also had breakfast with the helsinki from a ship as well let's bring in jonathan steele international affairs commentator to give us a inside on today's expectations on the summit as well in fact stand by for us jonathan just stand by for one moment if you will there is the russian president vladimir putin after what must have been a very late night last night with the final of the world cup wrapping up and russia of course france winning the world cup and putin being involved with various a ceremonial awards ceremony and diplomatic gestures after the world cup god only knows what time the russian president went to bed last night but he's finally arrived here in helsinki it's right now it's ten past one in the afternoon it is a twenty nine degrees celsius there in helsinki and that jacket it's going to be a hot day barry is the russian president now getting into his cold limousine here so let's get back now to jonathan steele our international affairs commentator joining us live on the program as we fade away from these live pictures of helsinki international airport jonathan steele t

a little deeper into this story now and bring in international affairs commentator jonathan steele mr steele thank you for joining us on r.t. international what do you make of the media reaction to this to this incident in amesbury. well different media have different stories but i think the latest story from the times newspaper so the british intelligence agencies are expecting a so-called new attack from russia as soon as the world cup is finished he's just so there's absolutely no evidence given in the story though the courage to intelligence person himself says they have nothing specific it's just a general awareness of possibilities i mean it's just designed i think to undermine the good image that russia's been getting over the world cup is it even plausible that russia was behind this. well it would be madness to do it at this stage because as i say the world cup is in full flux flights and everybody's having a good time people are impressed vent fans have gone over there say it's much better than they expected and they thought it was going to be a hostile country and they foun

attention and then mosco had used this strategy in the past international affairs commentator jonathan steele says the story itself was designed to undermine russia while the world's attention is on the country. different media have different stories but i think the latest story from the times news so the british intelligence agencies are expecting a so-called new attack from russia as soon as the world cup is finished he's just observed there's absolutely no evidence given in the story the intelligence person himself says they have nothing specific it's just a general awareness of possibilities i mean it's just designed i seem to undermine the good image that russia has been getting over the world cup it would be madness to do it at this stage because those say the world cup is in full slug flags and everybody's having a good time people are impressed various times we've gone over there say it's much better than they expected and he thought it was going to be a hostile country and they find people who really went very welcome into. motion by british intelligence to put out these stories to j

for more, i am joined by michael steele. jonathan swan and shelby holiday.helby, he campaigned on this kind of rhetoric. we have seen other candidates for office campaign, but usually in office they retreat to the same posture on this. do you have a sense on how far he is willing to go on this? >> no. and that is what is scaring investors, economists. other times, with the paris climate of course, he makes a threat and does it. a lot of people looking at what he is saying and what his posture is. economists say tariff is not the way to go. china can't impose as many tariffs on us, but it has other levers to pull. it can weaken the currency. expect doing business in china, a lot of other ways to get back to the u.s. >> you are describing is a full-fledged trade war. and when it comes to the idea of triggering something of that scale, is there a red line right now? if this administration tries to do x, then we are in a trade war and no walking back from it. >> right now, it is gradual. he is looking at an additional 200 billion tariffs on china. it is a slow r

jonathan, you know christopher steel and you discussed the dossier.tinuing to speak with him. what is his reaction to tweets like this from the president? >> well, christopher steel is a man who is utterly committed to the truth and he believes when he has information that is important for the united states to know and the british government to know, he should provide it to them. he had information about an attack on democracy and thought it was tremendously important. >> when is the last time you spoke to christopher steel. >> probably last week. >> and what is his feeling about the way the president refers to them. >> the whole thing is perplexing and distressing. he is completely committed to protecting and preserving american democracy. he is committed to the british system. he believes in our country and wants to see the country be open, free, and have the truth about what happened. when he gets attacked, he finds it strange, disturbing, distressing. he is committed to the cause of the truth. >> and the material released over the weekend indicate

steele dossier. kramer went and got it. took to it mccain who then took a one-on-one meeg with james comey. and the guy on the right, jonathan winer, september of 2016, so before the election, winer prepared a two-page summary of the content of christopher steele's intel. and he gave that little summary of what steele had found to senior leadership at the state department who have since said that they too like mccain then handed that information over to the fbi. so they are certainly not central figures in the russia scandal and the expose of the russia scandal that was related to the christopher steele memos. but they do have a role to play in that part of the scandal. they both had small key roles to play and they were on russia's list this week, too. we learned today, finally, thursday afternoon that the united states will not be handing over any americans to russia. the fact they even considered it, which they did for days, just, don't let that get down played. the fact they considered it for days is mind-boggling. even to the appointment that it eclipsed partisanship in washington which is in itself quite something. wil

. >> joining me is jonathan winer, a former senior official at the state department. he has known christopher steelee wrote a two-page summary of the dossier contents, sharing it with state department officials, including john kerry. thanks for coming in. >> glad to be here. >> you heard lindsey graham. he calls the substance of the dossier garbage. what do you say? >> i would say an awful lot of material in the dossier has been corroborated by events and information that we have come to see since. other parts are still unknown whether they're going to be corroborated or not. major elements of the dossier -- i don't know any that have been disproven. >> you have known christopher steele for years. you wrote very publically in an op-ed, the relationship, how you came about the information in the dossier and so on and so forth. do you trust his information over the years? >> well, while i was at the state department, he provided me some 120 documents about russia and ukraine, entirely unrelated to the u.s. political system. it wasn't about democrats or republicans or anything partisan. it was about ru

jonathan karl writes, bmr. spicr refers to the author of the infamous dossier as michael steele, who is in truth the former chairmanthe republican national committee. >> you know, the irony that a white house spokesperson for this administration can't fact check is not lost on me. it's not lost on anyone here. >> i thought it was maybe a subversive act. >> right, getting back at michael in some way. the other thing i think about him, how these people behave afterwards, it seems like the idea is, you go in the administration, shame yourself, he at an a fellowship at harvard or something like that and write a book about him and go out and promote it. i'm almost nostalgic for sean spicer. in the first couple of months, we could still laugh about this in a yard sort of way, you look at this on "snl" and you laugh, but you're right, sarah huckabee sanders takes this completely seriously and you recognize these people are dangerous. >> it was less sinister. >> yes. >> he was breaking us in for the far more grave and sinister period that followed him. but they've made progress. i mean, i guess what we can't take away is h