understandable when your name is sgirkin everyone is always saying hey, awe jerkin girkin, but igor strelkova, you can did that. igo strokeoff. yes, i would do that. and strokeoff here-- (applause) (applause) and stroke-off is old secret police pals of vladimir putin who gave him a bunch of surface-to-air missiles despite the fact strokey commands a group of rebels who have been described as a motley band of fighters who are a drunkin patchwork group that is beyond the moral boundaries. in other words, vladimir putin essentially armed the jugalos. and if this story were not tragic enough, among the victims were six people headed to the international aids conference. hiv researcher norbert brockmeyer said the normally cheerful mood at the aids conferences will now be absent. (laughter) that's right, these bastards have managed to make aids depressing. (laughter) jimmy, i'm sorry, this is too much. you can give me a shot. of george. >> oh, look at him. he has little skinny royal overalls. look at that adorable little bottom. and the baby is cute too. (laughter) (applause) >> okay, back to the-

guest of honor was their top military commander, a russian, not a ukranian, who now uses the name igor strelkov, which means igor the rifleman. >> we know he's had a longstanding relationship with the russian intelligence services. >> reporter: under strelkov's command, the separatist militia fighting in ukraine has been known as a ruthless gang of thugs. well-armed and trained by the russians, according to u.s. intelligence officials. >> the russian government is seeking deniability by employing covertly russian ex-soldiers. rambo-types. >> reporter: today, ukraine released this footage it claims shows the actual sa-11 missile launcher near the scene right before the strike. u.s. officials believe they made a mistake because they were not able to use the system. >> they made a mistake and shot down what they thought was another ukranian cargo plane. >> reporter: in phone intercepts made public by ukraine, one rebel thought it was a military plane that had been shot down. ukraine officials say the rebel commanders realized their mistake, selling russian officials it was a civilian aircraft, not

honored guests was their top military commander, a russian, not a ukrainian, who uses the name, igor strelkovr the rifleman. >> he has a long-standing relationship with the russian intelligence services. with ties to the putin regime in moscow. >> reporter: strelkov says he is fighting so people in ukraine who want to be russian or independent can do so. but under strelkov's command, the separatist militia fighting in ukraine has become known as a ruthless gang of egotistical thugs, well-armed and trained by the russians, according to u.s. intelligence officials. >> that's a core of the ukrainian separatist movements are people who are not ukrainian. they are russians. they are soldiers of fortune. rambo types. they like to fight. they like to kill. and they are usually rewarded for that, very well, by the russian government. >> reporter: friday, as strelkov's rebels patrolled the crash site, they denied reports they were responsible for shooting down the malaysian air jetliner. >> here is what we know. >> reporter: but the evidence gathered by the u.s. continues to mount against them. presen

the military operations are under the control of colonel igor kirken strelkov who is either current orer important military figure is lieutenant colonel igor bezler, also former russian military officer. the head of the donetsk people's republic is a muscovite who is a political consultant. and they're bringing in from transnistria another place they're conducting an irregular war against the government of moldova, they're bringing in mr. anateve. >> the leadership of this entire eastern part of the ukraine and military is the russian military or these russians -- >> are russian citizens and russian military that's right. >> obviously a very different story than we get from the kremlin. when it comes to the ukrainian government itself, they seem ineffective at best to try to be able to deal with this. is their military unable? do they lack the political will? >> i would disagree with you. >> okay. >> i would say that for the first six or so weeks after the russians irregular war began in eastern ukraine the ukrainian military and police and their secret police were unable to deal with

they are former russian special forces, the head igor gherkin, sometimes called igor strelkov is a former agent, fsb is a successor to the kgb. i've studied a lot of rogue regimes a common pattern is to try to establish these proxies in order to have plausible deniability. shame on us if we allow these russians to get away with it. >> so what do we need to do? how do we keep them from getting away with it? >> well ultimately we need to realize that the buck stops with the kremlin. these weapons appear to be coming in from the kremlin, either the kremlin doesn't have control over its weaponry, which is a major concern, or they're simply with not even a wink trying to transfer to these guys to avoid accountability. either way i agree with ambassador john bolton, we have to make sure russia understands it will be held accountable for any proxy it creates whether or not it wants deniability. >> we know that russia has at least one of the black boxes. overnight a second one was discovered. we don't know who has that. in terms of access to the crash site itself, what about the separatists and t

christine, well igor girkin is better known in ukraine and also in russia by his monnic kerr which is igor strelkov and he was igor the military commander when it was the rebel stronghold in the east. and then the ukrainian army routed and he has retreated to donetsk. he is a russian. he is friends with the self-declared prime minister of donetsk alexander borodai. according to borouougdaborodai, fought against each other in the break away republic of moldova in the '90s. and borodai also is russian. and these characters appeared for the first time in connection with the ukraine crisis in crimea, when the pro-russian leader there was appointed premiere. i was there at the time, his adviser then popped up a couple of months later in donetsk advising alexander borodai. now, it's difficult to know what association, if any, these men have with the kremlin. there are suggestions, allegations that strelkov himself is somehow associated with russia's foreign military intelligence arm, or with the fsb itself. he's extremely hard to prove, as you can imagine. and therefore, it is no real -- it's not particu

plane then the so-called defense minister self-appointed of the people's republican of donetsk, igor strelkov, posted a social media report bragging about the shootdown of a transport plane at which point when it became clear it was civilian they pulled down that particular report. we know from intercepts, voices which have been correlated to intercepts that we have that those are, in fact, the voices of separatists talking about the shootdown of the plane. they have shot down some 12 planes, aircraft, in the last month's or so who of which were major transport planes and now we have a video showing a launcher moving back through a particular area there out into russia with a missings -- at least one missing missile on it. so we have enormous sort of input about this which points fingers and now we have -- >> at who, mr. secretary? at who? >> well, it basically -- it's pretty clear that this is a system that was transferred from russia in the hands of separatists. we know with confidence, with confidence that the ukrainians did not have such a system anywhere near the vicinity at that point i

the so-called commander in chief, igor strelkov is identified as a russian military intelligence officeran agent of the gru, or a russian spy in charge of overseeing the russian insurgency. on a social media platform similar to russian facebook this is the page he used. he had a statement saying today we downed a ukrainian cargo plane and identified the location. then he said we warned them not to fly in our skies. that message was deleted from his profile. >> why say that if the voice recording showed the person who launched knew they made a mistake well before he made a claim of victory? >> actually there are two leaked conversations between separatists by the ukrainian security service ares. the second one establishes they were told. they said we watched on t that it was a ukrainian military plane. they got there and said, hang on, it says malaysian airliner. there was genuine confusion in the ranks of the separatists. >> they claimed victory over a military plane before realizing it was a passenger plane to kuala lumpur. >> then they tried to erase the evidence of claiming victory. t

plane, and then the so-called defense minister self-appointed of the people's republic of donetsk, igor strelkov, posted a social media report, bragging about the shootdown of a transport plane, at which point, when it became clear it was civilian, they pulled down that particular report. we know from intercepts, voices which had been correlated, intercept that we have, to those are, in fact, the voices of separatists, talking about the shootdown of the plane, they have shot down some 12 planes, aircraft, in the last months or so, two of which were major transport planes, and now we have a video showing a launcher moving back through a particular area there, out into russia, with at least one missing missile on it. so we have enormous sort of input about this, which points fingers, and now we have -- >> at who, mr. secretary? at who? >> well, it basically, it's pretty clear that this is a system that was transferred from russia in the hands of separatists. we know with confidence, with confidence that the ukrainians did not have such a system anywhere near the vicinity at that point in time. so

you'd to stay out of our skies, posted by someone claiming to be russian-backed rebel commander igor strelkovthat post ruiz removed not long after the aircraft was identified as a passenger plane. >> over the last couple of days this has escalated, which culminated in yesterday president obama announcing a series of very tough sanctions to penalize russia for its support of the separatists. >> reporter: russian president vladimir putin has denied providing help to these separatists. but russian finance year alexander borodi in charge of rebels and he says hundreds of russian fighters. >> pro-russian separatists were backed by russia and began to take over strategic administrative buildings. again, airplanes, some of the military bases. they were being aided and abetted bibi russian special forces. >> reporter: both sides have access to the type of russian-made buk missile launcher believed to have brought down malaysia flight 17. and the russians might not have even had to supply to it the rebels. some analysts believe the pro-russian rebels could have received it after storming a ukrainian m

yesterday, the rebels' commander, igor strelkov-- the who was a former russian military intelligence officer-- gave his account of the pitched fighting. >> ( translated ): i will not estimate the outcome because not all operations are clear. i can say only this: the enemy is throwing everything they have into battle. >> woodruff: russian support for stelkov and other separatists is one of a raft of serious issues now plaguing u.s.-russia relations. and today, a new and serious grievance emerged. the u.s. now contends russia has routinely violated a reagan-era weapons treaty signed with the soviet union governing "intermediate nuclear forces." the 1987 pact governed, in part, the deployment and flight- testing of "ground-launched cruise missiles," which the russians are alleged to have violated. to help make sense of today's actions against russia, our chief foreign affairs correspondent margaret warner. so, margaret, tell us more about what these sanctions do. >> broadly, judy, what they try to do is hobble the russian's access to both capital and technology in these three key areas,

and later, when one of the leaders of the movement, igor strelkov, the self-proclaimed defense minister of the people's republic of danesk, posted to social media about the takedown of a military transport. when it turned out to be a civilian plane, he removed it. now drunken separatists are stacking bodies in the back of trucks. removing materials from the site. on friday, we had 75 minutes of access to the site. on saturday, three hours of access. this is an insult to everybody. >> given all that -- >> this is a moment of truth -- it's really a moment of truth for russia to step up and be part of the solution, not the part of the problem. >> so what should president putin do right now? >> president putin should publicly call on the separatists. he should engage in a public support for the cease-fire. he should engage with the separatists directly in order release the hostages they have taken. he should encourage them to take part in a political process that can bring peace to the region. he needs to stop arming them. he could help prevent people crossing the border. he could stop the

because a significant number of the bodies at the crash site weren't fresh was made by this man, igor strelkov. today at a command center, russian generals from the defense ministry in russia made the case a ukrainian fighter plane shadowed mh-17 as it flew over the conflict zone. u.s. intelligence officials told nbc news those claims are without merit, citing u.s. satellite surveillance. u.s. ambassador to the united nations, samantha power, took aim at other russian claims. >> russia has been outspoken on other matters. russian officials have publicly insinuated that ukraine was behind the crash. on friday, russia blamed ukrainian air traffic controllers for this attack rather than condemning the criminals who shot down the plane. but if russia genuinely believed that ukraine was involved in the shoot-down of flight 17, surely president putin would have told the separatists, many of whose leaders are from russia, to guard the evidence at all costs. >> joining me now, nina khruscheva. author of "the lost khrushchev." russians look at russian coverage and say you guys are backing the rebels un