we begin this hour with michelle kosinski in moscow. >> reporter: four hours of crucial, contentious talks with russian officials, including an unscheduled meeting with president vladimir putin himself. secretary of state rex tillerson and russian foreign minister sergey lavrov finally faced the press. >> the current straight state of u.s.-russia relations is at a low point. there is a low level of trust between our two countries. the world's two foremost nuclear powers cannot have this kind of relationship. >> translator: the many hours we spent with rex tillerson together and with the president of the russian federation were not spent in vein. we understand each other better. >> reporter: the most that was likely to come from this, an agreement to keep on talking. a working group to tackle the most critical issues. president trump also weighed in today from the white house. >> right now we're not getting along with russia at all. we may be at an all time low in terms of relationship with russia. >> reporter: dark shades of the deep divisions still seep through all the attempts at c

let's bring in michelle kosinski. the president says what happened in syria changed his views. >> pictures and details out of syria are resonating powerful fully all over the world and including with the president. what we heard from him today was not something scripted. so now the world watches and waits for the response and the u.s. has gone from first off blaming the obama administration to now a much harder line. today loudly calling out syrian president assad and loudly calling out russia and iran and calling for some kind of action. the world right now seeing these pictures of what many are calling another war crime in syria by the assad regime against its own people. killing dozens, families and children left gasping for breath and dying. the president clearly moved. >> that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me. a big impact. that was a horrible, horrible thing and i've been watching it and seeing it and it doesn't get any worse than that. my attitude toward syria and assad has changed very much.

our diplomatic correspondent michelle kosinski has the very latest for us. michelle, rare remarks, tough remarks by the secretary of state. >> reporter: right, and no one doubts that iran is continuing its destabilizing activity around the world, but the secretary of state's remarks just add to some of the confusion today especially over what exactly the administration is going for here because this is the very day that the administration officially certified to congress as it's supposed to do every 990 days that iran is keeping up its end of the iran nuclear deal, so they spelled that out, but at the same time said that the administration is now beginning a review of the nuclear deal and specifically whether the u.s.' lifting of sanctions which is a key part of that deal are in the u.s. national security interests, and if the u.s. decided to reimpose those sanctions, there would be no iran nuclear deal, and iran could continue with activity, however way it wanted, so secretary of state tillerson then comes out today with a long list of the ways that iran con

our senior diplomatic correspondent michelle kosinski is joining us live from moscow. and ben wedeman is at the border between syria and turkey. michelle, what does it say that president putin has been meeting now apparently for so long with secretary tillerson? >> reporter: well, even the fact that he has agreed to meet with him, that he scheduled this, is kind of part of the theater of the whole trip. the state department officials say they did expect this meeting to happen at some point, but president vladimir putin broke with precedence. he would normally expect and schedule to meet with any u.s. secretary of state. but this time he kind of strung the state department along for days. they couldn't even put it on the schedule definitively. it came up without warning, even though tillerson had some time blocked out. the traveling u.s. press was kept back at a separate location. so it's likely that the only pictures or information that comes out of this is going to come from the kremlin, that we'll hear from this press conference. so we know that the state department t

michelle kosinski reporting from moscow tonight. joining us now, democratic senator bob menendez of new jersey, a member of the senate foreign relations committee. senator, thanks for joining us. >> good to be with you. >> so you just heard president trump say it's certainly possible russia knew about the syrian chemical attack, but he would like to think they didn't. is that positive? what's your reaction to his leaving that door open somewhat? >> yeah, i think that when your intelligence tells you that they likely knew about it or maybe did know about it without doubt and then the most latest information about there being a monitoring of the hospital where people were brought after the attack and then a russian bombing of that hospital which would suggest they are trying to cover up the information, i don't know why you would leave the door open, and this is a continuing sago that we have with the administration as it relates to calling out russia. one thing is to say our relationships are at an all-time low and the other is to ca

michelle kosinski is live with more. michelle, tell us the latest from there. has there been a reaction to what secretary tillerson has already said? >> not in direct response to his comments which just happened. but any minute now we're expecting to hear from vladimir putin. he's going to be -- he's getting out of a meeting with his italian counterpart. it's really about their meeting but he's bound to take questions or make some comment on the state of this relationship. in fact, he may not even meet with secretary of state tillerson when tillerson arrives here. if he doesn't, that in itself speaks volumes about how things are right now. we've been hearing extremely strong statements from russia over the last few days. calling the u.s. strikes in syria an act of aggression. they are inadmissible, violate national law and the u.s. is getting closer, they said, to clashes with russia. so there's been this reporting that the meeting between secretary tillerson and russia, whether it's just the foreign minister or vladimir putin is going to be tough. it's somethi

action in syria, but seemingly also to the statements made by rex tillerson, michelle kosinski is there. what are you hearing, michelle? >> reporter: john, russia has strongly denounced those u.s. strikes, calling them inadmissible and aggressive. now vladimir putin compares them to the second iraq war. >> translator: that this resembles very much the situation of 2003 and the war in iraq. there was a campaign launched in iraq and it finished with the emergence of isis on the international agreement. >> so a warning to the u.s. look at what the consequences could be. of course, the u.s. saying this was very narrowly targeted. that it wasn't targeting russia. that it meant to not do any that were to people that were in the area, that there was a warning given. that it was really meant to send a message and to try to prevent chemical attacks. but russia sees this as, again, an aggressive action. and they keep warning the united states against doing more harm down the road if this continues. >> all right, michelle kosinski for us in moscow. thanks so much. >>> another hot spot in the world

. >> let's go to michelle kosinski. this is the biggest, no question, foreign policy test, multi-pronged foreign policy test that this administration is facing. >> yeah, and we saw this interesting statement yesterday put out by the state department, kind of unexpected language saying north korea launched yet another intermediate range ballistic missile. the united states has spoken enough about north korea. we have no further comment. >> to put that out in written statement form it's clear that the secretary of state wanted this to be something different. it's clear that they wanted that vagueness to be built into it. of course, the question that people are now debating is in diplomacy and in such a sensitive, important, urgent situation, is that vagueness going to be helpful or is it going to be harmful? that's a question that no one can really answer right now, but we just heard from the state department. we were able to question them about what message exactly they were trying to send with this statement, and they d

she's a cnn white house reporter and michelle kosinski is our medical correspondent.thing has been said publicly yet. tell me more about the visit. >> well, it's sort of -- i hate to put it a label of typical. it's somewhat typical for a first lady visit. it's often common to go visit a school, to have a little roundtable, talk about how the school functions. this is not queen rania's first rodeo. this is her fourth. she's been with laura bush and michele obama and hillary clinton. ivan melania is just learning. they went to the joint press conference and now they just returned from the school visit. >> i know queen rania was over at the trump tower in early january meeting with ivanka trump. they were talking about women issues. michelle, i don't know if you were at the state department or where that event was with melania last week. how did that go? how comfortable is she with this kind of thing and what more can you talk about with this visit with the queen? >> the last appearance, i think that there wasn't a person in the room after ward -- because there was a lau

>> all right, michelle kosinsky. in moscow tonight. more now, the president shifting views on nato and russia. he admitted to doing a 180. taking credit for making it possible. and like so much else today, it's a far cry from what he said before. >> do you think the united states needs to rethink u.s. involvement in nato? >> yes, because it's costing us too much money. number one nato is obsolete, number two, the countries in nato are not paying their fair share. it's obsolete and we pay too much money. it's obsolete. in my opinion, nato is obsolete. here's the problem with nato, it's obsolete. it's 67 years, or over of 0 years old, what i said to wolf blitzer that nato was obsolete, i got attacked. three days later people who study nato say, you know, trump is right. >> today's a different story, just before air time i spoke about it to our professionals. tony blinken and christian amanpour. it's hard not to kind of have a whiplash with all of this. i mean, obviously politicians say one thing when they're running for office, something

i'm joined by michelle kosinski and becky anderson, i want to begin with you. you just wrapped this exclusive interview with turkey's president. you tell me, becky, what did erdogan say about those questioning this referendum victory and that phone call from the president of the united states? >> reporter: brook, i straige, up asked him, the sweeping powers that gifts him is the slow march to dictatorship here in turkey. his response, i'm a mere mortal. this is bigger than one man. this is not about erdogan but reforming a system that over the years created deadlock, he says, that he blames for crippling the country and causing a military coup. i also asked erdogan about that call he had with donald trump and congratulated his tissue iss turkish counterpart. >> translator: he said congratulations and it was a time when they were celebrating the easter festival. it was very pleasing. he congratulated me for the outcome and we talked about our relationship in the forthcoming period. he shared with me his views about that and about syria. and i shared my views wit

. >> michelle kosinski in moscow. thank you. we are waiting for the press conference from secretary tillerson and president lavrov. even when things are tense, back in my days covering the white house, when you go to a big meeting like this, normally they try to turn the temperature down and saying, yes, we acknowledge differences, but we'll see if we can work together. instead, putin says the united states violated international law. donald trump says he's associated himself with an animal. the russians say there's a way to move forward here, stop launching military strikes. both sides, forgive me, ladies, but this seems to be a testosterone moment. >> it seems like a changed tone for the president. he's one of the really last officials left in this town in washington who is not conveying the obvious about russia here, but in his interview this morning, he's getting there. but look, this is a high-stakes moment. but so interesting, every movement that this president has, every drama inside the white house, plays out on the worl

michelle kosinski is live with us from moscow.ere once quite on friendly terms and now tillerson is in moscow and it's possible that putin might not even meet with him. >> reporter: yeah. hi, jake, right. it was four years ago rex tillerson was in moscow being awarded the order of friendship by president vladimir putin. today he arrived as u.s. secretary of state, friendship being the last word you would use to describe these two governments right now, and at this point putin won't even schedule a meeting with him. well, tillerson prepares to confront russia over its role in syria. tonight secretary of state rex tillerson in moscow about to i attempt one of his toughest conversations, to tell the foreign minister, if not vladimir putin himself, who has not scheduled a meeting with him that russia needs to rethink its backing of syrian president bashar al assad and that the u.s. will hold russia accountable for the continuing carnage there. >> it's clear to all of us that the reign of the assad family is coming to an end. we are no

we have all of the angles covered for you starting with cnn's senior diplomatic correspondent michelle kosinski. she is in moscow right now. michelle, what is the very latest you're hearing of the high-stakes meeting, where things are and where things are headed? >> reporter: we saw them going into this meeting with the tension says just blatantly on display. usually there is this period of time when cameras are alloweded in and there are pleasantries exchanged and it all looks very official and welcoming, but you saw the russian foreign minister just launch right into it. it was clear that he wanted to project a position of him being the host, that russia says the u.s. is doing something wrong. i mean, he called the u.s. strikes on syria a violation of international law and said that they need to stop. he also took that opportunity to slam the state department and they had so many positions unfilled. it's been hard to communicate with the united states. then there was an interview with russian president vladimir putin. as you mentioned, he talked about the relationship getting worse, actually

michelle kosinski is in the russian capital and joins us now. so, what is tillerson's agenda as far as we know. do we know if, in fact, he will be meeting with president putin? >> reporter: well, the state department expected that meeting to happen because that's what always happens. as long as putin's been in office, he meets with u.s. secretaries of state. but then suddenly this notion kind of evaporated. the russians aren't saying anything about whether putin will find time to meet with tillerson. it hasn't been scheduled. it almost seems in some of their responses like they're trying to string the americans along. the state department says tillerson will meet with putin if he is asked. but look at the message that sends about the state of the relationship, the fact that it hasn't even been scheduled yet. as for the u.s. message, tillerson wants to confront his counterpart, the russian foreign minister, about their stance supporting assad. the u.s. wants to, quote, get them to rethink that stance and also to reinforce that the u.s. is going t

joining me now, elise labott, who was at the united nations, michelle kosinski at the state department and also with us, kimberly dozier and frank sesno. elise labott, in terms of new policy there, the secretary of state talked about a new pressure campaign on north korea that he says will be quickly implemented and difficult for the north koreans to take. >> that's right, john. essentially forcing north korea to the table. it's very similar to the campaign that the u.s. tried to institute against iran several years ago, which led to those, you know, breakthrough nuclear talks and that nuclear deal. i think it will be a little bit more difficult for north korea, because they're not as much of a member of the international community as iran was, but essentially, he's talking about everybody cutting north korea off, be it trade, be it diplomatically, any effort to deny the north korean regime any type of revenue that could fund their nuclear and missile programs. and so, that's, whether it's the guest workers that go into various countries and send money home, diplomatic missions are als

we begin this hour with michelle kosinski in moscow.

michelle kosinski says they have not extended that invitation. is that, to use your phraseology from the weekend, is that an f-u to the united states? >> putin is a weak figure when you look at it he's dominating his countsry by killing opposition. he's stolen his people blind. by not meeting with tillerson he's trying to act tough but it shows his weakness. the fact he won't meet with tillerson tells me truch dmp die right thing. >> really? how does it mean he did the right thing? don't you want to force russia to the negotiating table? how does them not meeting after this strike mean he did the right thing? >> it means that he sees our actions to be strong, not weak. >> okay. >> he's saying i won't meet with you. he says that assad did not commit this chemical attack. trump says he did. here's what trump needs to tell russia, iran and assad. you won't use air power anymore to slaughter people in syria. if you drop a barrel bomb, we'll hit you again. we'll establish safe havens. here's what i think russia would do. if they saw assad begin to los

let's start with michelle kosinski live in moscow. >> reporter: we saw the meeting begin with rex tillerson and the russian foreign minister with the handshake. the russian foreign minister calling the u.s. air strikes a violation of international law and saying they need to stop and then the dig of the top spots of the state department not filled. the secretary of state tried to find areas of cooperation. also this morning, we're hearing from president trump and the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley on this subject. >> frankly, putin is backing a person that's truly an evil person. and i think it's very bad for russia. i think it's very bad for mankind. it's very bad for this world. >> anything russia says at this point, no one is believing it. the international community sees it for what it is. the international community has watched russia cover up assad for years. >> reporter: that photo op before an important meeting is called a spray. cameras come in and a few pleasa pleasantries changed or a handshake or nod and they are getting the cordial meeting under way. not this time. one

joining me is michelle kosinski, senior diplomatic correspondent. -old man whose previous job was running his father's real estate firm and now this de facto secretary of state. that's how some people are describing it. what isn't he involved in it? >> he's tasked with everything from leading american innovation and reworking the entire government to solving the midwest peace crisis. you have heard president trump say things about him after his inauguration like he's the good k kid. . if anybody can solve middle east peace, it's him. he's a good deal maker. everybody likes him. but then you have career diplomats looking at the situation like here's somebody with zero diplomatic experience. how is this going to work? the president has entrusted him to have this kind of influence, to have these kinds of conversations around the world. it's caused this kind of rift when you look at what he's doing versus what tillerson is doing. who has the more influential role with the president. i think that's probably obvious. given that kushner is his son-in-law af

our senior diplomatic correspondent michelle kosinski joins us live from the state department. he president clearly has put a lot of trust in his son-in-law. but others aren't necessarily as confident. >> reporter: wolf, would that everyone could have this kind of relationship with their in-laws. kushner has gone from son-in-law to close adviser to his go-to guy on you name it. this is a guy with no experience who has been tasked with spurring american innovation and orchestrating mid-east peace among other things. this has more than raised eyebrows around the world, even caused confusion among foreign diplomats, wondering who they're supposed to be talking to, and why. more than a seat at the table. trump's son-in-law and senior adviser jared kushner seems to be at the head of nearly every table at the white house, from streamlining the government to solving peace in the middle east. president trump told one newspaper, tonight kushner is in iraq invited by the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff to see the situation firsthand and get an update on the fight against isis prompt

. >> michelle kosinski, appreciate the reporting.ng me, tony blinken and fareed zakaria. >> it seems highly implausible to me. it's surprising something like this hasn't happened earlier. you have the thinnest staffing of an administration that i can recall, it might even be in history. you have hundreds and hundreds of positions that have not been filled in the state department and defense department. you have a skeleton crew. a president that does not pay an enormous amount of regard to the accuracy of statements and therefore perhaps there was an urge to send a signal without making sure they had all their ducks in a row. >> it's possible this was planned. it just would seem like a very weird plan, frankly. >> is it possible this whole good cop/bad cop theory is real? >> it's possible but not very probable. what i heard is that the state department's statement had to be elicited from the department. in otherwards, didn't put it out affirmatively. you'd think you'd want to get your bad cop statement out there and have the president

. >> michelle kosinski reporting from moscow for us. thank you very much. let's get more on all of this. secretary-general of nato stoltenberg is joining us here. secretary-general, thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> you had a very extensive day of talks with the president of the united states. we saw your news conference. first of all, he no longer thinks nato is obsolete. i assume you are happy about that. >> yes, i am. i think that reflect the reality that nato is adapting when the world is changing. we have been able to change -- >> he told you, he is not happy. it is not moving as quickly as he would like. he still upsbet that, right? >> i told him about he is pushing for more adap nation that nato has to continue to change especially when it comes to stepping up efforts and fighting international terrorism. we do but we can do more and also it comes to sharing inside the lines and many allies have to invest more in defense. >> let's start off now with russia. do you believe russia knew that syria was going to launch the chemical

. >> michelle kosinski. >> thank you very much. >> coming up of ties of the russians russians. are they set to get back on track, we have an update for you on capitol hill, live, coming up. 's here. [wife] hi [dad] hey buddy [son] hey dad [wife] i think we can do this. [chancellor] adam baily. [chancellor] adam baily. >>> breaking news from capitol hill of looking into the russian ties o f the 2016 election. about an hour from now we are learning. this is coming from the committee seems to fall apart last week with the ranking members of adam schiff and others calling for republican chair nunes. intel committee is working on this issue. michael flynn requested immunity for his testimony on this investigation into the trump administration in ties of russia. >> he joins us what -- they scrapped all the meetings last week and they are getting together in an hour, ? >> they have been calling for chair nunes recusal. nunes is saying he's not going anywhere. you will start to see the two sides coming together and we'll see who to bring forward. on the senate side, they're finding int

we have michelle kosinski live in moscow. >> reporter: alisyn, you have the two-hour meeting beginning with secretary of state rex tillerson and russian foreign minister sergei lavrov. a time for pleasantries and welcoming. lavrov slamming u.s. strikes on syria as a violation of international law. something he said should not be repeated. he took the opportunity to criticize the state department. saying how difficult it's been to talk to them because there are still so many high level positions that have not been filled. tillerson, for his part, stuck to cordiality and this being an opportunity to move forward. also this morning, you have the russian government slamming u.s. rhetoric as privative and loudish. you have vladimir putin saying things have gotten worse under president trump. we are also hearing from president trump himself and the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley. >> frankly, putin is backing a person that's truly an evil person and i think it's very bad for russia. i think it's very bad for mankind. it's very bad for this world. >> anything the russians say at this

michelle kosinski is there traveling with secretary tillerson. what did you make about the interactions between these two men, the secretary of state and foreign minister? >> reporter: yeah. we know obviously these were difficult conversations to have. for four hours they sat down. half of that time, two hours with president putin. and you know how he is when he speaks. i don't think for that reason this was the time or the place to bring hard evidence. those accusations have been out there for a long time. the u.s. has stated clearly what its position is there. i don't think this was the time or the place to level the accusations, to demand action right now. i'm sure that secretary tillerson and based on what other u.s. officials have said, made the point clearly that russia would be held accountable for its actions and how the u.s. feels about backing assad. i think what you saw in this press conference, it was really interesting, especially in the beginning, they're wanting to focus and highlight areas of cooperation but the situation is so ba

let's start with michelle kosinski live in moscow. >> reporter: we saw the meeting begin with rex tillerson foreign minister with the handshake. the russian foreign minister calling the u.s. air strikes a violation of international law and saying they need to stop and then the dig t

joining me now from the state department to discuss, diplomatic correspondent michelle kosinski with the view from the state department right now on what's the rhetoric coming from north korea and how they're responding? >> reporter: yeah, i mean, we've seen a couple of statements. they don't want to get too much into this american detained in north korea, even though that's, again, another escalation. so, they're acknowledging that, that it's a serious situation, but because of privacy concerns, they can't get into details. we are going to have a briefing later today, so they'll be able to tell us really as much as they can under those constraints. but on everything else north korea has been doing, including this new threat to sink a u.s. ship, they've put out a statement that was kind of interesting, especially given the u.s. rhetoric that we've heard lately, i mean, things like no option is off the table, open talk about a military option, talk of the u.s. potentially going it alone. the statement that the state department put out was pretty restrained, actually emphasizing the ne

. >> let's turn now to cnn's michelle kosinski in moscow and pentagon correondent barbara starr. let's begin with you as we're moments away from this news conference with the secretary of defense. what are you expecting -- what should we all expect to hear presumably on syria from general mattis? >> brooke, as the pentagon briefing room begins to fill up, in 25 minutes, we expect secretary mattis to walk in accompanied by the four-star said of central command, the man who oversaw the strike on the syrian air base. there's going to be questions about how that strike happened and what kind of damage it actually inflicted on the syrians. we know that the u.s. missiles either dabmaged or destroyed 23 aircraft, about 20%, according to the pent goagon, of syria's operating air force. also, russian complicity. the u.s. military and u.s. intelligence committee are investigating this very question. what they do know is there was a russian drone in the area and unidentified aircraft dropped a bomb after the chemical attack. russians were at the air base. there's russian chemical weapons ex

michelle kosinski is cnn's senior diplomatic correspondent and colonel cedric leighton, military analystnd former member of the joint chiefs of staff. thank you all for joining me. a big week on the foreign policy front. michelle, this is the first visit to the white house for an egyptian leader since 2009. when you kind of look at this, as we're going to be waiting to see the egyptian president arrive a little later this hour, what does president trump want to get out of this important meeting? >> that's a good question. i mean, i think there's a lot more at stake for egypt here. they're being welcomed back into the fold. i mean, the red carpet is practically being rolled out for him, so this is a huge deal for egypt. look what it says about the u.s.'s view of his presidency, his legitimacy in the world. so he's sending a message to his own people. what he wants, of course, is additional aid from the united states and a stronger relationship. so what trump has to gain is really a new look at the relationship and what he hopes will be a strong ally in the fight against isis. trump and hi