ambassador to russia michael mcfaul.sador, you basically said today as this was going on, i had a lot of ways of interacting with the secretary, they weren't e-mail. what do you mean by that? >> well, i was just watching the -- i was on a plane actually and listening to the back and forth about e-mail. it just struck me that maybe people don't understand how communications work in the state department or in the u.s. government. the main way of communicating with the secretary is through a system of cables. now, that's an ancient word, but it's electronic and it works kind of like e-mail by the way. and you communicate to your assistant secretary or the undersecretary or when very urgent to the secretary of state. and if it's something that you want to do classified, it's all classified, but if you want to do something sensitive directly to the secretary, you have a channel to do that, as well. then if addition, there's phone calls, there's the videoconferences. and in a case of emergency, and this happened to me a couple

joining us now is michael mcfaul, former ambassador to russia, professor of political science at stanforde to have you with us tonight. >> great to be back. thanks. >> for people who especially detainee follow this stuff closely, and who have been hearing vaguely worrying things about putin and his level of aggressiveness for a while, how would you explain how serious this is right now that the u.s. military and the russian military are operating in the same space with quite a bit of overlap. >> extremely serious in that the consequences of some kind of accident are pretty dire. and the probability of that is pretty high. i was just thinking about it listening to the interview when the last time we actually did have forces in there kind of territory before. maybe vietnam. there's allegedly there were some russian pilots flying around in vietnam. but if you take that out, that's not historically, it's not been proven. it didn't happen during the cold war. the only time it happened was whether he we were on the same side in world war ii. it's a scary moment for the pentagon as they try to r

. >> ambassador michael mcfaul, thank you for your time. >>> up next, my interview with a democraticak. this is t that wrong. the idea was to bring capital into the affordable housing space in south africa, with a fund that offers families of modest income safe and good accommodation. citi got involved very early on and showed an enormous commitment. and that gave other investors confidence. citi's really unique, because they bring deep understanding of what's happening in africa. i really believe we only live once, and so you need to take an idea that you have and go for it. you have the opportunity to say, "i've been part of the creation of over 27,000 units of housing," and to replicate this across the entire african continent. if you have moderate to severe ...isn't it time to let the... ...real you shine... ...through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection, or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab m

also joining us, ambassador michael mcfaul, who served as ambassador of russia from january 201 to februarymbassador pickering, what was your reaction to what was said about you today and your investigation during that hearing? >> well, one can't help but be pleased and a little embarrassed by the kind remarks from elijah cummings. for whom i have a great deal of respect. i watched him throughout the process and he was, in every sense of the word, a defender of probity, a defender of what i would call honesty and a defender of trying to call it like it was. and in that sense, somebody in my position cannot help to be but deeply obliged to somebody who in his position went out of his way to rise to my personal defense, but, of course, it was also in every sense of the word to help to defend the integrity of our report. which we labored over mighty for a period of several months and did the very best we all could. and i was honored to work very closely with admiral mike mullen, with three other distinguished public servants at the same time to produce that report, because we felt that it was

ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul; and joshua landis: he's director for middle east studies at theity of oklahoma. we welcome you both back to the program. ambassador mcfaul, let me start with you. before i ask about these diplomatic talks in vienna, what effect do you think this operation, this announcement of putting special operations forces into iraq is going to have on any effort to resolve syria diplomatically? >> well, i think it will be in the margins but not a direct effect. i think it really does have to do with the desire by the obama administration to be more effective against i.s.i.l. as secretary kerry said today, under operation inhent resolve, they've now attacked -- they've had 7300 airstrikes to little effect and now i think they're doubling down in particular with the actors that they think have been most effective before, but it was a station identification for our russian interlocutors and everybody else that we are involved in syria and that our people and partners in syria have to be part of a negotiated process. >> woodruff: joshua landis, how do you see thi

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