cnn's international diplomatic editor nick robertson is live in moscow for us. is talk about this $600 billion overall defense budget, it's a reminder to me even a rounding error in u.s. defense spending is more than most countries pay for their entire budgets. >> reporter: yeah, and that's the situation here in russia of course. their entire defense budget as you said is less than that increase the pentagon is looking at right now that donald trump wants. but here in russia for the last about four years they have been going through a massive military overhaul, new tanks, new aircraft, new missiles, new cruise missiles we saw them use in syria the first time launched from submarines, launched from ships. what this means is for the russian military is that they have a huge military spend going on, and right now they are in a fight with the finance ministry here. you had the minister of defense speaking in the parliament here just last week asking the parliamentians to support the military generals in their call for another $200 billion from the finance ministry to

cnn's international diplomatic nick robertson joins us now. what are the implications of pointing the finger at moscow's man in washington? >> reporter: well, the reaction here is one of anger, of frustration, of claims by the foreign ministry spokes woman that this is a media vandalism. we've heard from the president spokesman here as well, pest could have describing the atmosphere in washington as one that is emotionally charged and they really need to wait until the situation in washington is normalized. there is a huge frustration that this internal political fighting, as they see it, that is going on in washington is tarring russia and in particular their ambassador there. this is something really that we're hearing very, very strong push back from from officials here, particularly the foreign ministry spoekts man -- spokes woman rather, speaking about the allegations that the russian ambassador to washington according to former and current u.s. officials quoting from intelligence officials saying that he is indeed a spy and a spy master.

let's get right to cnn's nick robertson. he was in london for us, on the scene shortly after the attack. nick, what's the latest? >> reporter: the latest from here, jake, police are yet to give us any information about the identities of the deceased or any of the victims who were hit by the car and are injured. however, we do know, we do know that three of those people hit by the car were police officers. several others were young french teenage students who were touring the city. all of this began in the middle of the afternoon here. terror unfolding by the minute in the shadow of big ben today. >> this house is now suspended. >> reporter: the heart of london's government suddenly suspended. parliament locked down just after 2:40 p.m. local time, amid reports of an attack. >> all i could hear is bang, bang, bang, like loud. >> reporter: at 2:52, parliament arian tweeted, walking through commons clois ters to vote, heard four gunshots, police had members of parliament hit ground and crawled to cover. officers moved swiftly to

. >>> the russian media is dialing back its coverage of the trump white house and nick robertson reports the russian president vladimir putin may be changing his tone towards the new administration in washington. let's take a look. >> around the u.s. election donald trump fever hit moscow and likeness on sell and plenty of face time in russian media. >> he ordered putin -- putin ordered the tone of the state-controlled media, particularly, television in russia, to be more friendly toward the trump administration. >> veteran commentator said trump's popularity in moscow was over done. >> i think there was a lot of fuss about the relationship, about the -- i don't know where people got that from. >> if there was a romance the last 40 days have called the otter. >> i love to negotiate things, i do it really well and all that stuff. but it's possible i won't be able to get along with putin. >> then came over who in the trump camp met the russian ambassador and why media vandalism say officials in moscow. >> stop this spreading lie and false news. >> and some hard line comments by u.s. offici

let's get right to cnn's nick robertson. he was in london for us, on the en

nick robertson is live in moscow with more. what do we know?e topic certainly doesn't go away here. the spokesman today said it was sad that the outfall of all of this coming on in washington is impacting the diplomatic relationsh relationship. >> reporter: he is a 66-year-old veteran of both soviet and russian diplomacy. he spent many years in the united states and has been ambassador in washington for nearly a decade. >> i personally have been working so long that i know almost everybody. >> current and former top officials say u.s. intelligence consider him one of russia's top spy and spy recruiters in washington but russian officials scoff at the idea he's a spy master. >> trained as an engineer he cut his diplomatic teeth in the cold war and his first came as he tried to reform the soviet system. during his four years as a diplomat he held several key positions serving as the first russian representative at nato and the russian deputy foreign minister. he became moscow's man in washington months before president obama took office and the a

. >> nick robertson joins us from moscow. clearly outrage from that russian official.here does this all leave any attempts by this current administration to reset relations with russia? >> reporter: well, if anything this is going to look like a reset. there's so much going on in washington at the moment that involves russia in a negative way. this is what president putin's spokesman alluded to yesterday. the reality is that the window of opportunity, that sort of window of a bigger change in the relationship between the white house and the kremlin that trump and both putin had sort of created a space for, that window is closing. the russians are not saying it's closed. they are saying they'll work with the united states where there are areas of common interest. this is something president trump said as well. the reality is is this sort of way that russia is getting in the headlines in the united states, it's negative. it's not going to help either side reach across the divide. the relationship has been described at the moment as the worst since the cold war, and absen

i want to bring in our international diplomatic editor nick robertson. he is right near this scene. i know, nick, that police have moved you several times now. tell us where you are, what you are seeing. i assume the lockdown is still in effect. >> wolf, lockdown is still in effect. you can see behind me big ben, the parliament building. they're just to the side of big ben. that's where the incident took place. very reassuringly for the people of london here just a few minutes ago as we started this hour. so, too, big ben chimed in the hour. that would be very reassuring for people here, wolf. there is continuity amid the chaos that's at the foot of this iconic building in london. we do have new information here, and it's coming in from the london ambulance service. the london ambulance service says it's declaring a major incident. we have declared a major incident, and our priority is to assess patients and assure that they are treated and taken to hospital as soon as possible. according to the statement from the london ambulance service, that's what they're saying. also additional

nic robertson, thank you. and nick walsh joining us as well. >>> mark meadows, a leader of the freedom caucus is now speaking. let's listen in. >> it's 1 1/2 because it has to do all with the obamacare mandates, the obamacare rules and we're trying to move from phase two into phase one. we're not adding anything other than we're taking what was supposed to happen in phase two and bringing it into phase one. >> chairman, the speaker's office says this meeting was do or die. that this all comes down to you. >> well, obviously, he's the speaker of the house, and he knows the conference better than anybody. we are certainly trying to get to yes, but indeed, we made very reasonable requests, and we're hopeful those reasonable requests will be listened to and ultimately agreed to. >> i've got to run, guys. i've got a meeting. >> give us a sense of where your confidence is -- >> i'm going in -- i'm going in right now to make sure that we have that. i don't want anybody to get hurt here, so -- all right. thank you. >> represen

nick roberts son li robertson i you. >>> author of an upcoming book how the west a aiding and abetting the decline of democrat is joining us. first up, lavrov says this is a witch hunt as far as the curiosities about these meetings with the russian ambassador. but democrats say it seems like they're covering something up. what is your take? about. >> well, i think any of these individual meetings could be explained. jeff sessions meeting with the russian ambassador might be something that is normal. but at some point you have to ask how many red flags do there need to be. the real problem here is there is no alternative explanation coming from the trump campaign or the trump white house as to why all these different people from diverse backgrounds have met with russian officials or russian operatives and that have had shifty denials about these r those meetings. remember michael flynn said he called over christmas, a courtesy call. then it became a series of calls. then it was we talked about with sanctions. then we found out this week that he also met in trump tower with him. and ques