what do you think mr putin made of that? it's very hard to predict what mr putin would do, but it also very unlikely that he would recognise any influence to any political process and as he said, he denies it, all the time. we are unlikely will hear that yeah, we actually influenced the elections in the us, even if so. yeah, it's really hard to predict, but merkel she said that she's not afraid of russian influence, but still she pointed out that it might be the disinformation, the cyber attacks, and in that case they will act appropriately. one other issue that came up, thank you for that, is chechnya. and mrs merkel took this time to talk about homosexuality there. yes, there was a big scandal raised up in russian media, in the russian oppositional media about a month ago. they published materials about chechen gays, which fled from russia because of torturing, as they said and pressuring and even killing people by some government forces in chechnya. the leader of chechnya already has denied everything, saying there is no

it seemed that mr putin takes this criticism for granted by. he hear so much of that.ct he didn't talk about ukraine much. it seems that he tries not to concentrate on hard topics, but to look at those which may bring some opportunity for dialogue, some opportunity for common language. he did not concentrate on hard areas, but especially tried to talk about those things which may bring countries together, because they don't need allies —— because he does need allies, he does need leaders to top two in this europe, this consta ntly top two in this europe, this constantly changing environment. what was on this for macron? this is early in his present in six. —— early in his present in six. —— early in his presidency. on syria, he said use of chemical weapons in the future, france will strike back. against the regime of assad. we know that russia has been backing this regime for quite some time. emanuel macron was very tough on putin over syria. we have 20 that the former president did not get along with bar to putted. he was supposed to come to putted. he was supposed to

even though the election is over, mr. putin and russian intelligence services are trying to actively exploit what is going on now in washington to their benefit and to our detriment. >> follow up again on mr. rooney's questions, when you had these concerns raised about the russian efforts and their potential effort to sub born u.s. persons to their cause in the hacking operation, did you take steps to set up an organizational structure to analyze the russian campaign so members of the fbi, cia, nsa and other agencies would look at these allegations in a cohesive fashion? >> yes, and i also recognize that this was an exceptionally, exceptionally sensitive issue. an active counterintelligence case, trying to stop and uncover what the russian intelligence activities were. in the midst of a hotly debated presidential campaign. that included information that may have involved u.s. persons' contacts with russia, whether benign or not. therefore, one of the key pieces of any type of counterintelligence effort is to compartment that ef

mr. putin has an election in march of next year.aking the strong approach, he thinks will be good for his image. imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, marine le pen is very fond of her defeated rival francoise fillon. excerpt from both speeches. even if you don't speak french, you will understand what the fuss is all about. [overlapping french] tim: you would think they would beat red faces over such a faux pas, but they are saying that speech was a nod to mr. fillon and that she was not sectarian. i spoke to gavin lee who is not a marine le pen event in paris. marine le pen has just arrived. this is extremely embarrassing one would have thought. gavin: but she has said, the speech was a carbon copy it of what france were fillon said a month ago. she said she copied it, but it was a nod to his supporters. she said a lot of the speech was nothing to do with what fillon had to say, but journalists would not have picked up on it if she had not have mentioned it. others here, part of macron's campaign said it is a counter strateg

guest: mr. putind -- president macron made a clear statement saying why he excluded some russian outlet from the campaign earlier this year because it is a propaganda agent from the russian state. it was a clear statement but not the point of the meeting today. it was more reaching out and trying to look to the future. sarah: when of the things that was so top of mind for these accusations that russia hacked macron's emails, releasing them the weekend before the election. and that putin met with macron's challenger in moscow. guest: i think they tried to put the issues aside to look towards the real challenges on the table. russia, ukraine, bringing the country together. that was mainly the focus of the meeting, trying to build up new relations between france and russia with this new administration in france. sarah: new relations. do you think it is possible? luc: i think so. macron has kind of a mix of the position of the former president, of which he was an aid. with syria, it was like an early holl

joked, and putin or the russian secret services, hejoked, and that putin or the russian secret services, he joked, and that was very bad of mrmany put—downs. he said there was political schizophrenia in there was political schizophrenia in the united states, he said those people in america spreading anti—russian sentiments were either stupid or dangerous and dishonest. he talked about the internal political struggle in america. as for his offer to provide a transcript of the meeting, to provide that to the congress and the senate, i don't think you see risley believes that if russia was to provide a transcript on kremlin headed notepaper that it would make the crisis go away. i think it was another attempt to have a dig at america while the scandals were swirling around the lighthouse. —— the white house. stay with us on outside source — still to come... there has been documentation of how the damage to a liberal‘s electric system has affected the light available to the people who live there. lloyds bank, which was bailed out by the taxpayer at the height of the financial crisis, has returned to full private ownership. it wa

i think mr. putin would like to see more involvement, so yes. investment, russian is there an expectation that they are going to provide information to president putin about what is going on in the united dates -- united states? mr. brennan: i would fully think that the russian oligarchs are tapped for russian information. >> were any of the oligarchs investing in u.s. properties by then real estate trump? mr. brennan: i do not know the answer. are you aware that in 2015 alone there were 106 visas granted to russians for investing in the united states in amounts of money is a $500,000 or more, they are called eb five visas? mr. brennan: i am unaware. >> within the cia you did not investigate those who were granted eb five visas? mr. brennan: if they come across our screens they may have intelligence, but i'm not aware of a lot of information that the cia collect it. date,2014, the united european union and canada imposed sanctions on russia in response to their invasion of ukraine and crimea. the sanct

again, i think that mr. putin wants sanctions removed sooner rather than later. >> so, that's -- you would say it's one of his top, if not very top policy objectives in dealing with the united states? >> it's certainly -- it's a key one, but it's more dealing with us indirectly by trying to wean the european nations off of the sanctions wagon. >> so, egor sechin, who was the ceo of rosneft, and rex tillers tillerson, ceo of exxonmobil, were doing a deal in russia that was about $1 billion, i believe. the sanctions that were imposed in 2014 shut that down. is that correct? >> i believe so. i'm not sure. >> so, again, it would make the case that the impacts on russia are grave in terms of the sanctions? let me ask you another question. there have been reports in newspapers that british and dutch intelligence had provided information about meetings in european cities between russian officials associated with president putin and associates of the trump campaign. is that how you first found out about those meetings? >>

putin. last month mr. trump said u.s.-russia relations may be at an all time low. during the campaign mr. trump praised putin, one of several authoritarian leaders he had good things to say about comments that drawn sharp criticism. >> reporter: topics on the agenda of president trump's scheduled call with the russian leader will include the war in syria and missile testing in north korea. the president is also taking heat for saying in an interview yesterday he would be honored to meet north korean leader kim jong-un. trump is due to speak with vladimir putin later today. the civil war in syria and kim jong-un are strong topics. >> people tried to take his power away. he was able to do it. so, obviously, he's a pretty smart cookie. >> reporter: mr. trump says his biggest foreign policy concern is the rogue nation and his nuclear program. >> he has nuclear weapons. he has 28,000 troops on the line. they are right there. i'll act if i have to act. >> reporter: overnight south korea said two u.s. bombers were deployed over the korean peninsula in a joint drill. and a spokesperson confirmed t

mr putin insisted any claim of russian meddling was nonsense. from paris, lucy williamson. despite the sweltering weather, this meeting held a touch of frost from the start. at the entrance to france's versailles palace, the two leaders greeted each other with brief handshakes and small, grim smiles. two hours later after their first meeting, the mood was, if anything, even cooler. france and russia have backed different groups in the syrian conflict. mr macron said while france didn't want to destabilise the syrian state, there are red lines that must not be crossed. translation: i stressed again in my meeting with president putin ourfirm objection. there's a very clear line that exists on our part and that's the use of chemical weapons by whoever it may be. the use of chemical weapons will be the object of immediate retaliation on the part of the french. the two leaders are also divided on the situation in ukraine, with the russian president condemning the sanctions imposed on his country as a result of the crisis. translation: the sanctions against russia aren't helping

however, all that didn't put mr. putin off his game today. he went on to score seven goals. >> pelley: not even vladimir putin checks elizabeth palmer. liz, thanks very much. with james comey out at the f.b.i., acting director andrew mccabe has taken over the russian investigation. our justice correspondent jeff pegues brings us up to date on that. >> reporter: sources tell cbs news that f.b.i. investigation had been picking up speed in recent weeks and that it now includes grand jury subpoenas. james comey's request last week for more money and resources was a sign the probe was far from over. now sources say there is a worry the investigation, as well as separate congressional probes, will slow down. republican richard burr is the chairman of the senate intelligence committee. >> an interruption in any of the access we have to documents and personnel would be harmful to our investigation. it wouldn't in any way, shape, or form preclude us from coming to a conclusion, but it might sources say f.b.i. agents in this country and overseas have b

mr. putin's friends might have assets in the united states being held for mr. putin? >> that's a possibility. >> who would know that? the same person box mexico i would guess so. >> okay, if the intelligence community and the attorney general knew all of this information about mr. flynn, how did he get a security clearance? that he had had a conversation with the russian ambassador about sanctions. >> that was late, the 29th of december or so. as reported in the media when that took place. >> january 19, i think. how did he get security clearance? >> well, he had a security clearance. he had a was a career military intelligence officer. i don't know the specifics of when his cell -- fell due. you are supposed to get a periodic investigation. i don't know the details of that. it would probably be done by his old agency, defense intelligence agency. >> don't you have to get additional security clearance to serve in the white house? figure you do. as i indicated before, the process -- i don't know how it's done in this administration. my own knowledge of how it was done w

mr. putin's friends might have assets in the united states being held for mr. putin? >> that's a possibility, yes. >> who would know that? the same person? >> i would guess the fbi. >> if the intelligence community and the attorney general knew all this information about mr. flynn, how did he get a security clearance? >> knew what? >> that he had a conversation with the russian ambassador about sanctions? >> well, that was the 29th of december. >> january 19th i think the president was sworn in. 17th, something like that. how did he get a security clearance? >> well, he had one for a long time. as he career military intelligence officer. i don't know the specifics of when his fell due. the system every five years, the current system every five years you're supposed to get a recurrent investigation. i don't know the details of that. it would probably be done by his old agency. >> don't you have to give some additional double secret security clearance to serve in the white house? >> well, yes, you do. as i indicated before -- >> could i and you -- >> the process, i don't

mr. putin was speaking at a news conference today in sochi. he started off sarcastically making light of this uproar in washington, joking he would have to reprimand the russian foreign minister for failing to pass along these classified secrets to him. mr. lavrov was in the audience, he was seen bursting out laughing at the remark. then mr. putin returning to the idea that russia is a victim, the russia unfairly gets blamed for everything that happens. mr. putin said, and i quote, either they don't understand the damage they're doing to their own country in which chase they're stupid or they understand everything in which case they're dangerous and corrupt. however you dice it, the optics of this do not look good, especially ahead of mr. trump's first trip abroad as president where a lot of the allies are going to be questions and concerns about what went on behind closed doors. >> peter zaralexander, any reacn in morning to either of the big stories, coming out of the kremlin or the news over

mr. brennan: by whom? putin?ladimir mr. brennan: there are tremendous investment opportunities in the united eights and i think mr. putin russianke to see more involvement in investments in the united states. yes. >> and with that russian investment, is there an expectation they are going to provide information to president putin about what is going on in the united states? brennan: i would fully anticipate that some of the russian oligarchs and their business interests are tapped on a regular basis by vladimir putin for information, yes. any of those investments from then-real estate developer donald trump? you will aware that there were 106 visas granted to russians for investing in the united states in the amounts of money of 500,000 dollars or more. they are called eb-five visas. i am unaware of this. >> it was a general role you did not investigate those who were granted eb-five visa's? and may have come across our screen but i am not aware of a lot of the information the cia collected. >> and 2014 comes the united sta

and have good relations with mr. putin. remember george w. bush looking into mr. putin's eyes and getting a sense of his soul. president obama declaring a reset in relations with the putin regime. of course, none of that worked because, again, there is such a divergence in the two systems. i think it is very important that two great powers, such as are the united states and russia, have a relationship based on trust and based on mutual understanding. >> i would agree with that. i just want to do a quick question because we're running out of time because we spent so much time in breaking news. matthew, when you saw that piece of video and kind of the laughing dismissal by sergey lavrov to what is a very obviously incredibly serious situation, the firing of an fbi director, do you think that that is in any way indicative of how westerners are viewing the united states right now? that sort of there is this mess in the united states or an administration that keeps doing things that are unexpected and that would be an understatement. >> sure. chris, i think it is perple

mr. putin's friends might have assets in the united states that are being held from mr. putin. >> >> that's a possibility, yes. >> who would know that? same person? >> i'm sorry. >> what would know that, same person? >> i would guess the fbi. >> okay. if the intelligence community and the attorney general knew all this information about mr. flynn, how did he get a security clearance? >> knew what about mr. flynn? >> well, that he had had a conversation with the russian ambassador about sanctions? >> well, that was late, that was the 29th of december or so as reported in the media that took place. >> january 19th the president was sworn in. how did he get a security clearance? >> he had a security clearance and had one for a long time. a career military officer, and i don't know the specifics of when his -- when his fell due. the system is every five years you -- the current system every five years you're supposed to get a periodic reinvestigation, and i don't know of the details of that. that would probably be done by his old agency, the defense intelligence agent. >> i d

so even though the election is over, i think mr. putin and russian intelligence services are trying to actively exploit what is going on now in washington to their benefit and to our detriment. >> again, follow up on mr. rooney's question, when you had these concerns raised about the russian efforts and their potential effort to suborn u.s. persons to their cause in the hacking operation, did you take steps to set up an organizational structure to analyze the russian campaign so that members of the fbi, cia, nsa and other agencies would look at these allegations in a cohesive fashion? >> yes. and i also recognize that this was an exceptionally, exceptionally sensitive issue. an active counterintelligence case, trying to stop and uncover what the russian intelligence activities were. in the midst of a hotly debated presidential campaign. that included information that may have involved u.s. persons' contacts with russia, whether they're benign or not. therefore, one of the key pieces of any kind of counterintelligence effort is to compartm

>> mr. putin and russian intelligence services are determined to do what they can to influence in a very inappropriate and illegal way activities within western democracies to undermine the western-led liberal democratic order. they do that on a regular basis. they see that as western democracies as a threat to them. and so, that's why the cyber domain right now is a growing playground for russian activities, and they will use that and exploit it whatever way they can. so, they've been involved in elections for many years, including trying to influence the ones here in the united states with propaganda or whatever, but this cyber environment now provides new opportunities to collect, to collect and release, to influence, and they are increasingly adept at it. >> so, you said that they're going to do it again. the ic unclassified assessment said that. and has there been any blowback or consequences to russia for -- what would you do to try to prevent that from happening in future elections? >> well

even though the election is over, i think mr. putin and russian intelligence services are trying to actively exploit what's going on now in washington to their benefit and to our detriment. >> again, on mr. rooney's questions, when you had these concerns raised about the russian efforts and their potential effort to suborn u.s. persons to their cause and the hacking operations. did you take steps to set up a structure to analyze the russian campaign so members of the fbi, cia, nsa and other agencies would look at these allegations in a cohesive fashion. >> yes, and i also recognize that this was an exceptionally sensitive issue. and active counterintelligence case. trying to stop and uncover what the russian intelligence activities were. in the midst of a hotly debated presidential campaign, that included information that may have involved u.s. persons contacts with russia whether they were benign or not. one of the key pieces of any kind of counterintelligence effort is to compartment the efforts so that your operators, investigators

would take place under rather different circumstances — in the recent french election campaign, mr putind his support for the eurosceptic candidate marine le pen, who lost to mr macron. nonetheless, the relationship between france and russia remains important to both countries. france is russia's biggest foreign investor — in the first quarter of this year, french businesses injected 797 million dollars into the russian economy. this compares to germany with $350 million and the united states at $130 million. significant tension still exists between russia and the west following the country's ongoing dispute with ukraine. and sanctions are still in place. with me is lilit gevorgyan, senior economist at ihs global insight british airways is facing questions over the catastrophic failure of its computer system and how it's handled the fallout. vladimir putin wants to meet the man who managed to secure victory, despite the odds but secondly i think the russian president has a number of messages to deliver to the new french leader and the first message would be to decouple politics from econ

trump on one hand, mr. putin on the other hand, sent messages to mr.saying we are ready to work for you. and mr. putin saying we hope you're willing to end the bones of contentions we have together. but let me tell you, it's been organized by a former french journalist based in washington. and who knew obama very well. great relationship with obama. and as she works now for macron. she's the one who organized the whole scenario of obama definitely backing macron. i think macron is closer to obama than trump or putin. >> france's place in the euro is very much backed and stronger today than it was a couple weeks ago? >> yeah. we can say that most of the countries of the european union are very happy about macron's victory. definitely. i would say that it's clear that country where is the populist movement, like hungary and pollland more reserved definitely going to the far right. >> christian, great to see you. zblaun zblau >> thank you. >>> lots of fed speak each day. we'll hear. and the survey comes out tomorrow. the price index is the thing to watch

trump wants to cut a deal with mr. putin. the last thing mr.proxy war with the russians in syria. >> so president trump's language today was highly anticipated, particularly because of the president president trump, the candidate trump that folks have been a customed to hearing when talking about islam. take a listen. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. >> i want surveillance of these people. >> we have to look at mosques. we have no choice. >> i do want, for those people coming in -- >> for the muslims? i'm doing good for the muslims. >> i want surveillance of certain mosques. okay? >> i have many friends that are muslims. i will tell you they are so happy that i did this. because -- >> man, his anger. >> is it really a muslim problem or a rad dal islamist problem? >> maybe it's a muslim problem. maybe it's not. >> i think islam hates us. >> so aaron, looking at the red carpet, the royal welcome over the past couple days in saudi arabia, does it leave the impression that all ha

trump and mr. putin. >> translator: mr. merkel, you have -- mrs. le pen. >> translator: my policy for france, which i would describe as a mixture of meetterism. terrorist comes from beyond our borders in libya in africa and because the world is destabilized by the reconsideration of alliances. i want france -- a country that wants to know how to build peace. my priority will be the fight against islamist terrorism. i will propose to mr. trump to continue to work where the united states of america. they are partners for intelligence, in terms of sbhejs. they are our partners in the security council of the united nations. we need the united states of america and we should continue this work since world war ii was even before that. he had a samp. we had an independent voice and when france refused to get involved in iraq, for example, we need strong cooperation for our security with mr. trump, i want to continue the work that has started on climate change. >> he doesn't agree with you. >> translator: civil society doesn't agree with him. mr. trump wil

i'm glad that the president talked with mr. putin about what's going monin syria and i don't have a lot of confidence that mr. putin will live up to his commitments. >> very quickly, the two leaders, presidents trump and putin, what influences does russia have in that spirit? >> all countries want to make sure that we avoid a nuclear confrontation. north korea is a very, very dangerous situation. i believe russia wants to resolve that diplomatically. they don't want to see an act of war, so it's in russia's interests and the united states' interests and china's interests to get north korea to change their conclusion and gyp up their nuclear weapons and find other ways to protect their own security and that should be russia's interests. they could play a constructive role. but, with enagai but, once again looking hat russia's history, we need to be careful about how they engaged. >> senator cardin, much more to discuss on breaking news. i want to take a quick break. we'll be right back. by the time you head to the bank and wait to get

mr. putin was speaking at a news conference in sochi today and he started off sarcastically making light of this uproar in washington, saying that he would have to reprimand the russian foreign minister for failing to pass along these classified secrets to him, to russian intelligence agencies. lavrov was in the audience. the cameras showed him bursting out laughing and now we see this kremlin theme, that russia is a victim of anti-russian hysteria in washington. that russia unfairly gets blamed for everything that happens. mr. putin said of the washington establishment, either they don't understand the damage they're doing to their own country, in which case they're simply stupid, or they understand and everything they're dangerous is that corrupt. some very strong words there. whether this was a gambit to w. the optics don't look good, especial ahead of mr. trump's first trip abroad as public. there are a lot of questions about what went ons behind closed doors. snth vladimir putin certainly

the time reports that mr. putin is standing beside him. ed two news organizations with ties to russia as acting as -- rather than true outlets. president is meeting with president putin followed president trump's insult tour of europe in which he complained about rich americans and how they are ruining america with their addiction to german cars, which he blamed entirely on germany. >> joining us now wendy sherman, former under secretary of state. first of all, your reaction to the president's meetings in europe and what he had to say about germany, germany trade and the total effect of his visit there. >> i think for the united states american security, the most important thing is the trance atlantic alliance, our relationship with europe. what the president did, i think, was well symbolized when all of the leaders of the g7, the largest economies in the world, took a walk in sicily and the president followed behind them in a golf cart. i think it really sum marized it all. he was aloof to them. he gave the head of the saudi arabia complet

. >> hello, mr. putin. >> pelley: and he spoke softly. >> pleased to meet you.

>> you know, mr. putin comes out of the spy racket, compartmentalization is very important to them.'m going to tell you, don, my take is a little different. first of all, maybe it's just selfish. i fly russian airlines. i want to be safer. some of the leaders of isis are people who have come from the former soviet union. they've got more to fear in moscow with isis and its success and the cadres that are getting trained in isis that could come back to haunt the russian motherland than we have. and you know, the last big story i covered for cbs news was the school crisis where they killed 188 children. they know what terrorists can do and they want to protect their people. and we have good reasons to try, no matter what's going on in this country, to beat down, in little ways, the walls of the cold war that are growing up, that keep us from cooperating with the russians. >> none of that is a justification for donald trump taking code word secrets that were given to us by our israeli intelligence partners and willy-nilly sharing them with the russians. remember, the russians are also

and mr. putin said that it was political schizophrenia that had americans blaming the president of the united states for giving secrets, secrets to the russians. well, we don't know what the russians got, but we do that putin is having a good time kind of being punkish and saying if you guys want and say we'll give you the notes of that meeting. kind of the way they said you want pictures of the meeting that happened because you couldn't take pictures? we'll give you pictures. >> are you saying they're laughing at us? >> they're getting a good -- i wouldn't say they're having a chuckle because the people who are serious in russia like stability, like predictability, and this is very unpredictable. it also goes with the rule of law, which there's not entirely used to, but yeah, are they taking some joy out of our gref and our confusion and their ability to put one over? i mean what they did with the photograph, was just gainsmanship 101. >> are they playing president trump? >> no, i don't think they

trump and mr. putin have spoken at least three times that we know of since mr. trump's election last november. this will be the first time since u.s. missile strike on syria, which mr. putin condemned. chris and alisyn. >> thank you very much, joe. you've given us a lot to talk about. let's bring back our panel, david gregory, a.b. stoddard. the president has given a flurry of interviews in the last few days. they are more than eyebrow raising, eye popping some of the things he said. jennifer, you were just in the oval office talking to him. when he said andrew jackson could have stopped civil war, invites duterte to the white house, kim jong-un, honored to sit down with him. hijacking the news cycle. what do you think, having just spoken to the president, is behind some of these things. >> almost every interview he does reveals a parade of head scratchers. a fascinating look into his mind. his critics say he's a function al illiterate when it comes to history. his fans say this is a guy who loves media exposure. it dpifs usa chance to hear what he's thinking. i

putin said insistently that we, russia, never meddle in foreign elections. you could certainly sends a bit of tension between the two might leaders. sharp words from mrsho said that vladimir putin certainly ought to make sure that the freedom of the press and non—governmental organisations in russia is respected, and she also said she had asked him to use his influence to protect the human rights of gay men in chechnya. i think, here in berlin, also won the russian side perhaps, there were few expectations that anything particularly constructive would come out of today's talks. but mrs merkel is seen as the real interlocutor between the us and russia, partially because of that long—standing relationship with mr putin. they talked about syria and other global conflicts, agreed to work together on the fight against international terrorism. as i say, very little thatis terrorism. as i say, very little that is constructive came out of the dialogue today, but perhaps as mr ‘s merkel and her advisers in berlin would have it, it is better to be talking than not at all. —— mrs merkel. let's talk about ‘sanctuary cities‘. they are large democrat—led cities tha

med ved check close to mr. putin. mr. s the god father of one of his daughters. >> in terms of his denial, he's an interesting kancht he's obviously not a famous name in this country, but in terms of what we know he's a highly ranked policing. she was chief of staff of the ukranian president. he has visible ties to president and prime minister. do you believe that his denial is incredible or does it seem clear to you that he does appear in these communications is he may have been involved in this somehow? >> i have to go with what he told us in an e-mail that he totally denied having any contacts. the only thing you can point out is that obviously he's ukranian and there were very senior people in the trump campaign including paul manafort who served as mr. trump's campaign manager for a period of time who have ties to ukraine. that's about all i can say in terms of this denial. >> one of the things we've been sort of trying to track over time is whether or not the white house explanation and story for what happened here m

mr putin, there have been some...ws co nfe re nce studio: there we are, this is the news conference going on following talks between angela merkel, the german chancellor and vladimir putin, the russian leader, covering a very wide range of topics, it must be said. reasonably warm words spoken on both sides. particularly mr putin, talking of the situation in ukraine being of serious concern. he did also talk about syria condemning decisively, he said, any use of chemical weapons and urged the people in europe not to lose recent gains incorporation for the sake of the future piece of the continent. as for angela merkel, she also said that she was pleased that there was some cooperation and did talk about the possibility that sanctions on russia could be used at some stage. she also urged the russian leader to use his influence to protect gay people in places like chechnya. —— sanctions on russia could be eased. we are leaving sochi but we will talk to one of our correspondence later to sum up what has been said. more on

however, all that didn't put mr. putin off his game today.ks elizabeth palmer. liz, thanks very much. >>> the overnight news will be right back.

i think mr. putin wants sanctions removed sooner rather than later. >> you'd say it is one of his top, if not very top, policy objectives in dealing with the united states? >> it certainly is a key one, but it is more dealing with us indirectly by trying to wean the european nations off of the sanctions. >> so the ceo of exxonmobil, rex tillerson, were doing a deal in russia. it was a big deal. the sanctions imposed in 2014 shut that down, is that correct? >> i believe so. i'm not sure. >> so, again, it would make the case that the impacts on russia are grave in terms of the sanctions. let me ask you another question. there have been reports in newspapers that british and dutch intelligence had provide informatioabout meetings in euroan cities between russian officials associated with president putin and associates of the trump campaign. is that how you first found out about those meetings? >> i'm not going to talk about anything that our international partners might have shared with us. >> thank you,

mr. putinis offering to send congress his transkript of the president trump's conversations with russian foreign minister and ambassador. >> trevor: putin get the [bleep] out of here, man. are you for real, for real? (applause) so you meddled in america's election, fine, but now you have to meddle in the impeachment too, just let america have something for itself. i bet you next week they're going to make him the new first lady. i'll handle this. i'll handle this. i have the figure, i have the figure. you know, you have to say this for donald trump. he is keeping his promise to totally disrupt how government officials do their job. yeah. and not just in the american government. >> because i, dimity ree, have i not seen you since kgb academy. >> dimity ree, so good to see you, here, have drink. >> so, how is-- germany. >> i have been undercover for ten long years. i have a fake family, i had surgery on my face, my teeth have been replaced by microchips. i have been working as a, how do you say d

lucy: mr. putin also appeared to deny any russian interference in france's recent presidential race, despite allegations from mr. macron's team that russian agents tried repeatedly to hack into their accounts. mr. macron defended the banning of 2 russian media outlets from covering his campaign, describing them as agents of propaganda. this choice of venue and the inauguration of a new exhibition on 300 years of franco-russian ties was meant to highlight the long relationship between the two countries, but more recent events have made this a stiff and awkward meeting, and it showed. lucy williamson, bbc news, versailles. laura: against that backdrop, senator john mccain called vladimir putin the greatest threat to global security. in his words, more so than isis. he is not the only one speaking frankly. german chancellor angela merkel is doubling down on her tough talk about the trump administration. today she said it is right to not gloss over differences with the u.s., after saying earlier that eur

. >> hello, mr. putin. >> pelley: and he spoke softly.d pleased to meet you. >> pelley: and carried a big stick.