and i think when angela merckel says he's in another world, it's that. it's not that he's taken leave of his senses but he's playing with a set of facts that are partly unfounded and partly very self serving. and i think that's what you're seeing here. he's made a move and he's going to stand by it and justify it publicly even if he has to bend the facts a bit. >> it's fascinating to hear what you witness in meetings. do you have any specific example? i mean, it would be interesting to hear of things he thought about the u.s. or say which you just didn't feel were based in fact and were the result of misinformation by the people giving him information. >> well, the most amusing was a private meeting he had with president bush year and probably 2005, 2006. it was right after cbs fired dan rather and he said -- president bush talked to him about press freedom. he says, well, you don't have press freedom. dan rather made you mad and you fired him. president bush said, vladimir, please don't go in front of the press corps and use that example. people will th

we'll call it angela merckel said and quoted in "the new york times" saying putin is in another world and what the white house saying with the senior administration official is saying that, no, they believe that putin is really threatened by these forces that are sort of unraveling in ukraine, that any popular uprising against the government, that's aligned with him, he deems a threat. and if you go back to what happened in georgia, they feel like that this is just a consistent, you know, another, you know, basically example of putin acting in the same consistent manner, that he is going to act out against people in his sphere of influence that he feels are really threatening his interest, anderson. >> jim, i appreciate the update on both those phone conversations. we'll take a closer look at vladimir putin and what the strategy may be. sit, as jim was saying, it's very easy to label somebody crazy or out of touch. but how much of vladimir putin's actions make sense from his perspective, not to say they're appropriate in any way but what about them from his perspective may make sense.