people who do enough and publish actively in russia and live in russia, they are constantly under all kind of attacks, be it personal hume millation or their relatives being put in jail. my relatives are there but right now, i stay in columbia. a lot of people are suffering. it is getting worse and worse and worse. >> anna? >> i would say that the trolls are after me as well, saying that i have sold my soul to the government. i have the same kind of persecution. i believe they are ill people. not a ruble is spent from the federal budget of the russian federation for the trolls, i assure you. this is actually nonsense. talking about me being manipulated. this is very, very, very hard to p answer, because, myself, i do not know. i am the person of numbers and i have really -- i am really into lots of documents. when i try to understand something myself, i try to understand how was it? maybe i was manipulated, for example, with the story of the elections in 2011. actually, i was covering the protests at the site of protest. it was very cold, by the way. i saw lots of people and i saw the

negotiating with russia is pointless. when they don't even acknowledge the are in eastern ukraine what exactly are we negotiating about? they haven't fulfilled a single condition under minsk. multilateral, there are a number of countries that are join the eu and the united states, canada, australia, new zealand, japan. iran of course is not going to join. turkey is a complicated relationship in which will have time to go into that but there are other countries that have. what we also to recognize there are limits to how many countries will go along with it. >> to the energy question. the energy question, the energy sanctions, russian sanctions are designed to go after what we might design as frontier our future energy production. they do not, offer the most part energy production development now. so when prices, however what to do is make it difficult for russian energy projects to receive financing to raise money and european and u.s. capital markets. with a rise in energy prices it may mean russian companies can finance

policy towards russia. speakers include former defense official, diplomats, and foreign policy experts. it's from the atlantic council in washington live here on c-span 3. >> and fpri and also u-penn. it's my pledge your and a true honor to welcome phillip breedlove. general breedlove is the former supreme allied commander in europe, the highest post in nato. he spent a large portion of his military career in europe as well. he told me earlier today that eight of his overseas posts were in europe, three were in asia. he began as a young captain and then returned as a four-star general to lead the first u.s. air force in europe and then all of nato's forces. sfool logue russia's invasion of ukraine in 2014 general breedlaw was one of the prime architects of the american response which involved reinforcing eastern europe quickly with a small number of u.s. troops and working overtime to help build consensus for a larger and more robust plan to double down on the alliance's eastern flank. he is actually most p

interests, sorry, russia. all this talk about, all this cold war mentality to my right has bottom me -- [laughter] but, i want to, so, what i say is like, are, do we want to have conflict between, you know, united states and russia that leads to problems that potentially will drag us in or draw us into it? if i'm from des moines or from houston, if i'm from new orleans, i'm from seattle, i don't see how any of these places being in, out, under, over the russians actually makes them any safer. we have to draw lines in the world because we can't police everything and provide results everywhere. that doesn't mean we can be a leader in the world. we have to draw a line between vital and peripheral interests. >> quick 30 seconds. >> i got it. i don't think we're in disagreement. i think we have to be a part of leading. when we don't be a partof leading, we get a lot of chaos so. >> okay. any other panelists first? no. mitchell, in the middle aisle there. >> so excuse me if i'm slightly confused but it sounds like a

but you're talking about containing russia and isolating russia. and that's great, if you could do it. but china won't let you isolate russia, india won't let you isolate russia -- >> it's not about isolationism. >> it's not about containment. the problem that we have is we have this focus on europe and what you're going to do in order to prevent russia from doing things we don't like in europe. they are going to drive russia. china is taking advantage of a weakened russia at this point. a russia that doesn't have an option in europe. and china is a strategic competitor if we're looking at our interests over the next 10, 15, 20 years. east asia is extremely important. now all i'm arguing is that you need to take what you're proposing in europe and think about what the consequences are in east asia and you've got to mitigate those in some way. and we continue to take this policy and isolation, and we create perhaps a better deal in europe while we create a larger problem for ourselves throughout asia. that is not good strategy. >> thank you, and i t

to work in going russia. i guarantee it's not going to work in russia.rder to convince yourself this is not going to work, or to convince himself that it not going to work, is going to take putin a couple of years. by 2020, he's going to have to start thinking about leaving. charlie: why do you think it will not work? streaks an authoritarian within the russian culture, as it was in china. thatrussians believe yeltsin and others made a mistake, they should have fixed the economy and left the politics alone, as the chinese did. why do you believe it will never work to do it that way? at this late date. russia is a quite developed country, with social mentality that has developed, and this is a different mentality from the chinese one. charlie: and a rich, cultural history. mikhail: our state structure doesn't have this idea of service that exists to a great deal in china. at the same time, people in russia have really gotten used to living for themselves. all this talk about how there is this vertical of power in russia, this harsh system of managing the

with russia. mikhail: i very much hope that nuclear arms is not a subject that is going to be put on the table immediately. that is, after all, something that is best not to even think about. but if we go beyond the bounds of a mutual nuclear deterrence, all other agreements need to be based on some kind of common values. there are no such common values. charlie: and what we call rule of law. mikhail: absolutely. and then we get a very serious problem after this. when the president of the united states says something, even though he is a very influential person within the american political system, he does know that there are some things, some lines, he cannot cross. president putin does not understand that and does not realize this. for example -- charlie: so, there is no restraint on his power in russia? mikhail: absolutely so. and he projects this onto his counterparty at the negotiating table. if they say to him, will i do have constraints or there is something i can't do, he thinks they are t

-russia relations, russia did he write the us will have to negotiate with russia on finding solutionsto international issues as they're able to act alone. russian foreign minister says two or three months ago u.s. president barack obama said it is they who set the rules out of our american partners to think so, they will go through quite painful to to realizing that no one in this world could act alone any longer. you can read more at the russia today website. >> this week on c-span2 we are featuring political radio programs with a national talk show host live today from noon to three offer and progressive radio host tom hartman. at on friday from 9 a.m. until noon at conservative political perspective on the mike gallagher show live from new york city. all this week life on c-span2. >> our road to the white house coverage features melania trump, donald trump swipe for skipping a parents and the convention to her first solo appearance of this campaign season. that is live at 2:00 eastern. hillary clinton with the three to 4% lead in the state according to real clear politics, and hill

they are afraid that s somebodys that to just tell trump russia is the enemy, that russia is dangerousand that he should be a bit more careful. >> the ukrainian president has offered his congratulations, saying he is delighted with this news. does this change anything, does that make ukraine fillmore vulnerable -- feel more vulnerable having donald trump in the white house instead of barack obama? perceived not as pro-russian but complacent at least towards russia. that of course could mean a change of policy, could mean a change of support towards ukraine. the scariest for ukrainian power would be simply not pro-russian policies coming from trump, but something i believe my really isolationism,be cutting down military budgets and investments, military investments, or support tort allies. in the name of reducing the budget and taxes for taxpayers. i would say that is the immediate concern of ukrainian leaders, but it's interesting to said that ukrainian leaders are removing all the hostile comments they had against trump before they found out about the victory. suddenly he's being very

some of it has to do with donald trump and his admiration for vladimir putin and for russia, you know, they have never met, the two leaders, but there is an affinity in terms of leadership style that trump has ordered putin. as for the russian role in the election, our intelligence agencies assessed that these hacks that took place were conducted by two russian intelligence agencies and i think it wavery much an eort by the russians, not officially, of course, they have denied they were involved, but i do think that the russians were eager to discredit the american electoral process. this is what they believe the united states is doing to russia, by the way, and if you will remember and putin's last election the protest that surrounded them and he talked about hillary clinton then secretary of state ordering the protesters into the street for revolution and they believe we did that in the arab spring, we have done that in ukraine, in georgia and soda way it felt a little bit like payback. the russians wanted to show that, yes, they had the capability and most importantly the desire to

we have the russia that we have. we need to deal with the russia that we have. the united states and russia have different interests in a number of areas. it's not easy to deal with the different interests. there's a interest of trust, absolutely. but look, would we successfully got rid of most of syria's chemical weapons without trusting them. we don't actually need to trust russia. in order to be able to accomplish things with russia. what we needed to able to do is to understand how russia defines it's interests. and to structure our engagement with russia in a way that creates real igsic incentives and penalties that can shape russian dmukt ways that we believe reflect our own interest. >> okay. >> and then david and lena, back to you for two minutes. >> sure. just in response to that. we're not calling for complete isolationism and cut off relations. even during the cold war when we faced a bigger adversary, the soviet union where russia is today, we had diplomatic relations. i think we can still find those areas of cooperation with russia and we should per

they don't match up to russia. this helps us to understand why putin's strategies and tactics are consistently to lean on european countries, on even nato members, by laterally, one-on-one to separate them from the rest of the continent, the rest of their alliances, and threats. this has not happened to just russian threats, sweden and finland, military leaders, not to join nato or there will be repercussions. the danish ambassador from russia threatened denmark, a nato member, that their ships would be face nuclear targets from russian vessels if denmark contributed to nato defense system. now, russia is not the only threat that nato is facing. and the only threats that are nate know are facing are not just conventional. another significant part is the giuk gap. russia has deployed a far greater number of submarines in the north atlantic, and again, with their technology, they're quieter than we've ever faced before. so the admiral richardson has expressed great concern about the united states to move through the

we know in russia there's no difference between official russia and unofficial russia.sia oftentimes uses third party processes to conduct their activities. if you look at the u.s. intelligence community's analysis, they are confident that activities to disclose wiki leaks and the like were by russian officials either you believe the russian official or the u.s. intelligence, either way, i wouldn't put so much candidate. the what they're looking for is stability in leadership and looking for a leader they can predict the actions of. donald trump has been fairly unpredictable, for good or bad, in this election cycle. i doubt they're supporting him because he's more unpredibblet -- unpredictable than hillary clinton or barack obama. emily: we spoke to an expert who said the u.s. or some people behind the scenes determine they believed russia was behind these hacks of the u.s. election, that there could be retaliation from the u.s. against russia. do you -- the u.s. attacking russia now as a result of what happened over the last several months? jamil: i think there's no do

we know in russia there's no difference between official russia and unofficial russia.sia oftentimes uses third party proxies to conduct their activities. if you look at the u.s. intelligence community's analysis, they are confident that the activities to disclose wikileaks and the like were by russian officials and their senior leaders. either you believe the russian officials or the u.s. intelligence community. either way, i wouldn't put so much stock about the candidate. like any country, want they're looking for is stability in leadership and looking for a leader they can predict the actions of. to be honest, donald trump has been fairly unpredictable, for good or bad, in this election cycle. i doubt russia was hugely supporting donald trump, because he's more unpredictable than hillary clinton or barack obama. emily: we spoke to an expert who suggested that now that the u.s. or some people behind the scenes have determined they believed russia was behind these hacks of the u.s. election, that there could be retaliation from the u.s. against russia. do you see the u

they don't match up to russia.this helps us to understand why putin's strategies and tactics are consistently to lean on european countries, on even nato members, by laterally, one-on-one to separate them from the rest of the continent, the rest of their a lie yanlllianca threats. this has not happened to just russian threats, sweden and finland, military leaders, not to join nato or there will be repercussions. the danish ambassador from russia threatened denmark, a nato member, that their ships would be face nuclear targets from russian vessels if denmark contributed to nato defense system. now, russia is not the only threat that nato is facing. and the only threats that are nate know are facing are not just conventional. another significant part is the giuk gap. russia has deployed a far greater number of submarines in the north atlantic, and again, with their technology, they're quieter than we've ever faced before. so the admiral richardson has expressed great concern about the united states to move through th

and russia.isten to what russia's presidential spokesman told christiane amanpour. >> if our two leaders, and the current russia leader president putin and president-elect trump are wide enough to have the political will to talk to each other, and to try to solve problems not by confronting each other or using a language of sanctions or other ill logic things, hurting both sides, then we'd have a chance to talk and solve the problems being constructed. because what we have currently is a very lousy relationship. >> cnn's senior international correspondent clarissa ward takes a detailed look at the future of u.s./russia ties. >> reporter: now that the celebrations are over the hard work of repairing u.s./russia relations begins. president putin acknowledged the challenges even as he congratulated president-elect trump. >> we heard the election proposals he talked about restoring and resuming relations with russia. we understand that will be difficult taking into account the current state of degrad

russia is an aggressor, a bully. if we start to say what they're doing is okay, we're going to find that their activities will be even more aggressive. >> trump says, you are right, senator cardin. all of those conditions exist. they do because you democrats are weak and you have been weak for eight years. your russian reset was a failure. they have run amuck. we cannot just go against them. you tried it. it didn't work. i want to try to do it like a businessman. i want to work with them where we can and by that i will get some more input in what russia does. it's a better way than your way. what do you say? >> russia's a corrupt regime. you can't deal with them in a sense that we're going to get along. what they've already done, you've seen aggression against u.s. interests. they're determined to compromise democratic institutions. they're spending billions of dollars infiltrating using democratic institutions against itself. we don't want to be converted by russia. we want preserved democratic institutions and the

that is led by china and russia.enie: what impact might this resolution have on resolutions between the eu and turkey, which are already at a low point? >> they will continue to be flawed. those negotiation talks will continue. what was reflected today in the european parliament does not necessarily reflect what's represented of the other eu institutions feel about turkey. she was speaking in the parliament in stroudsburg earlier on tuesday and she said she did not think it was a good idea to freeze talks. that those talks were a good way to have leverage with turkey. thatu and turkey signed controversial deal back in march about the migration crisis. gamehing which would be a changer for eu turkey relations would be of turkey did reintroduce capital punishment. one of the main human rights policy of justice of the european union is to abolish the death penalty. if turkey did reinstate that they would in fact have to freeze those talks. we heard from the prime minister of turkey a few weeks ago that the only one who

here she is. >> what does romney want to do with russia, are we going to invade lithuania if russia goesdo that? we should talk about that. because i think in a that would probably surprise a lot of republican voters who supported donald trump.that would probably surprise a lot of republican voters who supported donald trump. >> i get the feeling your guy romney is not the most original thinker. i think he has inherited the mechbtality of the cold war. russia is bad, we're good, keep it simple. russians are the bad guys, still kgb. and how will he go along with a guy that believes our bitter national partner will be vladimir putin? how does he go along with a 180 philosophy from his own? >> i remain very skeptical that this job will be offered or that he will accept this job. i am very skeptical that that will happen. that said, i do think that mitt romney is somebody that seeks out a lot of expert opinion. he's very well read. very well studied on these issues. and so i think that this notion that he's just a. adopted a foreign policy from ronald reagan isn't quite on the mark. >> and b

with russia accused of meddling in the u.s.ction and muscling its way back into the middle east, britain's security chief is now warning that his country is also threatened by moscow. is vladimir putin just looking for a little attention? >>> i am wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >>> breaking news. one week before the election, the fbi out of the blue suddenly releases 15-year-old files from its investigation into president bill clinton's controversial pardon of a hedge fund trader. no explanation from the bureau, which is already under fire for its handling of the hillary clinton aide's e-mails and the fbi is now being pressured also to go public with its investigations of donald trump's alleged links to russia. the clinton campaign accuses director james comey of a blatant double standard, but sources say that so far fbi investigations have shown no criminal ties between russia and trump or his backers. with polls tightening, the candidates are trying to cover as much grou

andmore frequently sometimes less frequently, in russia. [indiscernible] the -- of the popular opinion. of --bines a number [indiscernible] the situation and the country, this is a complex sentiment. it is very sensitive. and it is subject to changes over public opinion. so if you look over the last 20 there is a chart, .rop in 1990 [indiscernible] there was a new crisis that breaks expectations over the [indiscernible] i'm sorry. when putin came to power, the extent that we will kill all of our enemies, no matter where we find them. all the industries -- and later, we had speculation -- on the situation [indiscernible] or failure to conduct -- however, [indiscernible] -- abruptly -- the putin regime should secure this ability. all the way to the end of 2013, we were observing the putin and the general assessment of the situation, disappointment, particularly among the middle class in russia. , itafter that radically changed. [indiscernible] peak by the summer of 2008. the sentiment provoked by and later, we can see that trust went down. th

opinion can be manipulated in russia. we'll hear from a russian sociologist at this event hosted by the wilson center. >> well, good morning, everyone. welcome to the institute. i'm deputy director at the canon institute. i'd like to welcome you both to the institute and to the wilson center for today's presentation on the 86% opinion polling in russia. i want to begin by thanking the co-sponsors for today's event, the snunt for european, russian and eurasian studies at george washington university. and i also want to welcome c-span to today's event. we look forward to watching the program going forward. this is a part of the kannan institute's speaker series. and today we're going to be talking about the question of polling in russia. despite the economic crisis and declining standard of living, mass support for president vladimir putin's leadership remains high. his popularity rating often referred to as the 86% in russia is a -- to western commentators but we're delighted to have lev gudkov to come and talk about the n

>>> then from russia with love.s election is ugly, wait until you see how it's been reported in russia. that's ahead. at planters we know how to throw a remarkable holiday party. just serve classy snacks and be a gracious host, no matter who shows up. do you like nuts? see me. see me. don't stare at me. see me. see me. see me to know that psoriasis is just something that i have. i'm not contagious. see me to know that... ...i won't stop until i find what works. discover cosentyx, a different kind of medicine for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. proven to help the majority of people find clear or almost clear skin. 8 out of 10 people saw 75% skin clearance at 3 months. while the majority saw 90% clearance. do not use if you are allergic to cosentyx. before starting, you should be tested for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur... ...tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms... ...such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. or if you have r

you can imagine that that rubbed russia the wrong way.go back to january of this year, russia was already signaling that a lot of different forces in the war in 2008, it put the finger of blame or said were going to look into the russian forces, all parties involvement in that conflict. russia obviously didn't like that as well. talk in the more recent syria. the security council in russia has blocked efforts of the security council to actually investigate as war crimes actions right now. the infrastructure, the hospital, the schools. it's able to block investigations by the icc. basicallyked goods -- a slap in the face to the icc. saying you're not going to lord it over us and say things about us we don't like. at the end of the day, that's what it comes down to. in eastern ukraine, they're looking into russia's possible alleged use of russian forces in helping separatists in fomenting that conflict in eastern ukraine. russia clearly did not like it. dispute divided the art world. it could either be one of the most important discoveries

particularly since russia's annexation of crimea. that's why nato troops are now being stationed in the baltics. but when you read the newspapers in russia you can see that there the fear is western aggression -- that's because moscow views nato troops on its borders as a threat. to find out how ordinary russians feel, our reporters have been to meet one russian family, that has just moved to kaliningrad, a tiny russian territory sandwiched between poland and the baltic states. reporter: smile, please. little german is feeling a bit anxious. it's his first day at school. he and his parents moved to kaliningrad not that long ago. a few more instructions. and then it's time for the national anthem. the city's number 12 school considers itself to be particularly patriotic. the aim is to raise good little russian patriots. but is russian patriotism important to the shustovoi family? german's mother says yes. pjotr schustovoi: it's not bad. it's good for children to know about their country's history and to be patriots. reporter: this is

it's not unique to russia.umber of states where we've seen low-level cyberattacks and industrial espionage and, you know, other behavior that we think should be out of bounds. and i delivered a clear and forceful message that although we recognize russia's intelligence gathering will sometimes take place even if we don't like it, there's a difference between that and them either medaling with elections or going after private organizations or commercial entities, and we're monitoring it carefully and we will respond appropriately if and when we see this happening. i do think that this whole area of cyber is something that at an international level we have to work on and develop frameworks and international norms so that we don't see a cyber arms race. a lot of countries have advance cappants and given the vulnerabilities of our infrastructure and our economies to digital platforms, we have to be careful in making sure that this doesn't become a lawless, low-level battlefield. and we've started trying to put toge

, that we wanted to be at war with russia, in that moment we should be at war with russia because ofhat russia had done to this country, georgia. and i don't defend what russia did with georgia, but russia is no small thing when it comes to having a war, right? us having a war with russia? that's a big deal. while john mccain was running for president, there were these few instances when he said things that made people a little skittish about how he felt about getting us into wars or keeping us in wars. i think particularly people were a little worried about how psyched he seemed to be at the prospect of a war with russia. you might remember, this is a time when george w. bush had famously said he looked into vladimir putin's eyes and he saw a man he could trust. he had seen vladimir putin's soul by looking into his eyes. when john mccain was running for president in 2008, he was mostly aligned with george w. bush, right, they were of the same party, sort of of the same marching order, but this is how he talked about vladimir putin. >> putin, my friends, i looked into putten's eyes a

it's not unique to russia.there are a number of states where we have seen low-level cyber-attacks and industrial espionage and, you know, other behavior that we think should be out of bounds and i delivered a clear and forceful message that although we recognize russia's intelligence gathering will sometimes take place even if we don't like it, there's a difference between that and them meddling with elections or going after private organizations or commercial entities and monitoring carefully and respond appropriately if and when we see this happening. i do think that this whole area of cyber is something that at an international level we have to work on and develop frameworks and international norms so that we don't see a cyber arms race. a lot of countries have advance capabilities and given the vulnerabilities of our infrastructure and our economies to digital platforms, we have to be careful in making sure that this doesn't become a lawless low-level battlefield and we've started trying to put together som

that is, as long as russia and the u.s.'t get too close. >> oleg sirota says that if he were american, he'd vote for trump possibly. sirota's a dairy farmer. he produces cheese. >> these beauties produce the milk for my cheese. for my russian parmesan. isn't that right, my dear? without you, there'd be no parmesan. >> he runs a successful business, thanks mainly to western economic sanctions against russia. the russian state has stepped in to support its farmers with cheap loans so they can produce goods that can't be imported. but perhaps not for much longer. >> as a farmer, i'm pro-trump. i like his conservative stance. and that he's in favour of economic protectionism. like all farmers all over the world. anyone who says otherwise is lying. so my gut feeling is pro-trump. but my mind tells me no. i'm worried he'll lift the sanctions against russia. not because he's a friend of russia but because he wants to sell american products, and then they'll flood our market. >> with competition from large , foreign producers, dema

russia practically ran that. i myself have been attacked by pro-trump trolls and featured in sputnik once it came out that we operation. to diminish the worldwide respect for our democracy? >> i would like to think an led by a former kgb officer and director of the fsb would only want to create mischief and mayhem in the united states electoral system. deliberate, an organizational operation like this would have taken hundreds of operators who would have had to have watched carefully the machinery of the minute-to-minute basis with were -- and obviously they only favored one candidate -- and that candidate was elected. democratic national committee and embarrassing people with all those e-mails. the republican national committee at all. >> no, not at all. hacks that occurred, as we understand it, was lindsey graham, an adamant opponent against russia and the ukraine, john mccain and colin powell. colin powell, who would have been the most noteworthy of the conservatives who would have endorsed hillary clinton, an

she is saying russia, russia, russia. maybe it was. i mean, it could be russia. but it could also be china. it could also be lots of other people. it could also be somebody that is sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, okay? >> did general flynn guide him in that answer? did he approve that answer? did he give him that answer? admiral mike roger, the current director of the national security agency and the commander of u.s. cybercommand visited donald trump today at trump tower. here is what admiral rogers said yesterday. >> there shouldn't be any doubt in anybody's mind. this was not something that was done casually. this was not something that was done by chance. this was not a target that was selected purely arbitrarily. this is a conscious effort by a nation state to attempt to achieve a specific effect. >> so maybe now donald trump and maybe general flynn think it wasn't somebody sitting on a bed fooling around, doing some casual hacking. senator lindsey graham now wants congress, the senate specifically, to hold hearings to investigate what russia ha

he said on syria he wants to work with russia against islamic state. but here we have today president obama successor to stand up to russia. how difficult is that going to be? david: this is going to be one of the big early test of mr. trump and his philosophy, because on russia, he not only differs from the obama administration, he differs from the mainstream of the republican party which since the days of the cold war has been pretty reflexively anti-first soviet and anti-russian. so it is hard to find many fans of putin. many republicans have said to me that they believe that there's no harm to try a better relationship with russia but they think at some moment mr. trump will discover he has been either challenged or toyed with by putin. >> i'm sure vladimir putin will do something early on -- maybe he will do something on nato's eastern flank. would learn about donald trump -- what are we going to learn about donald trump and how committed he is to nato? david: we are going to learn a lot early on. my colleague and i did two foreign policy and if y

of russia's population. now, that definitely is something the kremlin would not allow you to have, being completely independent. translating to th 12 million people. that's why in february 2012, tv reign came under attack and ultimately was cancelled from cable tv broadcasting. nowadays, i'm sorry, they survived, but nowadays, it is only available on the internet and most of its broadcasting is paid. nowadays, its audience has shrunk down to 1 million people. when you have a 1 million audience, that seems to be all right. several media outlets with quasi independent broadcasting, such as eco-smart, for example, have about 1 million people in their audience. they seem to be surviving. now, if you are okay under that criteria, the second criteria is the aggressiveness of your message against the kremlin, right. if you are extremely aggressive -- in the content of your message and the broadcast is in opposition -- kind of very anti-kremlin, in that case, you are in danger. so those large, independent, again, be

but in russia, they're ecstatic. they are thrilled, and i'm using that word, you know, technically, they are thrilled that vladimir putin and russia are center attention in this election, have been, in this election campaign because it means that they're back on the world stage again. they don't like being ignored. that's one very basic part of president putin's foreign policy. doesn't want to be ignored. and he wants to be at the table on any major decision. so you know, look at what he said when he said, oh, maybe we can improve relations, congratulati congratulations, as he gave it, to donald trump. he also said on the basis of equality and mutual respect. and what that means is that russia wants to be back in the position it had as the soviet union as a major superpower. and as we just heard, it's not economically or militarily. but it is key, it plays a very key role, sometimes just as a spoiler, in relations. that it's important. they do play an important role, but we will have to define how president newly --

what's good for russia is bad for the u.s. and what's good for the u.s. is bad for russia. i think that's part of the manipulation that's going on here. >> great to have you on. please come back again, cynthia mcfadden. i'm joined by our roundtable, simon marks, april ryan, i missed her for a while there, white house correspondent with american urban radio networks and sam stein is political reporter and editor with the "huffington post." sam, i want you to start here. just try to put it together for a person that i don't think we all know, but what's putin up to? >> i don't think we all know. i don't think we all know. >> he's up to something in our election. >> there are certain things that we, i think -- >> wikileaks! >> -- confidently determine is that russian actors have hacked the dnc. >> why not the rnc? >> the podesta e-mails. the theory i've heard is why not the rnc is twofold. one is that they prefer trump, because he is more favorably predisposed to putin. the other, a more complex theory, is that if you want to disrupt american democracy, it doesn't make sense t

government does seem to be in consensus, pointing at russia. but that doesn't really mean anything to trump. "the new york times" says that the fbi has found any potential russian connections too thin and that that's why the director decided not to tip the scales in an election with something that's politically charged if he doesn't have the proof behind it. your response? >> but chris, this is exactly the issue here. it has come out the fbi was actively investigating whether there was a direct cyber link between donald trump and a bank owned by russian oligarchs in moscow that from what we can tell that investigation has not concluded. that was an actual open investigation. what director comey did feel compelled to do was send a letter to republican chairmen on the hill saying he had some e-mails. we found out later he didn't have a warrant to look at them. >> he said he was obligated to update them because he promised he would. >> well, he was also asked reper repeatedly under oath in hearings about donald trump and russia. he refused to answ

, he's gone to russia. i think that's going to create a lot of concern right now. let's take it issue by issue. if you look at syria, for example, is he going to get more involved in syria or agree with russia that what bashar al assad is doing right now is in fact a counterterrorism campaign, joint alliance with russia? frankly, there are a lot of concerns and some are legitimate. >> nbc news chief foreign correspondent. gentlemen, thank you, we appreciate it. >>> breaking news right now from capitol hill. vice president-elect mike pence is holding meetings at the transition office and finished up a closed door visit a short time ago and talked with our colleague kasie hunt as he walked out and kasie joining us live. give me a sense about those meet l l ings right now and give a little bait to get him talking. what did he have to say to you and what do we know about what he did privately? >> reporter: i think this was really the first celebratory moment for elections. there's uncertainty about what it will

let's start in russia. the u.s. and russia have over 3,000 nuclear warheads aimed at each other. they're at odds in the syrian conflict. russia objects to nato in eastern europe. russians are hacking u.s. institutions. and the u.s. maintains sanctions on russia over ukraine. trump: : i don't know putin. . e said nice things about me. if we got along well, that woululd be good. look-- moderator: wait, wait, wait. trump: from everything i see, has no respect for this person. clinton: well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as presidenent of the united state. trump: no puppet. no puppet. she doesn't like putin because putin has outsmarted her at every step of the way. moderator: mr. trump-- trump: excuse me. val: no surprise, then, that the russian state-funded english language channel rt has plenty of love for donald trump. reporterr: critics have blasted donald trump and p predicted a quick demise of his political career, only to find out that millions of americans agree with him. as hisis opponents continued to defend american interventions in wars overseas, donald trump b

russia practically ran that.ro-trump trolls and featured in sputnik once it came out that we identified their intelligence operation. >> what was their primary goal, was it to get trump elected or to diminish the worldwide respect for our democracy? >> i would like to think an organization of that magnitude led by a former kgb officer and director of the fsb would only want to create mischief and mayhem in the united states electoral system. but the process was so deliberate, an organizational operation like this would have taken hundreds of operators who would have had to have watched carefully the machinery of the united states on a minute-to-minute basis with regards to hacking and leaking the information in the way that they did. to do that, that means that they were -- and obviously they only favored one candidate -- and that candidate was elected. >> and clearly going after the democratic national committee and embarrassing people with all those e-mails. it clearly was not addressed to the republican nation

they live right next to russia and they have had considerable economic interchange with russia. russia put sanctions on following the annexation of crimea and the russian ,ngagement with eastern ukraine the european countries have butn a big hit economically they have proven ready to persist with those sanctions. i think many of them have and confirmed, that he would reconsider those sanctions. there is a big question about europeans able to keep agreement among themselves. they'll have to agree to retain this sanctions under the way the eu makes these decisions. president obama, after some time while he was in germany, met with a number of the leaders of the top eu member states. they all pledge they thought they should continue until the russian policy toward the ukraine changes and makes the conflict resolve the there. that is not a formal decision that will come later, but it was a strong indication of the desire to continue sanctions until russia passes behavior and policy changes. this program was carried live on the policy channel. fromirst call is coming michael. good af

russia is a critical player here. russia and their support for assad and when they are doing in syria is making it much more difficult for us to have a unified front against the extremist organization, such as isis. so what concerns me, i need to understand what is in mr. trump's strategic thought process and what he is suggesting with russia. russia, as i said, is not our ally. they are not our partner. they don't share our values. they air bully. they want a larger, greater russia. they don't want to see nato expansions. one of the first signals that this congress could do, this congress could do, is to approve montenegro's sus session into nato. the failure will be interpreted by mr. putin as a way he can block that from happening under the next administration that wants to set up good relations with russia. so it is hard to figure out exactly where we're heading in syria, where we're heading against isis until we know how we're going to confront russia. the syrian civil war has been going on six years. there is no