the element of controversy here is that michael mcfaul is associated with democracy promotion and cut the rising soviet ology yeah yeah i was not that you know your dad but i particular the democracy from all these right so that the problem probably wouldn't have made such a difference if the previous ambassador had met with the opposition non-systemic opposition that day but with michael mcfaul it seemed that the demonstrations break out the ambassador's change and then almost the first day i think it was actually meeting with i think was nicholas burns yes it was it was a meeting with nicholas burns and the best of the meeting but he still was gave his imprimatur to the meeting of people who had rickets and she was never an advocate of human rights. ok let's hear what vladimir putin wrote after he met kissinger by the way what he writes about human rights and double standards and human rights protection. which is often said that human rights holder rights state sovereignty as well when states already recently finally did in the name of this provision when human rights are protected

mcfaul, then tell me what they are?tweet whether he was being spied on which is a violation of the geneva conventions because he is a united states diplomatic representative in russia. a spokeswoman for the russian tv station claimed they didn't hack the ambassador. they rely on what was described as a broad network informants well-known and the state department jed, there was a big effort to play down the incident. >> well, i read mike's tweets and i believe he was simply asking a rhetorical question, commenting on the fact that wherever he goes in moscow he is finding the presence of large media presence, some much it hostile. >> reporter: the accusation that a u.s. ambassador is being spied upon is very serious and the state department was asked yesterday which, whether it was something they would raise with the government of, russian government in official capacity. we can expect a lot more on this story, jon in about 45 minutes when the state department briefing begins today. jon: echoes of the bad old soviet days.

i think it's unfortunately more than likely we have the american ambassador michael mcfaul i guess i can say this from here he's an expert in color revolutions he thinks that he's the the man who brought us the ahrens events in two thousand and four he'd like to cap that with the revolution in moscow but it's very interesting if we look at the actual demonstrations especially in moscow in the last three or four months with the big ones the second largest i think was a demonstration. one hundred thirty thousand people the biggest as far as i can see was the victory park demonstration in the first week of february which were nationalists who were. anti u.s. embassy interfering this was addressed by people like my friend maksim shevchenko and others and they were interested in stability their line was that the. people like. the orange group that they're interested in really smashing the russian state. but doing some permanent harm to russia so even in the narrow terms of who can mobilize support in moscow alone i think the task for these bright orange. is basically hopeless and they sho

when michael mcfaul suggest there's is no association between a country's respect for individual liberties and its business environment, he is simply denying reality. when two parties enter into a contract, it is essential that both parties operate in good faith. there is scant evidence that the russian government operates in good faith. it has a troubling pattern of intimidation, disregard for the rule of law, fraudulent elections, human rights abuses, and government sanctioned anti-americanism. contrary to the administration's assertion, russia the moving further away from international norms and values. in recent months, moscow has not only blocked u.n. security council action on syria, but has continued to sell arms to assad's regime, which is responsible for the slaughter of innocent citizens. this is not a government that can be trusted to uphold its international commitments or give a fair shake to american businesses. and looking only at the wto context, russia has not even lived up to all the commitments it has already made on intellectual property rights, for example, as a condit

attracted considerable attention since he arrived in moscow and we are delighted that ambassador mcfaul joins us today. two or three questions foremost on our minds and we want to discuss with him. number one is but the election of vladimir putin means for the future of russia and the u.s. relation. how will the administration managed the upcoming issue between the u.s. and russia, t tn tntr. we have studied that topic and we will be releasing formally in the near future and discussing what the end might also ask ambassador mcfaul how he and the administration view the act that is being proposed in congress and how it relates to all of the above. with no further ado it is great to see you back. thank you for joining us. we look forward to the discussion. [applause] >> i wasn't sure if i would get introductory remarks to take those questions. i will take those three questions and it sounds like we will do q&a. i know we don't have much time so i want to get your questions as fast as we can. quite a tremendous turnout on a lovely day. i almost didn't come because i haven't seen so much su

mcfaul one man is dead and another was wounded in shooting and southwest suburban crest hill the two were shot in the 2500 block of hacker driver and 90 monday night one of those men died at the scene the other was taken to a local hospital there is no word on his condition or a motive for that shooting, it is primary day here in illinois people across the stater heading to the polls to vote in everything from the gop presidential race to statehouse contests in the republican presidential race there are 54 delegates at stake polls are showing that mitt romney has a double-digit lead over rick santorum mitt romney spending his days in the chicago-area attending fund-raisers he'll have his election night party at the renaissance schaumburg hotel rick santorum is spending time in his home state of pennsylvania today he campaigned in illinois yesterday including a stop at ronald reagan's home town of dixon the other two gop presidential contenders newt gingrich and ron paul are not campaigning much in illinois newt gingrich is spending the day and louisiana which hold its primary on satu

michael mcfaul spoke about u.s.- russia relations and of the two countries' policies towards syria and iran. this is hosted by the peterson institute in washington. it is 50 minutes. >> as you might expect, he is under very tight time constraints during his stay here, but he thoughtfully carved out an hour for us. we wanted to bring in friends to catch up on all the recent and extremely important events that are going on in russia at this time. i have introduced mike several times here. as you know, he's an outstanding academic. he has been professor of political science at stanford, senior fellow at the hoover institution, director of the center on the mark kriski development rule of law, and a number of other things in his distinguished academic career. i think it is fair to say -- he may not agree, he is the key architect of the recent policy. he served for three years as special assistant to the president and senior director for russian and eurasian affairs at the national security council prior to becoming ambassador. he was sworn in as u.s. ambassador to russia on in january 10,

briefing today the obama administration is officially cam plaining about the harassment of ambassador mcfaulincidents that has caused us to have concerns about his security and safety. as we would in any following normal protocol we raised that with the government of russia. >> while the white house has showcased hitting the reset button with the kremlin with its relationship, analysts say this episode is more evident that the two nations are not on the same page whether it is sanctions for iran's nuke program report ending of the slaughter of civilians in syria. >>> more than ten years after the attacks of 9/11 now we have pentagon documents that shed light on why the defense department disposed of the unidentified remains of victims as medical waste. according to the documents, air force officers at first debated whether burial at sea would be best. somebody else suggested inviting a chaplain and witnesses and others rejected that plan and decide the remains were medical waste and should not be treated like human remains. victims families have expressed outrage that some of the remains end

ambassador mcfaul's remarks come after the fall flat on your putin who won the election for a third time. this is just under an hour. >> i expect he's under every house tight times and strains during his stay here but he is carved out an hour for us and we want to bring in friends to catch up on all the recent and extremely important defense that are going on in russia at this time. i've introduced mike several times here and i will make it short. as you well know, he's an outstanding academic. he's been professor of political science at samford, senior fellow with the hoover institution, director of the federal and democracy development rule of law and a number of other things as the distinguished academic careers. i think it's fair to say he may not agree it's fair to say he's the key architect of the recent policy to meet he served for three years as the special assistant to the president and the senior director for russian and eurasian affairs at the national security council prior to becoming ambassador. he was sworn in as u.s. ambassador to russia on january 10th, just about two mo

a master of russia, michael mcfaul suggests that there is no association between a country perspectivefor individual liberties and it business environment, he simply denying reality. when two parties enter into a contract, is essential both parties operate in good faith. there is scant evidence the russian state operates in good faith. as a troubling pattern of intimidation and disregard for the human lot, fraudulent elections coming human rights abuses in government sanctioned anti-americanism. contrary to the administration's assertion, russia is moving further away from international norms and values. in recent months, moscow has on the block u.n. security council action in syria, but continue to sell arms to assess regime responsible for the slaughter is innocent citizens. this is not a government can be trusted or commitments or get a fair shake to american businesses. looking only at the wto context, russia has not lived up to the commitments authority made on intellectual property rights, for example as a condition joining debbie t. o. resch remains of u.s. trade representative

so when we heard and i heard time and time again that, you know, mcfaul is paying for the political opposition in russia, that is not true. that is not true. everybody, that is not true. you have to say it five times because people don't want, you know, others have a political reason not to allow that truth to get through. you know, we support civil society. we support the electoral observers. we're proud of that work. they did good work. but we're not getting involved in those kinds of things. with respect to the attacks on secretary clinton and me, all i would say is our strategy for dealing with that is to engage directly and as smartly and comprehensively as possible. now, it's difficult in the environment that we work in, and that's why things like twitter and facebook are tremendously interesting tools for me. i only got on twitter six weeks ago. i never had a twitter account, not allowed to when i worked at the white house. and i was given very explicit instructions to use whatever means available to do what we call public diplomacy, right? i used the media, i've been on russian televis