms companies apparently for the police in afghanistan but those arms were then seen in an islamic state propaganda video showing militants in yemen you can watch our report on that in full on our you tube channel and these photos shows some of these serbian

putin, as well, as you'll recall, also leaked that out. this is when the practice went into place over the past -- more than a year ago. the white house did not comment about the limiting of the access with the saudi leaders. >> pamela, this is a pretty stunning development. i will be joined by the foreign affairs committee to talk about this. you also have new reporting on trump's reaction to -- well, he hasn't had a chance to retook the what you're breaking right now, but to what the whole broader story is exploding and how he spent his day. >> that's right. there really is a sense in the white house that they're basically in crisis mode. they're trying to figure out how to respond to the fallout from the whistle-blower complaint, from the impeachment inquiry and all that has transpired this week. there were meetings throughout the day between president trump and his white house counsel as well as his personal counsel including jay sekulow who came into town for these meetings to figure out a strategy moving forward. i did speak to jay s

really prime minister benjamin netanyahu is visiting russia to meet with latimer putin at the head of staff elections back at home on tuesday there's speculation one reason for his visit is to appeal to russian speaking voters who himself though side of the need to discuss cooperation with moscow in syria. this is a very important trip at this time when we are operating on several fronts $360.00 degrees this trip is designed to continue this important cooperation which prevents collisions between us and the russian forces and to continue to advance the common goal that we agree on which is yet to be achieved and it's fun being achieved the withdrawal of iran from syria. reports now on what else could be on the agenda when the 2 leaders meet. benjamin netanyahu visits russia's black sea resort of sochi and while fighting a fear is real action complain at home many say meeting was more important here man tracked russian speaking and pro russian voters this will be their. this year alone and their 13th meeting in the last 4 years making putin the leader benjamin netanyahu has met more th

please mr putin. mr do on mr rouhani. colleagues. of the i'm very pleased to be gathered together. as he asked in the process guarantors i believe that this process with russia turkey and iran has its guarantors is a very efficient and effective way to facilitate the settlement of the syrian crisis we have discussed a number were discussed the details of the crisis will discuss the start of the political process will discuss delivering help to syria so that the country could rebuild its infrastructure the economy our joint efforts were allowed to stabilize the situation on the ground and to you crease the level of violence we have succeeded. in this stablish in the foundation for a diplomatic and political settlement based on the 2254 resolution of the security council. we have had regular meetings but also our delegations meet very often in the resort town and in sochi already 13 sessions of the delegations have taken place featuring the representatives of russia turkey. iran and syria as well as u.n

putin backed leader is very unpopular and frankly when it comes to local elections in russia in even in the past other candidates had been able to go through so this isn't just moscow so we were looking i am guessing that this must be a 3rd decade the putin would have on control of the country are we really seeing him in trouble or. well we're certainly seeing that his rule is not as solid as it may have appeared the ongoing protest activity activity in recent months really has been the largest since 20112012 protests that's very significant we're seeing that the that that the people are interested in and they genuinely feel that they want to have a stake in what happens in their country so even if this is not it it's too early to talk about the end but the fact that people are protesting the fact that. so many of united russia candidates and that is putin is party are actually trying to camouflage themselves running as independent candidates and shows how how a little popularity united russia party has a has how little popularity united russia has these are sign the simply that ther

kremlin friendly parties but many opposition candidates were kept off the ballot president vladimir putin cast his vote early the lack of choice didn't bother him too much because there's been some countries there are 3050 even 100 candidates but that doesn't mean to say they do better work it's quality not quantity that counts i think we have with the candidates to. the exclusion of dozens of opposition candidates has inspired weekly protests since mid-summer the police of crack down hard more than 2000 demonstrators have been arrested the best known opposition figure alexina valmy took to social media to call for voters to choose candidates who would do the most harm to the governing party. but then you have to look at every single vote for a party doesn't get is good even if it's not for us but we hope that we can do more to counter them. local and regional votes were held across the country but the real test comes in 2 years with new parliamentary elections. for more let's bring in our correspondent nick connelly he's on the story for us tonight in moscow good evening to you nic how b

and so apparently is annexing crimea as vladimir putin did. the question tonight, was the president's approach to the taliban part of that kind of pattern, that same pattern, or was he preparing to embrace an adversary, bitter adversary, in pursuit either of some kind of big headline as in the case of north korea or as way to simply get out of america's longest war without any real peace agreement left behind? if that pattern holds, perhaps or as the president him likes to say, we'll see what happens. let's get some perspective now from retired army lieutenant colonel ralph peters. colonel peters, do you think it was appropriate for the president to invite the taliban, who obviously are the people who gave safe haven to al qaeda and osama bin laden to plan the 9/11 attacks to camp david, especially the week running into the 9/11 anniversary? >> no. indeed it was one of the most repulsive ideas ever raised by an american president. to bring the taliban, to legitimatize, to elevate and dignify them by bringing them to camp david or even to the d

part of the reason why netanyahu wanted a relationship with putin is because he realizes that putin isa critical player: iran issue and wants to influence russian decision-making in dealing with that threat. do the russians regard iran as friends? i think the answer to that is, sort of. the russians certainly don't look at iran to the same prism we look at a run through. they have some concerns about iranian behavior absolutely they don't regard them as irrational theocratic apocalyptic actors the way many americans tend to see them. i think they see them as a regime that does rational predictable things to advance its own security interests in the region. the russians don't want the iranians to do bad things with muslim populations in russia itself they want to keep that relationship relatively stable. they don't want to see actual conflict between israel and iran. because that complicates their ability to have good relations with both israeli and iran which is what they want. if you look at russia's overall posture in the middle east, right now today they are playing a role that the

kremlin kemal or harris and other democrats are embracing vladimir putin's preferred u.s. energy policy the new conspiracy theory even went viral on twitter many in fracking and use of natural gas would do more damage to america and make them or putin happier than anything donald trump has ever said or done so good job democrats your being pro russia pro putin and program wind by wanting to ban natural gas of course the senator isn't the only 2020 democrat calling for this from russia with love ban on fracking the most reliable of k.g.b. useful idiots bernie sanders is even clearer now this notion that opposition to hydraulic fracking is all a big plot from moscow is nothing new in fact we've even heard it from the halls of the u.s. congress we have seen evidence of campaigns targeting agriculture and energy as to 2. industries of interest to foreign powers on energy we have seen anti fracking narratives so it seems like nowadays the only way to really play it safe in american politics is to find out what the why do we are putting once and do the exact opposite so let's ho

we move the putin continues the fiction of the russian army at not in ukraine.that this war at not jammed up by carmen offers. people's republic to butter diet, at the president. not to mention the officers fighting a war right now. and of course he hides russian casualties from the russian people. so this at a major vulnerability to the bone. i think ukraine has the upper hand. to because they got adequate i don't think sufficient to adequate support from the west. the sanctions are held for five years was by pontifications of the contrary. it just been extension of the sanctions just move from six months to a year. then open the champagne after the decision by parliamentary and castle of europe. thought joining things that were required. what i expect will be a coming hit on rushing to from washington, will be a bigger deal still. although that is still very much in play. the second., as long as that support remains, this at a major problem for the, and the sanctions because the russian economy about 1 percent of gdp. not insignificant. especially given the fa

my friends, we have what is a summer of love between trump and putin. it is with the united states voice at the table, so tragically have we lost the confidence of our closest allies and so predictably did our president once again make an appeal on behalf of the patron in moscow repeatedly calling for the expansion to include russia. sometimes i wonder does he actuallysi think that russia isa democracy? does he think that they live in freedom but you see it as an advanced economy and that they share the interest? i have to say little surprises me theseut days but for the behavior on foreign soil no less there is only one country responsible for the removal from the g8 in 2014 and that is russia. the russian federation was suspended b by the low countries because of its invasion and illegal occupation ofig crania. five years later more than 10,0010,000 patrons are dead ant is why they do not belong. what has the kremlin done that could possibly objectify the expansion of the g7 summit has it defended its illegalal occupation, hasn't behaved like a respon

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. >> well, as you know, this was not a one-off. the president has been as consistent with vladimir putin as he's been lately with kim jong-un, at least since the first love letter arrived. just as he's consistently sided with saudi arabia's crowned prince, mohammad bin salman, which ordered the murder and dismemberment of jamal khashoggi at an embassy. >> they deny it. we'll know an answer. >> the answer appears to be that murdering and sawing up an american resident is okay and so is imprisoning and all but killing otto warmbier and so is annexing crimea as vladimir putin did. the question tonight, was the president's approach to the taliban part of that same kind of pattern, or was he preparing to embrace an adversary, and pursue some big headline as in the case of north korea or as a way to get out of america's longest war without any real peace agreement left behind. if that pattern holds, perhaps, or as the president himself