that year 1991, boris yeltsin had been elected president of russia. before that, all soviet leaders had just been picked by the communist party. they had just been chosen internally by the party up to and including mikhail gorbachev. he was elected as the leader of the new russia after the end of the soviet union. yeltsin was a fascinating i think sort of frequently underestimated figure. in the west, i think we disproportionately remember him for being publicly drunk especially at inappropriate times. but he was a formidable person. he was occasionally brilliant, he could be incredibly cunning and intimidating and he was the first democratically elected leader of russia and that made him the first russian leader to have the problem that democratically elected leaders have all over the world, which is if you get elected democratically, one you're elected, you got to get re-elected. yeltsin got elected in 1991, 1996 he was up for re-election. this is a new problem for a russian, right? but it turned out his re-election was really something to worry abo

he had to negotiate deals in yemen with close ties to vladimir putin in the boris yeltsin era. rudy giuliani is in hot water desp most loyal supporters and closest allies. and he is not coming in and out of trump tower. and -- the speech he gave -- and trump and romney reportedly had to demonstrate the one he settles on in the end. unfortunately when trump settled on john kelly for homeland security, would have made his cabinet look too much -- too many four star generals but trump likes general david petraeus and i would not be surprised if there was something on him. and my colleague john roberts first reported last week that bolton is still being considered for the position of state that is secretary of state, dana roback are is also being considered. senator bob corker who conway said would have an easy confirmation, and considered for the top spot. >> let's start with rex and his close ties with vladimir putin, russian president. is that a pro or con? >> coming up the honda. the generals are in charge and in control of the agencies. the thing to know about the secretary of

he has been working closely on oil deals in russia since boris yeltsin was president in the 1990s. made more than $200 billion in profit at exxon since he became ceo in 2006. he himself personally owns more than $150 million worth of exxon shares. i should tell you mr. tillerson has not been able to drill the arctic with his buddy, with vladimir putin. that plan was screwed up when the u.s. imposed sanctions on russia in 2014. who is to say a policy like that couldn't change, though, right? you get the right people in the right jobs, get the right person as secretary of state. joining us now the bradley olson. he's our second "wall street journal" reporter ofhis evening. he covers energy for the journal. he's reporting on mr. tillerson's ties today. nice to have you tonight. >> thanks so much for having me. i appreciate it. >> so obviously international oil companies especially one as big as exxonmobil they're seen as entities that are almost big enough to have their own foreign policy. but tillerson in particular is seen as being maybe the american, the living american who is clos

>> under president clinton he did most of the business with boris yeltsin. they had a good relationship but the transition in russia was chaotic which led to the reign of vladimir putin and putin has tried to put, quote/unquote, order back into the russian system. in the intervening time we have seen a similar cycle and i anticipate that the trump administration will go through the same cycle. president bush had high aspirations for building a relationship with vladimir putin. there was a reset under medvedev as presidentf russia as mike mcfaul said was successful to a point with putin's return. now we see disillusionment in the obama administration. keyed by not only ukraine but syria and now the intervernntio in the united states. i think trump will have to figure out where are the common interests and there are a couple. he also, i think, learns to recognize over time that the area of common interest between russia and the united states is shrinking. i think you will see the same cycle of guarded optimism at the start. but increasing antagonism as we go a

tillerson spent his entire career at exxon/mobil and previously had interests in russia when boris yeltsin and during that time developed a close relationship with vladimir putin. trump arrived in baltimore for the army/navy game a short time ago. msnbc has more in baltimore. >> reporter: betty, good afternoon. the army/navy clash going on right now. donald trump is going to spend time with both navy and army. that's traditionally what a president would do here. there's a form's ceremony. he's not going to participate in that, but observing some of those formalie

tillerson spent his entire career at exxon/mobil and previously had interests in russia when boris yeltsin was in power and during that time developed a close relationship with vladimir putin. trump arrived in baltimore for the army/navy game a short time ago. msnbc has more in baltimore. >> reporter: betty, good afternoon. the army/navy clash going on right now. donald trump is going to spend time with both navy and army. that's traditionally what a president would do here. there's a form's ceremony. he's not going to participate in that, but observing some of those formalities. of course, so much focus today on the tillerson selection at secretary of state. his potential ties to russia and, of course, what we've learned about the cia assessment of russian hacking and interference in the united states election. new overnight, a "washington post" report confirmed by nbc that the cia believes that the russians deliberately interfered to help donald trump win the election. trump, of course, responding within minutes with that statement basically slamming the intelligence community. a communi

putin and having a strong relationship with him, he's been involved extensively in russia since boris yeltsin the country. he's somebody who understands this important country. i do not see how that is a downside for the next secretary of state. like condi rice who spent her ka academic career studying russia, this could be a positive. >> they come from the business community, and we have talked a lot about the positives of these veer successful people, but given your experience, how complicated will it be for someone like rex tillerson? as the ce, of exxon, you think ceos of publicly traded companies are public. he's not. exxon is a private company. you don't see a lot of leaks. if he's running the state department, that place is like swiss cheese with the amount of leaks, controlling that. how difficult will it be for rex tillerson to take a position like that? >> you must have covered the state department because you know it well. look, i have been on the record publicly saying i think john bolton was the strongest choice. because he understands the building well, and what happened with a

tillerson represented exxon's interests in russia when boris yeltsin was in power. he was later ordered the order of friendship, one of russia's highest honors for foreigners. andrea mitchell joins me on the phone. besides experience dealing with the russian government, what other qualifications does tillerson have? can you give us perspective here? >> reporter: well his qualifications certainly as a global business executive are vast in terms of his context around the world, that's on the plus side. the negatives and i think an hour ago you were talking to the former ambassador to russia, mccall, the downside is no experience in diplomacy, no experience in running the state department. of course running exxon mobil as he has for all of these years is certainly a huge management plus, but he doesn't have experience in other aspects of diplomacy. so that would be the downside. when we broke this story about an hour ago on your program, chanel, what two sources. telling me close to the transition is that he is the voice, but of course in the world of donald trump, onc

knew each other way back when in the 1990s when putin was kgb functionary in the government of boris yeltsin. and the governor of iowa got to know xi jinping the current head of the china when he was a functionary in the chinese bureaucracy, if you looked at that as a template, you might see rex tillerson as someone particularly amenable to pleblght trump's world view. >> rose: it's clear, though, the president has whatever differences with mitt romney, whatever was said about both men in the campaign that they worked their way through that and this is now a positive conversation about the difficult process of selecting a secretary of state, on the one hand a man who has to make the decision for the benefit of the country, on the other hand a man who has his own integrity and does not -- and is prepared to go to work for a man that he was deeply critical of during the campaign. >> wherever this lands, if mitt romney becomes or does not become secretary of state, what he leaves the process with is a different appreciation of donald trump, and, importantly, to mitt romney, a different apprecia

tillerson has known putin since "he represented exxon's interests in russia during the regime of boris yeltsinn 2013, putin awarded tillerson the country's order of friendship decoration. to talk more about rex tillerson we're joined by three guests. , in washington, d.c., erich pica is with us. he is president of friends of the earth, usa. here in new york, carroll muffett is president and ceo of the center for international environmental law. personally subpoenaed by exxon in a case in texas seeking to stop an investigation into exxon's activities led by the massachusetts attorney general. 10 other individuals and organizations have also been subpoenaed. and we are joined via democracy now! video stream by bill mckibben, co-founder of 350.org. in 2014, bill mckibben was awarded the right livelihood prize, sometimes called the alternative nobel, for his work in environmental activism. author of a number of books including, "eaarth: making a life on a tough new planet." welcome to democracy now! we are going to begin today with carroll. talk about your response differing rex tillerson, the cur

i lived in russia for quite a few years off and on in the 1990s when things under boris yeltsin had opened up. archives were open, and there was very open debate and dialogue and discussion about history, including about stalin. and unfortunately, we've seen that reversed in the last few years with a great deal of restriction on historians, for example. this wonderful organization called memorium, which was founded about 15 years ago to try and commemorate and look at the stalinist crimes and other human rights abuses in the soviet union and later on in russia, is constantly threatened with closure, and there are a great many other restrictions as well. so, it's wonderful to live in a country where, generally speaking, the impetus is to openness and dialogue and debate about history, but it's always worth remembering that there are quite a few places in the world where that's simply not the case, and we have to keep fighting for this openness and dialogue in terms of history. [applause] >> i just have a few discordoned thoughts. i'm not sure they're coherent. these are ideas that came up a

kremlin, tillerson is a very interesting character, his first contacts with russia took place with boris yeltsin, he's had a relationship, when putin was even back running russian intelligence, and i find that all highly disturbing. but clearly this is all about economics and extraction industries and they will turn the state department essentially into a negotiation farm for dealing with continuing on his russian economic interests for exxon and other oil extraction companies. >> and joan, kellyanne conway was on meet the press on sunday and when asked about the criteria about how they're choosing the secretary of state. let's listen to what kellyanne conway had to say. >> are the candidates -- >> the candidates being tillerson and romney. it's president-elect trump's view on putin that will affect the secretary of state role. >> democrats have now an opportunity at least to question tillerson or whoever the nominees are? how tough do you expect them to see? do use see there are any signs of any more what ae harry rooet in the senate. >> the man who made fun of clinton for her wall street speec