really if you go back, medvedev wasn't acting alone.lked to -- and you even saw this during the hot mike incident when he talked to obama, he would often say, i'll pass this on to my boss, and there were certain things -- >> just so people remember, this is the point at which the hot mike medvedev said i will convey to vladimir, a point obama made about having more latitude after the election. >> this happened all the time behind closed doors from what i heard. obama would ask medvedev if he could do something on x and he would say i'd love to but i'm on a short leash for my boss. the reset was enabled by putin having that interest, like he was interested in having a reset. what i think -- i think peter baker is one of the best journalists alive, but where i would disagree with him on, is i would go back even further. i think things started to sour with libya, and i think that's where medvedev started to lose his grip on power. >> you made this point in some of your writing that basically russia did something very novel in libya. it's v

>> medvedev and obama got things done that were good for obama and good for medvedev. guess what, when you're working with somebody and achieving outcomes, your report tends to be better, right? putin, i've been in several of meetings he's had with president obama. i actually think on the substance and on the body language it's a pretty good relationship. both are blunt guys. both don't do a lot of diplo-speak, like i'm trying to learn. very candid. they speak about their interests. they speak very clearly. so i don't think it's that. i actually think it's a different definition of the interests of russia. >> why wasn't there a meeting during this? why wasn't there a pull-aside, a bilateral? was there an attempt to create space to allow the two of them to have a one on one? >> well, i mean, obviously, we decided not to go to moscow. it was a big decision because we felt that we did not make enough progress on the whole range of issues in the biliteral relationship. and the president's all about doing business. he's not about having meetings for the sake of meetings. th

me go back to the medvedev act. the united states has every right to say we are not going to let the people connect with this merger in this country. and iou look at russia think russia has been going in the wrong direction in the last 10 years in terms of the democratic situation, there are dozens of countries around the world that have worse human record rights -- human rights records. i think that is reflection of attitudes toward russia. also unfortunately, it undercuts the message that congress is trying to send. they are churned to send a message of our age and the abuse -- outrage and the abuse of medvedev. the way it was heard by most russians is you single us out. it is about anti-russian. determine our can policy choices. >> bodmer putin is just a single guy -- vladimir putin is just a single -- a simple guy. why don't we understand him? [laughter] >> i was hoping you would not answer me -- ask me that. obviously, people have very different opinions about him. answers no bright, magic that need to be trans

when he replaced medvedev, relationships with mr. obama began to go south.hen as now, the biggest dispute, syria. adoptions of russian children were band. by the time of the g8 in northern ireland, tension between the two men was simmering near the surface. >> each of those incidents has in itself raised the temperature that much more, 10 degrees more, so we are now approaching a boil. >> the final straw for mr. obama came when putin granted temporary asylum to edward snowden. with that, the moscow summit was off and so were the gloves. >> he's got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom. >> as the president heads to russia and the g20, all eyes are on these two leaders to see even if they can't agree an syria, if they can reset relations. >> new items to tell you about this morning, a senior administration briefing report above air force one, says that the administration is highly skeptical of the opening that vladamir putin seemed to leave in that interview on the eve of the meetings saying if it were proven that the as

gay exact same speech medvedev. civil society is flourishing how do we send mess sack to america role make sure dissidents are valued. not by validating iran face to face. not by making a deal with russia bash ago free society to make sure that jerry treats its dissidents well maybe we could do that since we are trusting them on chemical weapons one thing i'm not confused about is that president obama's party and his apparucnics word of the day. for temperatured the tea party which are citizens who are involved try being to get. they are giving them a hard time. what about that? >> fold in there? >> i think you have gone way over the edge here. if you are trying to equate the irs trying to make sure that people weren't abusing tax exempt status people being tortured? did you say tortured? >> couldn't get their tax exempt status for months and months and months, come on. go ahead. mary katharine refers to government democratic down on activists. like freedom of expression and assembly. if you are treating a group of

so you could look -- the reset worked for a short period of time when medvedev was president. they got the new start, russia and wto. things happened. all of a sudden now with putin back in. it's clear the reset -- what they didn't reset was a relationship with putin. >> i'm not clear anyone really could. i want to ask you if you could clear up confusion. "the washington post" reported and others reported the weapons finally getting from the cia to the syrian rebels. but the general says not true. >> and a month ago, andrea, you and i both this sources saying the arms have been okayed and they were already on their way. so there's something -- somebody is not being honest somewhere or arms are getting disrupted somewhere because there still seems to be confusion because the same -- we've got plenty of sources telling us that's not the case, wasn't the case a month ago. i'm starting to question about what exactly was right today versus what was right a month ago and i'm sure you're feeling the same way. >> exactly. general got a call from john kerry in the last hour or so tryin

remember all the years medvedev was our guy. as i always said he was the puppet. i'm sure you remember president george w. bush's favorite words about looking into his eyes and seeing his soul. i always said, looked into his eye and i saw three letters, a k., a g., and a b. let's have no illusions as to what he's about. yes, he's in a place of immense influence and status in the middle east which they haven't had since 1970. >> how does president obama dig us out of this? >> he's got to be firm. he's got to be decisive. i would have delayed talking to the american people once he pursued this opening of the pause. but he's got to explain to the american people what our goals are and why. why this matters in north korea. why this matters in israel. why this matters in tehran. >> or jordan. >> of course they are teetering. and in lebanon and iraq which has deteriorated. more killing is going on in iraq now than has taken place since 2008. it is now a center of al qaeda moving back and forth. things are going to hell in a handbasket here. look at egypt. look at what g

. >> when president putin who was prime minister when medvedev was and he came back into power, i think we saw more rhetoric on the russian side. >> we are extremely disappointed the russian government to take this step. >> i encouraged mr. putin to think forward as opposed to backwards. >> we have a lot of fish to fry, if you will, with the russians. >> obviously this is disputed by president putin. >> if the president of russia chooses yet again to ignore it, that's his choice. >> on syria, i said listen, i don't expect us to agree. >> because of the guaranteed russian obstruction -- >> we've seen two years of russian transjensen. >> blocked by the russians and resisted by russia. >> quite a recent history. the question is what, if anything, is different now. the obama administration seems to think something may have changed. joining me is senior fellow at the brookings institution for middle east policy and gloria borger. we just heard senator mccain saying he doesn't see how you can have credibility of the consequences of assad if it doesn't involvement the threat of military force,

he felt russians under his predecessor and really his subordinate at that point dmitry medvedev acquiesced to u.n. security council approval of a mission in libya to intervene for humanitarian purposes and becoming regime change with gadhafi being pushed out he feels the russians got burned and he doesn't want that to happen again. it's about america and russia as much as syria. >> katrina given your experience and understanding of moscow, what do you make of that idea is as much to do with u.s.-russia litigations and relitigating battles fought in the past as it does with the current situation in syria. >> i'm not the real expert, the expert is my husband stephen f. coen. we wrote an op-ed on the eve of the outbreak of diplomacy. the importance of that called "syria, the alternative to war." it's a broader look at the need to revive constructive u.s. russian relationship because so many issues run through that. vladimir putin has his own geopolitical politics. his narrative of what happened in the middle east in the last period, arab awakening is less democracy than eruption of extremism.

remember, president obama told medvedev before the election, that he would have more flexibility.did we know that meant removal of the spine. >> maria -- >> obviously -- yeah, go ahead. >> if the president signs this deal and he goes ahead with russia, and syria does not live up to their agreement, to this agreement, but instead live up to the reputation, what does that mean for the president, especially in moving forward, hoping for some military strike? >> well, and this is what i mean by steely resolve, victor. he has never taken the threat of military force off of the table. the rollout of this was, yes, absolutely messy, absolutely muddled, but at the end of the day, the president has never deviated from his priority of two things -- making sure to hold assad accountable for his use of chemical weapons, and more importantly, the priority, is to make sure that he did not have the opportunity to use those chemical weapons again. yes, he went to congress, because he said that we would be stronger as a country with that kind of support. and i think everybody agrees with that. but

remember when obama told medvedev he'd have more flexibility after the election? he's right. you look at russia. russia is now america's pawnbroker. they have robert kraft's super bowl ring from the new england patriots. they have edward snowden. our whistle blower. they now have our foreign policy. is it possible we could hock detroit to them? they might be able to do something. russia going to pick up chemical weapons, that's like dad taking the car keys from his son for a week. in a few days he'll get it back. it says something, though. it says that bob was right. that syria did it. because russia and syria are agreeing about the stockpile. but not the rebels' chemicals. they're not saying, here, take these. but you also have to take these. which means the rebels don't have chemical weapons. they weren't able to use them. what we've learned from all of this is that syria did commit this attack. that changes a lot. it changes my mind about a lot of things. it should change -- it should maybe strengthen our resolve about what do you do about this. because you can no longer s

fascinating story about how an artist in russia who had depicted president putin and prime minister medvedevn's undergarments, his gallery was seized. he was charged with inciting hatred if you will of there in russia. sort of a crackdown we've seen in this country. what can you tell us about this? >> reporter: that's right. the artist, the picture that he painted as you say shows putin's head on top of a woman's body, half naked body. so obviously it is a picture that president putin didn't like. there has been this clamp down on artists over the last year. what we did was woe flew two hours from here to meet his family. his little 2-year-old girl, his wife. he had to flee russia to paris. we spoke to them and about how frightened they are that if he came back he might be arrested. and we actually connected them up by skype so they could talk to each other, so he could see his little 2-year-old girl. it was a really emotional moment for them. but it just underlines that was president putin is opposing the u.s., he does face opponents here in russia. although he does at the same time have a

. >> vladimir putin in a woman's slip, brushing the hair of dmitry medvedev. >> i read polls like everybodyaking a monkey of obama. >> you have take it with a grain of salt initially. >> if this whole thing was set up by putin to make obama look like a monkey. >> that's what i'm going to name this. the obama operation in syria. >> you have to have super patience, super negotiating, super diplomacy. >> operation shuck and jive. because that's what this is. >> to get you in trouble tonight. >> no one should be faulted for being skeptical. >> that's up to you. i'm not responsible. >> or for being dumbfounded. >> putin has time after time after time made obama a monkey. >> why are you saying that? are you doing that to be provocative? >> no, i'm saying -- putin is playing with him. and making him look ridiculous. >> let's get right to our panel. joining us now is joy reid, managing editor of the agrgrio.. joy, for critics even of this president, you would think in a week like this, where we're reflecting on what to do, when a dictator murders children, adult civilians with chemical weapons, the

seemed to acquiesce in the intervention of libya and spent time complaining, while president dmitry medvedev's decision to go along with this. there's also some population interplay between syria and russia and putin has the sochi olympics coming up fast in 2014 as we get into the new year, the winter olympics in the southern part of russia and there are populations of peoples from that region who are expelled from the russian empire into the ottoman empire into what is now syria, 150 years ago and there's been lots of threats from terrorist groups and individuals in syria to bring back terrorist attacks to the old -- >> yes, yes. i read this. fiona, i want to go back to simon and have you ratify that. from the time of the efforts of the jewish people to get out of russia, we'd hear about the nationalities issue. the fear was that the jewish people were allowed to leave to go to the holy land or go to israel or to the united states or somewhere in the west, everybody would want out. this sense of everything coming apart. the biggest russian fear as they led their empire was they didn't belong

back at the relationship between the united states and russia and the president leaning over to medvedevelection i'm going to have a little more flexibility on this missile defense thing, because we know -- and there's a picture -- we know that you guys are not comfortable with some of the defense operations we want to deploy for our friends in eastern europe. and then you look at the fact that syria is deploying missile defense technology to syria, and, ralph, you know, it looks like we're getting walked all over in that venue as well. >> sure. because, again, putin will live up to what he says. if we destroy syrian military technology, putin will replace it. let me put the relationship in an everyday perspective for you. putin is a classic sadistic schoolyard bully, and obama's the geeky kid with the thick glasses and the armful of books. and putin enjoys beating on obama, and obama will always give up the lunch money, always. but let me -- there's a very, very short poem by a.e. houseman that just nails this. the russian bear is huge and wild, it has devoured the infant child. the inf

host: referring to the conversation with medvedev and president obama. guest: i would go back to the interest for our country and russia. i think in this case with syria it is our interest to get a peaceful resolution to the civil war and to see these chemical weapons be secured. it would be helpful to have some kind of organization other than the syrian regime to have control over these chemical weapons. i think russia has similar interests. explore where- these potentially interests may overlap, that we can get enforceable agreements in place that can be verified. i just think we have to find where our overlapping interests are and make sure there is an ability to verify each of these points. host: would you make of vladimir ed?in's op- guest: well, look. he is going to communicate in a way that he thinks he gets the most of his interests. the track record here is not a good one when it comes to their involvement in other countries across the world and their relations. we talk specifically about who provided the chemical weapons. they are trying to pos

if you look at his entire tenure to include that brief interlude with medvedev as the president, willer this. russia is losing a million people a year. the only thing that they have up until now is they have oil and gas and nuclear weapons. and it is a dying country. they have no credibility in any part of the world. we now have handed them the middle east in the mediterranean. putin's goal has been to keep assad in power. now he has the entire middle east in his hands because he's the savior of the obama administration. this is a disaster of unparallel magnitude in our foreign policy because of the flacid, irresolute -- the resolute desk sits in the oval office. i sat beside a president of the united states at that desk. they ought to pull it out of there with obama in office. >>brian: some say not since anwr sadat kicked them out of egypt have the russians had such a prominent roul. it is because president obama is about to fail in congress so he's basically gone to russia. >> and failed globally because he couldn't find an ally besides france. this is not a foreign policy. >>brian:

artist behind this painting depicting russian's president vladimir putin and prime minister dimitri medvedevseeking asylum in france after his work was confiscated by russian officials. keir simmons joins us hive live on how the punishment is affecting the family. keir that. >> good morning. amid all the fwgeopolitics it's easy to forget president putin faces his own opposition amongst artists. we traveled a two hour flight out of moscow to where that g-20 meeting is taking place to meet the family of this ar tigs. they are taking a real risk by speaking out. it is the first time they've let the cameras in. in far away northern russia, a bizarre painting, mocking russia's powerful president, giving him a woman's body, has torn a family apart. this girl is 2 years old, her father, the painting's artist is thousands of miles away from the family, her mother must hold herself together. >> i am afraid. afraid. >> you're scared? >> yes. >> they live in a small town, but her husband fled to paris a week ago. he fears if he returns, he will be arrested. police closed the art gallery. this week the

host: referring to the conversation with medvedev and president obama. guest: i would go back to the interest for our country and russia. i think in this case with syria it is our interest to get a peaceful resolution to the civil war and to see these chemical weapons be secured. it would be helpful to have some kind of organization other than the syrian regime to have control over these chemical weapons. i think russia has similar interests. that does not guarantee an agreement. it is an entrÉe to explore discussions where these interests may overlap. i just think we have to find where our overlapping interests are and make sure there is an ability to verify each of these points. host: what do you make of vladimir putin's op-ed? guest: well, look. he is going to communicate in a way that he thinks he gets the most of his interests. the track record here is not a good one when it comes to their involvement in other countries across the world and their relations. we talk specifically about who provided the chemical weapons. they are trying to position the