they specifically cited the fsb. so even if it's only a very, very modest easing of one sanction that's going forward, the symbol potentially could be interpreted by some as significant. i just wanted to get your reaction. >> absolutely. i mean any aleve yags of sanctions, any movement in that direction goes against the cause of what we've been seeing over the course of the last several years. there was a reaction on the market. the ruble strengthen as a result of this announcement although it was picked back as it's become more explained. you're right. it was the fsb that was accused by the intelligence services of the united states of effectively being behind the election hack and so far that organization, the successful organization of the kgb to be identified for the first sipe of easing that we've had in years, frankly, is important. it is symbolic, and it potentially points to the direction of travel in the years ahead in the trump administration. >> matthew, thank you very much. matthew chance in moscow for us

he's a former general in the fsb, the former kgb.ief of staff of a guy called eagle section, who is the head of russia's big oil monopoly called rosnev. eagle section in that dossier in those memos compiled by that former mi 6 agent. mr. sessions was said to have met with surrogates due to lifting of sanctions with thechlt all of this of course has been categorically denied. that's the link that's a been speculated about now. the idea that this information, if it's real, where did it come from about eagle section? possibly from his chief of staff. his chief of staff was found dead in the back of his car back in december. there is an investigation into that death, of course, the prosecutors are saying they suspect heart failure is responsible. we're still waiting for the outcome of that. we could be waiting for sometime. >> right, heart failure. thank you. west virginia town of 400 people are taking five pharmaceutical distributors to court, claiming that they're responsible for the town getting hooked on pain pills. we'll talk with w

they specifically say they are going to allow some companies to do some transactions with the fsb. we are trying to get the language more specifically but this is breaking as we speak to you right now. >> thank you peter alexander. bill cohen is still with us. bill, it does seem this is the fit step towards easing sanctions on vladimir putin's intelligence service? >> what we have to think about is russia conducted an attack upon the heart of our democratic system, which prompted the imposition of sanction. for the president to now send the signal that he is going to weaken those sanctions will undermine all of our allies who have followed our lead and will be the reward president putin for not only having annexed crimea, destabilized the rest of ukraine, but attacked the united states through a cyber attack trying to alter our election. so this is another example -- did the secretary of state -- did mr. tillerson get a briefing before this decision? did the treasury department solely make this decision. this is not working in the fashion that needs to work. but if it's going to be

so, you think the trump administration eased the sanctions on this fsb, this russian intelligence agent a si, in order to make sure that u.s.-russian intelligence cooperation could move ahead? >> i believe that that could be the only -- one of the only explanations. we are not soft and clearly not softening our position toward russian aggression, but we are dealing with the fact that there are other places in which we and the russians must work together. when it's in russia's best interest, they will be with us. any other time they won't be. >> would you like to hear the tough talk we heard from ambassador nikki haley, would you like to hear that coming out of the mouth of the president? because we haven't. >> i want the president to be able to do what president reagan did, which is -- was go to rakavic, go there with all the options and strength, but wanting to find solutions. so, to the extent that he says it, great. to the extent that he lets others say it and he holds back until the right moment to negotiate some very difficult issues, and wolf, you and i have spend a lot of time lo

i guess that i wonder how many gru or the fsb officials have significant russian military intelligence or federal security service that the successor kgb pe personnel have significant assets in the united states. then they shut down two of the re recreational facilities as they were described, one in new york, and one in maryland where where russian diplomats go to get away from d.c. or new york or whatever. maybe they had some intelligence gathering capabilities there, but i expect that the action was of limited impact on russia's intelligence services, and probably its greatest impact was creating a lot of angry russian diplomats. i don't have a problem with making russian diplomats angry. but, you know, is that really the objective of u.s. policy and should it really be an objective in u.s. policy in this case. that leads me to a couple of questions. one is that if the previous administration really had solid evidence that russia had engaged in extremely serious conduct that threat henned the integrity of the election, why didn't they do more? and why didn't they do it sooner? conve

i think when you hear easing sanctions to help the fsb, that seems very alarming, obviously all eyes are on sanctions right now. people around the world want to see how the new administration handles the sweeping sanctions that were imposed on russia in a gradual way but this is not a big deal that at first some maybe thought it was. >> very important perspective from michelle. thank you. >> a single roll of the dice, the president of the national iran yan council and p.j. crowley, who used to be secretary of state for public affairs, president trump said said that nothing is off the table when asked whether he would consider military action against iran. pj, first to you, what's your reaction to that? >> it mirrors the rhetoric that on one hand no options are off the table, on the other hand it did the nuclear stall a military confrontation over iran's nuclear ambition. with the obama administration it continued to express concerns up until its last day on iran's growing influence on the region as well as having an agreement to disagree whether a missile test caused a violation of t

the white house eased some sanctions against russia, the fsb imposed under the obama administration, i'm told this is a minor and technical correction to those existing sanctions that that obama put on its way out the door, to allow nonsanctions related trade, and other cooperation with russia, but even so, these could soften ambassador haley's comments and be seen positively. >> maybe some mixed messages going on. >> let's talk about all of this and more. president trump's new moves on the world stage, joining us, jake sullivan. adviser to hillary clinton, also the former vice president to biden. >> i assume you liked what you heard from u.n. ambassador nikki haley, right? >> i like that, i would like to hear it directly from president trump. it's the kind of message we should be sending right now. >> why don't you hear that, why don't you believe we don't hear the tough talk on the russians for president trump. >> he's willing to go after pretty hard, friends of ours like australia and mexico, he reserves only soft speech for president putin. i don't have a good explanation for it,

crabsite it indicates that the administration has eased sanctions against the russian intelligence agency fsb, however, sean spicer disputing that characterization and saying this is not in effect an easing of sanctions but rather a fix to some language that was already in place under the obama administration. what we are going to have to do now is drill down on that and fact check those assertions againhe headline is that he sisted this is not in fact an easing of sanctions. of course there has been a lot of scrutiny of thissed a straying given some of the. >>ing remarks that president trump has made about russia's president vladimir putin, and we know that when former president obama left office, relations between these two countries were at their chilliest in decades. and there was some concern within the foreign policy community that what we would see was an easing of that very chilly relationship. so we'll have to really drill down on what specifically that means. you also heard sean spicer address that phone call with the australian prime minister in which by all accounts president trum

border checks so when they cut off all business with the fsb, nothing was able to be done, so this is kind of a technical course correction to allow these types of transactions and of course this trump administration very sensitive to the fact that it might be lifting sanctions, it really isn't that, it's a minor easing, so it's really just to allow those non-sanctions, technical ko technical transactions to take place. >> initially you see the headline and you think oh, my goodness, thank you so much. >> joining me now dana bash, amy poke, the deputy security advisor as the national security council. dana, first, is this any different on the stance on iran? >> very different. particularly in the months and years of the obama administration, because they're whole m.o. was to try to get a nuclear deal and because of that there were a lot of carrots that went out. we had direct communication between the leaders for the first time in history and i think if somebody would have asked president obama are you putting military action, are you taking that off the table? if you would have put t

they were part of the fsb, formerly the kgb, which president putin was formerly an agent of.down came after the u.s. accused russia of interfering in the u.s. presidential election. >> reporter: putin says the ukrainian government started new fighting to portray itself as a victim to the new president. >> translator: if a conflict were to break out, that would help them. >> reporter: the ukrainians accuse the russian-back ed fighters. back home in russia, four men face charges of treason, accused of passing information to u.s. intelligence. neither the kremlin nor u.s. officials are commenting. two of the alleged spies worked for the fsb, russian's internal security service, once known as the kgb, putin's old spy agency. that's one of the bureaus believed to be behind the hacks targeting the u.s. election. double agents are said to have told americans that russia has behind the hacks. >> we know they were working in areas of russia's attack and cyber defense, they're cyber attack machine. that would give them inside information, which is what you want if you're going to recru

in fact, three fsb agents were arrested in september 1999 putting a bomb into a building that didn't. he should also look at the tsarnaev case. putin mentioned that he gave an order to the head of the russian fsb telling them not to provide any further information to the united states, including the state, including that the older of the two tsarnaev brothers spent six months in dagestan and was in contact with islamic extremists. >> what are the chances that he could get a different putin, a more friendly putin, a better putin than we've seen in the past? >> putin isn't going to change because trump smiles at him or because -- we've -- this theory has been tried out by every president except ronald reagan since the second world war. and it's never worked. you can't deter a russian leader whose first concern is controlling his own population by smiling at him or being nice to him. he wants respect only because it's so much different from what he really deserves. >> david satter, thank you for all of your expertise in this field. very interesting to talk to you. we'll speak again. >>

>> i saw that reporting against the fsb, pointing out that it is not quite what some of the headlines made it out to be. >> they should be reported more carefully. we should be toughening the sanctions, not easing them. >> even jake sullivan who worked for biden and obama and hillary clinton said it was a technical easing of sanctions. but i do think what was interesting about nikki haley's statement is that trump indicated he is willing to defer to the people he appointed in some capacity. we know with general mattis, whatever he says on enhanced interrogation methods will stand. i will defer to him. is this is aing look, nikki haley is who i appointed to the position. i will defer to her in this regard. we did not see president trump rebuff anything she said. he didn't do that. to me it says deference to the people i appointed. >> you are absolutely right. i was told the white house was well aware of what she was going to do. the question is where does that deference end? is he go to completely defer on issues he really seemed to disagree with before and continue to do that and have

that said, it does deal with the fsb. anything it does is going to make headlines, of course, the former kgb. we expect to get more information. saun spicer directed us to the treasury department. we expect to get more information in the next hour, kate, about what exactly this means. in addition, the signal it is sending to russia given the relationship that president trump and russian vladimir putin have had or talked about having over the course of trump's campaign. i think that's why you have a lot attention on this first action, technical as it may be, with russia. >> and, hallie, to take a steb back for a second, this all happened because this afternoon we got word that treasury had made a change and people thought at first it might be a very significant change. >> reporter: exactly. >> a reversal of the sanctions against russia, right? >> reporter: yeah. turns out that is not the case. that does not appear to be the case at this point. certainly not from the sanctions against russia, for example, the actions in cri

what this rolling back restriction, if you will, will do, is allow american companies to apply to the fsbthat's russia's version of the cia, which oversees information technology sales for special permits licenses to allow those companies to sell i.t. goods in russia. again, both the president and the press secretary say this is not an easing of sanctions. listen. >> i haven't eased anything. >> it's a fairly common practice for the treasury department after sanctions are put in place to go back and look at whether or not there needs to be specific carve outs for different, you know, either industries or products and services that need to be going back and forth. >> reporter: some trade experts believe, sandra, that what happened here, the obama administration was an unintended consequence of the sanctions and that it's a prudent move to let u.s. sell i.t. products to russia. >> sandra: what are they saying ab the phone call over a refugee deal carved out by the previous administration? >> reporter: we're getting varying degrees. sean spicer said it was cordial. behind the scenes a white

it will allow companies to do limiteded by anyone as fsb.a minor easing of the sanction put in place at the end of the obama administration that limits business to $5,000 a year for any calendar year. according to officials the move eases the sanctions that. wut put in once again at the end of the obama administration. the move was made as a technical fix to the sanctions, their words, that were put in place to avoid conflict. we heard sean spicer t white house press secretary, also insist this was not necessarily a major move right now. i want to go to cnn white house skront jim acos kocosta who's j us from the briefing room. talk to ugg about what sean spicer said about this very limited easing of at least one part of the u.s. sanction that was put in place at the end of the obama administration. >> i think you heard sean spicer say this is not an easing of sanctions. there wasn't a whole lot more information beyond that. obviously this is a question that's going to come up. when the treasurely didn't puts out a document like that it is fr

not that long ago i sat at a table in russia are the numbers two, three, and four of the russian fsb, which are the successor to the kgb, where putin essentially grew up in politics. i remember looking into their eyes and asking myself a question. how many people did they have to kill to get this job. now, i think there's some bad people over there, and they reach worldwide. they have a presence on the streets of the united states that sometimes gives us more intel than we have ourselves. so it's a very, very complex thing, and trump has access to the best briefings that anyone in the world has right now. so i'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and just say the inflection of his voice and the implication was unfortunate, but i think he's a wiser man on this policy than many of his critics give him credit for. >> all right. representative, we do have to ask you one more thing. another bit of news that came from that interview with bill o'reilly. donald trump again reiterating this claim that the voter fraud situation in this country is a really bad situation. i want you to l

the fsb, formerly the kgb never stopped working. >> yeah. let me get to tim. give me or after a historic -- what's been going on the last several weeks? however have they progressed? it's like google. malcolm said let's punch in paul manafort, roger stone, somebody else, and see if that connects in any way to the kremlin. >> the american people are getting a look in realtime at the most politically charged counterintelligence investigation since the soviets stole the request of the atomic bomb at the end of world war ii. >> so class feuds involved? >> yeah. that was a case that took almost ten years from beginning to end. this is moving a lot faster because technology has improved in terms of intelligence gathering. but we're in a case now you were harkening back to water gate. this is a case -- >> not harkening back. the encryptions. i'm going back to vanona, the way we got all the communication between moscow and america during and before the second world war. that kind of stuff. >> sure, but here we have a case where it's not the coverup. it's the crime. we

department has announced it will allow some american companies to do limited transactions with the russian fsbhe successor to the kgb. the white house maintains it is not ease iing sanctions. >> the treasury department -- from what i understand, it's a fairly common practice for the treasury department after sanctions are put in place, to go back and to look at whether or not there needs to be specific carveouts for different, you know, either industries or products and services that need to be going back and forth. i refer you to the treasury department on that one. >> and senator john mccain urged president trump to -- initially it looks like it's a technical fix. i've not fully explored it, but that's the impression i have of what it is. a statement by nancy pelosi was less critical. saying president trump lifts sanctions on the russian security service. vladimir putin's thugs meddle with an american election and president trump gives them a thank you present. >>> president trump has said to keep a good relationship with israel. but yesterday there was a marked shift in tone. a senior admin

the fsb happens to be the agency that rubber stamps the import of foreign technology products.ning obama's sanctions may have accidentally forbid american tech firms from selling their products at all in all of russia. so today under an initiative that was "in the making for weeks before trump took office on january 20" the treasury department carved out a limited exception to the sanctions for u.s. companies that want to sell tech products in russia. the reaction to that story was overblown, but there is still plenty to be alarmed about including the anti-muslim extremist currently making policy inside the white house. somewhat steve bannon said about islam back in 2014 coming next. >>> there are those who would seek to enter our country for the purpose of spreading violence or oppressing other people based upon their faith or their life-style. not right. we will not allow a beachhead of intolerance to spread in our nation. >> well, the trump administration strengthen white housely denies its executive order on immigration is a muslim ban. those remarks from the president hint

the deal is, when you talk about the fsb, the former kgb, there's going to be a lot of attention on this. and you're already hearing now from the former head of the fsb that this is potentially a move that will help both nations work together on, for example, joint terror operations, joint counterterror operations. i think there's more reporting to be done. we expect to do that this afternoon and bring you the latest. >> a lot of -- a lot of people on edge given donald trump's warmth towards the russian president. i want to go to kasie hunt, excuse me, and go to a point that hallie just made with capitol hill trying to walk back, i guess, donald trump's contentious phone call with the australian prime minister. they're trying to give some glowing praise for that country. what are you hearing on capitol hill? >> well, katy, i think the word is reassurance. everything we've heard from republican members of congress, democratic members as well, but republican leaders up here has been trying to say to australia, nothing has changed. we are still your allies. we are still the same -- the rela

the fsb happens to be the agency that rubber stamps the import of foreign technology products. meaning obama's sanctions may have accidentally forbid american tech firms from selling their products at all in all of russia. so today under an initiative that was "in the making for weeks before trump took office on january 20" the treasury department carved out a limited exception to the sanctions for u.s. companies that want to sell tech products in russia. the reaction to that story was overblown, but there is still plenty to be alarmed about including the anti-muslim extremist currently making policy inside the white house. somewhat steve bannon said about islam back in 2014 coming next. , with the help of the lowest taxes in decades, a talented workforce, and world-class innovations. like in plattsburgh, where the most advanced transportation is already en route. and in corning, where the future is materializing. let us help grow your company's tomorrow - today at esd.ny.gov for over 100 years like kraft has,natural cheese you learn a lot about what people want. honey, do we h

reports now that what the trump administration is going to do or is doing is easing sanctions on the fsb, which is the kgb, the successor interest of the kgb. so we're talking tough, which is better than we were doing yesterday. so i'm very impressed with ambassador haley. but if we're easing sanctions on russia, where their separatists killed 19 people in eastern ukraine yesterday alone. we have 20,000 people in ukraine, in this region, who are wthout water or heat. it's freezing cold. a humanitarian crisis, all caused by the russians, and we're talking about easing sanctions. >> but a lot of the reporting say saw on allegedly easing sanctions against the fsb this morning is pointing out it's not quite what some of the headlines made it out to be. >> it should be reported more carefully, but there should be no talk of easing in any way. we should be toughening the sanctions, not easing them. >> even jake sullivan, who's worked in the foreign policy round for biden and obama and hillary clinton said this was a technical easing -- >> michael weiss, who we've had on this broadcast. >> sure

evolved and they evolved because they were able to move from information gathering which is where the fsb began, to making information public that might simply disrupt the election, make people lose confidence in our system to at the very end if you believe the assessment of u.s. intelligence actually entering on behalf of donald trump. >> also on the panel, former national intelligence council officer fionna hill. ben buchanan, see it saturday

in recent weeks, there have been arrests over cyber crime at russia's internal security service, the fsb america. russian authorities insist there is no election between the arrested intelligence officers and the alleged hackers who have been detained. but the timing here suggests that someone, somewhere is sending a strong message that russian secrets should stay secret. we have been hearing a lot about fa ke we have been hearing a lot about fake news, but what about false publicity? that is exact we what the head of lithuania's tourism department has done. using these pictures as part of a publicity campaign to pray the country. however none of these pictures are actually lithuania, they are of finland and is luckier. here is what the prime minister had to say. when we try to promote our country, we used images that aren't from letter when you. it is very strange. we pay huge amounts of money, but it discredits the whole idea. however the prime minster showed he had a sense of humour. by posting this picture on his facebook page — and captioned it as the new lithuanian government headq

even russia's federal security service or fsb played a role. russia's behavior raises troubling questions about how the global sports community should sanction doping violators and whether they are actually committed to that fact. for example, because wada's investigative findings were made weeks before the start of rio games, confusion surfaced about russia -- whether russia should collectively be banned from rio. wada recommended to the ioc that it prohibit the entire russian delegation from participating. but rather than implement that recommendation, the ioc punted that decision to the international sports federations who were not all equipped to take on that sudden task. in the end, what ensued was a muddled process some viewed as sending a very, very weak message to the cheaters. even today, i'm frankly not sure whose job it was to hold russia accountable for the events conveyed in wada's investigation. just last month, for example, several national anti-doping organizations met in dublin and petitioned that russia be banned from hosting

group thathe fsb's first got into the d&c, and it was months later when the gr you came in. there was considerable speculation within u.s. intelligence that the two of them were not coordinated, and actually it is the gru that ended up getting caught and made a lot of this material public. i think that is some of the competition fiona refers to. >> if others want to hit the microphones, i would invite you to do it, but you over here, please introduce yourself. >> my name is grant. thank you for this panel. this week, "vice" magazine put out an article called the data that turned the world upside down. it talks about psychometrics, and enhanced form of demographic information, basically feedback from the clicks you made on facebook. they can put people in the categories and influence elections. say if i clicked on a few things, they know i am an anxious father about a certain type of issue, and they can target based on that through dark advertising and other methods. my question is, we have seen this in campaigns. this was linked to the presidential campaign in the "vice" art

speaking to officials of the russian fsb, he said it was in the general interest to reopen communicationsperation will bring stronger results in the fight against terror. the secretary of state met with his russian counterpart today in germany, and the highest level face-to-face contact between the u.s. and russia since donald trump took office. they are there for a group of 20 conference. and hamas reacting to the announcement that donald have is not committed to a solution. palestinianhe authorities should give up the illusion of cooperation. he says it marks the end of the peace process. iraq says the dental from a car bomb in baghdad is up to 47, nearly 50 other people are wounded. officials say the bomb was targeting car dealerships and the islamic state has claimed responsibility. malaysia arresting two more people linked to the death of the half-brother of north korea's leader. they arrested a native said to be the boyfriend of the second suspect. police say he provided information leading to the rest of a female has four older. global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2600

that takes place on a landline from a russian embassy around the world is russians working for the fsbr internal security services so there's a record there of what conversations will take and it's probably never going to see the light of day. it's whether michael flynn was telegraphing future u.s. policy or indicating that the sanctions might be lifted before president trump was sworn in in office. we're seeing it now getting into a political issue. clearly it's been embarrassing to the white house. particularly to vice president mike pence that went out on a limb and defended flynn and stood by him and vouched for his denial and to see michael flynn roll that back and say i thought i didn't talk about sanctions but now i'm not sure if i can remember whether or not we had the conversations about sanctions. that reflects badly on the entire white house administration and i do think chris on all of these international foreign policy issues we are seeing an effort and whether that's the effort of secretary tillerson or mattis we're seeing an effort to adopt a more pragmatic and more prof

evolved and they evolved because they were able to move from information gathering which is where the fsb began, to making information public that might simply disrupt the election, make people lose confidence in our system to at the very end if you believe the assessment of u.s. intelligence actually entering on behalf of donald trump. >> also on the panel, former national intelligence council officer fionna hill. ben buchanan, see it saturday night 8:00 eastern on c-span. west virginia governor jim justice delivered his first state of the state address to a joint meeting of the state legislature in charleston. he's a billionaire who's a republican and turned democrat shortly before running for governor, he says he needs taxes and fees to pay for infrastructure, job, and education system. his speech is about an hour. [ applause ] >>> ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure and honor to introduce to you the governor of the great state of west virginia, the honorable jim justice. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you. >>> unless y'all are wanting to be here all night you got to quit this cla

. >> the former director of the russian federal security service or fsb, the new kgb, says he believes this will lead to more cooperation between the u.s. and russia when it comes to the war on terror as well. shep? >> shepard: thanks, trace. the senate may have something to do that its never done before. confirm president trump's education secretary nominee betsy devos. a senate committee is set to move ahead with her nomination. two republicans say they will vote against devos. that would leave a split of 50/50. historians say it would be the first time the vice president would have to cast a tie-breaking vote to confirm a nominee. the white house has called devos a tireless advocate for students. she's faced accusations of plagi plagiari plagiarism. the critics lampooned her for suggesting a school in wyoming would need a gun on school property to defend against grizzly bears. let's bring in anna palmer from this is the closest vote i believe that he has had and apparently will have, devos and senator sessions after that. >> yeah, absolutely. this came as a surprise. usually the edu

they don't have hi, my name is sergei and i am from the fsb. somebody who was doing business in the ukraine, eastern russia, might inadvertently make contact with russian intelligence agents. you can see how russian intelligence agencies might see people like that as a valuable target for intelligence gathering on a clandestinely at all. they might not even know. but it was the volume of the contacts that really gave the federal government here pause. 0k, of the contacts that really gave the federal government here pause. ok, i have to say, both the new york times and washington post have done really good reporting on all of this. it raises further questions, which is why people are talking about more investigations. there are at least four different us investigations into russia's actions going on, involving the fbi and various intelligence committees. yesterday we heard from a republican that things it is a mistake to launch another big investigation. i've been speaking to a democrat who thinks the opposite. congressman castro, you sit on the

the treasury department put out a statement today altering some sanctions in place against the fsb, thesian federal security service, that were put on by president obama. now, everybody's been trying to figure out what that means. spicer and the white house briefing minutes ago said it's a matter of routine. >> the treasury department, from what i understand it, a fairly common practice for the treasury department after sanctions are put in place to go back and look at whether or not there needs to be specific carveouts for different, you know, either industries or products and services that need to be going back and forth. >> reporter: now, that statement about specific carveouts made it appear from the white house podium that this is no big deal. i can tell you that staffers on both the republican and democratic sides, on both sides of capitol hill, are examining this, trying to figure out what it means. i just got a note from a senate democratic staffer who said we don't share the conclusion that it's no big deal. don't have a detailed analysis yet. we'll pass on as we get more. >> s

agentsnalogous to fsb coming into the homes of western diplomats, rearranging the furniture, leavingws open in the middle of the winter . they want you to know they were there. they want to be brazen about it. that is part of the point, to show us they can. ian: they want sanctions off from europe, too, and this makes it harder to bring that about, right? julia: there are other goals they have. part of it is just -- sanctions have not been as much as a hit on the russian economy that we like to think. withas a major hit, and that, they have been able to pull off other maneuvers if maneuvers through their interventions. i think they are going to be ok even if sanctions do not get lifted through the trump does not have to formally lift sanctions. they can ease up on enforcing them. there's all kinds of ways to get around it, and russia can get other things done. i thought a key point of what evan said, you know, part of the reason it has been moving so fast and it has been so hard for the west to respond, on one in the newave what yorker piece, a defector from the kgb in the west sayin

the kgb/fsb background of this leader. friendly in be so all this rhetoric about vladimir the evidence notwithstanding, is just inextricable. on.n't know what is going i can't presume to understand that. we don't have really hard evidence at all. i do also think that this is partly connected, possibly, to the critical statements about u.s. intelligence. that was deeply disturbing to a lot of people. i've covered the intelligence community for 30 years, and i can tell you that the workforce is not political. they are not partisan. they are really concerned about this rhetoric. it's an indication also that the president wasn't paying attention to his party with respect to russia in a very significant way. russia at the moment is leaning heavily and invasively into places like libya and the baltics, not to mention syria, and the balkans, not to mention eastern europe and all the former soviet bloc countries, and into the electoral tissue of western europe. these are not trivial challenges to the western alliance or the united

show on two senior russian intelligence sources being arrested, one of them getting dragged out of an fsb meeting with a big over his head. it's been widely reported the two russian officials and others are being charged with treason specifically for leaking information to the u.s. government. even more specifically they're being charged with treason for leaking information to the cia. if that's true, if that's what's happening, then the russian government clearly is taking this moment to wrap up what it believes are american sources inside russia. if this is a second assassination attempt on this leading opposition figure then putin's government is also taking this moment to resume knocking off some of its opposition figures. even ones with family in the united states where the u.s. state department weighed in to help him the last time he was almost killed. putin is taking this moment. and why not? it's a new day. it's a new era as viktor orban and vladimir putin proclaimed in their friendly meeting today. it's a new world. the american government just got our new secretary of state toda

this deals with a specific carveout dealing with the licensing of cybersecurity equipment to the fsb, which was the successor of the kgb. so what it aslous basically for the export of this very specific part of that industry, now allowed by the treasury department, and then there's iran. as you know, the white house, quote, put iran on notice yesterday, and the president was asked about this a little while ago and basically said every single option is on the table. want to play for you a very quick sound bite from the president at the white house a little while ago, first talking about iran and then russia. watch here. >> nothing is off the table. i haven't eased anything. i haven't eased anything. >> reporter: all right, and here domestically, the president has been holding meetings throughout the day. he met with congressional leaders, top leaders as it relates to trade at the white house earlier today. and he continued his pursuit in saying that nafta, as it stands, is either going to be renegotiated or thrown out altogether. here is the president from earlier today on nafta. >> i

they will now allow some american companies to do limited cyber transactions with the fsb, formerly known as the kgb. that prompted outrage from my next guest, a member of the house intelligence and the house judiciary committee. good morning, thanks for joining us. what's your problem with that? >> thanks, chris, for having me on. >> my problem is russia attacked our democracy in this last election and we should be doing everything we can to tighten up sanctions, not making it easier in the very slightest for anyone to do business in russia right now. so i am disturbed that it seems like we are embracing russia more and allowing them to sharp i don't know their knives to attack us and the french the ge germans in their upcoming election. >> were you at least heartened by what you heard from nikki haley yesterday in. >> i admire ambassador haley for stepping up and the problem is there's only one steering wheel in the car. >> do you think she got out there and said what she said, read what she said without it clearing the white house? >> i don't want to speculate on that. you'll have to a

the russian president in fact saying yesterday while addressing the fsb that it is time he says to restore dialogue with the u.s. intelligence services, that this would be in russia's interest. but i think there's certainly some confusion with all the mixed messages coming out of washington, george. >> atika, this question to you. the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson met with the russian foreign minister. what came out of that meeting? >> well, you know, tillerson's kept a very low prevail until the g20 summit meeting. so it's really sort of his diplomatic debut. it may not have been the first time he's met tillerson before but it's the first time that he met sergey lavrov, the russian foreign minister before but this is the first time since he's been appointed as secretary of state. so it was at the beginning they had a very cordial few minutes. we were able to see them. but then were quickly ushered in for the meeting. afterwards tillerson had some pretty harsh words on ukraine saying specifically that the united states expects russia to help to deescalate the violence in ukraine. s

it's analagous to fsb agents coming too the homes of western diplomats in moscow rearranging their furniture, leaving all the windows open in the middle of winter. they want you to know they were there. they want to be brazen about it, that is part of the point to show us that they can. >> they want sanctions off from europe too, this makes it much harder to bring that about, right? >> it might. but i think there are other goals that they have. you know, part of it is also just, sanctions haven't been as much of a hit on the russian economy as we would like to think. oil was the major hit. and with that they've been able to pull off other maneuvers like through their intervention in syria, negotiate a deal with opec that lowers production, raises oil prices that helps them. so i think they're going to be okay even if sanctions don't get lifted. also the trump administration doesn't have to formally lift sanctions. they can, you know, ease up on enforcing them. there are all kinds of ways to get around it and russia can get other things done. a key point of what evan said, you know, part of t

breakfast table who works for the russian government, they're not going to tell you that they work for the fsb or the svr. they post the that came after. you don't knee, he doesn't know. i think that's what he's claim, but we should know that. we can know that. we can know that through investigation. we can know that through our intelligence community. that's most certainly what was eluded to in the "new york times" reporting, and with a more comprehensive expansive investigation, we can uncover some of these anonymous sources and the names that were not known. i know a lot of kgb agents for instance, because of my time in the government. and for those names were exposed in an investigation, we might be able to connect the dots and then really understand whether there was collusion or not. and i would think mr. manafort would want that investigation, if indeed what he said to you is true. let's get it documented so we can move on. >> let's get back to something more concrete. that's general flynn. the conversation he had during the transition. in your diplomatic experience, how likely is it th

so, indeed, vladimir putin yesterday told the intelligence agency here, the fsb, we are constantly beingd. so, if anything, russia sees itself, at least putin is painting russia, as always being the victim. ofourse, we know from crimea and what's going on in eastern ukraine, that is simply not the case. that's the picture russia wants to paint. if anything, it's the one being provoked by the united states and that there is hysteria in the united states about russia. ultimately, that may damage president trump. kate? >> i'll tell you one thing for sure, bill, i think you'll be spending a lot of time in moscow for the next few weeks. >> reporter: that's true. >> and it's a beautiful night there, so stay well. thanks so much, bill. >>> coming up, president trump signs a resolution undoing an obama administration deal to limit coal water dumping in saying it was another job-killing rule. what it does and what it means after the break. did you make that? i did... n't. hey, come look what lisa made. wow. you grilled that chicken? yup! i did... n't. mhm, lisa. you roasted this? uhuh... n't. int

companies to pay custom and trade duties to the fsb. but even that played down on the u.s. side.that he was not easing anything and of course then we heard those very harsh, very stern comments from nikki haley, the u.s. ambassador to the u.n., saying that sanctions wouldn't be lifted until crimea was returned to ukraine. so that was very much a pivot from the really pro-russia comments that we've seen from trump throughout the campaign. but as for the russian side, well, the kremlin is very much trying not to overhype this. a spokesman telling us yesterday that he really never indulged in any serious optimism for an improvement in russia-u.s. relations. they're waiting to see what happens next, linda. >> and, clare, in the coming hours, we know the u.s. president will talk with the president of ukraine. what can we expect? >> reporter: well, this will be absolutely crucial, linda. of course it takes place against the backdrop of an increasing level of violence in eastern ukraine, unprecedented levels of cease fire vielss according to international monitors. this will be an inter

russia news reports are also saying that the russian president wants to strengthen the fsb, the russian security agency. the trump administration has condemned russia for its actions in eastern ukraine and this afternoon, after meeting with secretary of state rex tillerson and his meeting with the russian foreign minister, tillerson pushed the russians to adhere to international agreements, in particular the cease fire between ukrainian government and russian rebels. >> do we search for new common ground, we expect russia to con o work to deescalate the violence in the ukraine. >> reporter: tillerson also said he wants to, the u.s. government wants to, consider working with the russian government, where it would benefit the u.s. people. the people of united states. however, he also said that if the u.s. and russia do not see eye to eye on a particular issue, then the u.s. will stand up for its ideals and principles. the specifics though on where the u.s. might work with russia remain elusive beyond the trump administration saying they would seek to work together possibly on counter terr