the russians are using trojan horse-like methods to get their aircraft, they put 32 russian aircraft into syria in the last week alone. we were the first to report that they used an old trick used by the israelis where they flew the war planes under cargo jets so the radar blot, they would not be visible from the air. and they flew from iran over iraq and into syria and popped up overnight. this air base that you're talking about, this is not a legitimate russian air base this is a pop-up air base. overnight. they have popped up. now they have a naval base nearby, they've had it for a long time. they're creating a corridor in the eastern mediterranean. and it has the israelis very concerned. >> if you're a ukrainian today, are you thinking that the united states is basically not going to have any capability of helping you push back russia from their country? >> we had an awkward press conference days ago where secretary carter stood next to his ukrainian counterpart and had to answer questions about russia when it was clear that secretary carter was trying to talk about how the train

/russian and west russian relations right now but we also cannot ignore the possibility, there may be an opportunity to turn things around. probably being pessimistic is a more realistic course now, but things can change very quickly. that has been demonstrated in relations with washington and moscow in the last 30 years. >> one other thing that you brought up, the question in talking about doctrine. the russians are quite interested in talking about new technology whether it is precision guided munitions or other things and i clearly remember the question from one of the participants to the russians, where i was asked okay, how would you feel about a cyberattack? does a cyberattack constitute an attack on your state? does it create an existential threat, and the answer was well, that depends on how all successful it is, right? that seems to be at the very risky situation for us to be in. i fully understand that these talks with russia and everybody else on cybersecurity and on any kind of limited difficult, but once you introduce the notion of a nuclear response to the cyberattack it

the russians don't know who they are and the russians are bombing who they want to bomb. we can't deconflict the boxes so the real problem is there's an intelligence yell now in baghdad are iraq, iran, syria are all sharing intell. we share with the iraqis meaning our intelligence about who we're working with is now quite likely to flow to the russians. they're going to squash them and we've got people trying to help them. that's a little scarier than a couple of aircraft getting into a dog fight. >> where's isil in all this, doug? is there really still an effective fight against a pretty dangerous enemy in that part of the world? >> well, in syria, clearly, the united states is still taking air power to isil but that aside, no, we don't seem to have any proxies who are willing to take the fight to them. the kurds have demonstrated they're very approximate tent in thepotent in their own areas bu have no interest in moving. the other free syrian army groups are in little pockets. they defend their homelands but not push out of them. and isil may fight each other but certai

nobody wishes the russian military ill on this, but if a russian pilot goes down, do the russians thento the u.s. and ask for help in rescuing their troops? a million questions. this is where the two sides were supposed to sit down and talk to each other. but instead this morning, a russian general turned up at the embassy in baghdad and said, here we are. >> huge questions, barbara, with potentially deadly consequences and fallout from any of those actions. barbara starr getting great reporting from the pentagon. barbara, thanks so much. let's discuss all of this and the implications of this and what happens right now with cnn military analyst james "spider" marks. he is with us. and former u.s. ambassador to syria, robert ford. we heard barbara's reporting and we also married from senator mccain earlier. he said there's no love lost between vladimir putin and john mccain. you know, no mistake there. he also said that these actions, just these actions just today, are going to prolong and complicate this conflict, this war, this crisis in syria. what's the impact of this not only in mi

first, what kind of russian defense assistance, what kind of defense assistance to the russian provide china's maritime forces? second, how have those forces benefited from such assistance? and third, what has been the impact on china's an access strategy? we will focus on the specific ships, sensors and weapons systems that have either been transferred outright from russia to china, or develop by china using russian technology. we will first start with a little background on china's anti-access stretchy. many of you may be through with that, some quite some of them are brief recap will help set the context and explain the role in the strategy. over the past 200 years china has faced the persistent threat of attack from the seat. first of the colonial powers, then the japanese, and most result from u.s. navy. for most of the three china like to be effective means to counter those threats. it's navy remained underdeveloped. its fleet was an capable of matching up against an advanced naval adversary our maritime for such as the u.s. navy. nor did it's fleet possess the capability to defe

along with the russian ship. they paired off to conduct anti-service and at the air war for exercises but they're able to reconnect and networks that together fairly quickly to be able to interoperate. we haven't really seen that level of effort just to try to come up with to jointness. >> hello, good afternoon, everybody. probably provide you with comic relief because it's my first time for this defense system the. [inaudible] focus on house. my question is this. this is apparently all defense agency systems. my simple question is, i represent those who are interested socioeconomic sustainable development, energy and stuff like that. and i am the student council if i could go back home and report more general who understands these things. my question is it broke my heart for having one classmate died in the first -- another one -- sundeck i -- >> is there going to be a questions because that's the question. now, how do we now match around the philippines, that the ordinary filipino told me from where ever i go,

footnote yes i care that magnitsky died in prison. >> at the hands of the russians, the russians held him and killed him. >> if you die in a prison you die in the hands of the authorities in the country. do you know how many have died in prison in the united states? >> they weren't beaten to death. >> you know that? >> wait a minute you're telling me-z are internobody is beaten to death at rykers island? >> we have a case of somebody being beaten to death in a russian prison. we can accept that the russians did something to magnitsky and then the value that the russians -- >> i doubt this is going to make air. >> it is all going to make air. >> we can argue. if i can get my point out. >> go ahead. >> if you really want to talk about bill browder, that what i know about browder that you don't know, i'll leave you with one question, how did anybody a russian american in particular make as you put it billions of dollars in lawless murderous illegal russia in the 1990s? >> because they were privatizing and every russian got a voucher that was part of the privatization -- >> i wrote a book

he trusts the russians, and the russians, that there is an internal contradiction in the russian actions. putin is laughing right now. >> thank you so much for your brilliant reporting. let's go down in the studio. there is so much to talk to and about. where do you fall on this? what is putin really doing? >> well, if putin has said, we're having an anti-isis coalition, i got my guys lined up, iraq, iran, syria, me, we're all going in, what he is really doing is using that as an excuse to attack america's allie the moderate syrian rebels, assad's opponents. he's not attacking isis. he's really going after assad, then he has lied to us. >> what is happening today is one of the leading activisactivs saying one of their lydeie leade killed by a russian airstrike. >> ash carter was -- saying get out of our way is like a slap in our face. number two, if russia uses this as an excuse, we're going after isis, they were propping up assad, the third thing, i was interested to watch secretary carter, in effect, we are flying in the same airspace. the russians are there, we're there. we're both bo

>> i take my--the russians at their word. they're exceptionally clear about what they're saying, and their actions seem to reflect what they said they were going to do. so my problem isn't that i don't understand what they're doing. i think that my problem is that i think what they're doing is going to backfire. and it is counterproductive. >> they're going to after isil. >> i'll come back to you. >> aside from the sequencing aspect that you talked about, the bombing of isil, and then working out a political transition, putting that aside for a moment. would you and other u.s. leaders welcome russian bombing, not only of isil, but of al nusra, and khorasan groups. >> i think that the president has made it clear. it ought to be clear to anybody that anybody who wants to join in the fight against isil or join the coalition of 60 countries who have made that same determination, this is something, an evil that must be defeated. you're right, it is isil and other extremist groups of the same ilk. yes. those are the ones that we an

russian warplanes began dropping bombs in syria within hours of the russian general delivering that request at the embassy. the russian general said, quote, if you have forces in the area, we request they leave. the russian general was from that military cell that we first reported russia established with syria and iran in baghdad last week, another surprise for the u.s. embassy in baghdad. >> how did the american forces respond? >> well, it sent them scrambling. it was unexpected to say the least. i got woken up with a call at 4:15 a.m. eastern time with a tip that it had just occurred. washington was caught oguard. centcom says u.s. warplanes will not comply with the russian request. quote, today's request will in no way alter >> i take the russians at their word. they're clear about what they say and their actions reflect what they said they were going to do. my problem is that i don't understand what they're doing. i think that my problem is that i think what they're doing is going to backfire and is counterproductive. >> that from the u.s. defense secretary here at the pentagon just mo

it is the famous rescues of russian scientists in some ways fast forward to that in 2014 the russian airdrop and can hearken back to that. the national history, national narrative and it's impressive and they are polling the narrative forward. in many ways the comments try to pull that accomplishment trying to return to that a 21st century context. do you need help with that. you need technology for a 21st century arctic development and they are pushing that away and it's been sanctioned. to try to challenge russia's arctic development as it pursues the third i really appreciated the methodology for reinvestment and that is how you interpret it . i agree with steve. for a variety of regions of the geopolitical environment and harkening back to the great pitcher out of core is russia's access to the north atlantic to keep that is quite critical. there is some of arctic exceptional at them and we all need and want international cooperation. the arctic is not a means. it is too important. and the strategic nuclear deterrence or in the arctic and is geopolitically important. we can creat

/russian and west/russian relations right now.but we also ought to not ignore the possibility that -- there may be an opportunity to try to turn things around so again i think probably being mess mistic is the more realistic course now but things can change quickly. that's been demonstrated by relations between washington and moscow in the last 30 years. >> one other thing, steve, that you brought up, this question in talking about doctrine and other -- you know, the russians are quite interested in talking about new technologies, right? whether it's precision guided munitions or other things. and i quite clearly remember a question from one of the participants to the russians where i was askeding a, how do you feel about a cyber attack? does a cyber attack constitute an attack on your state, does it create an existential threat. and the answer was -- well, from one russian "well, that depends on how successful it is." so that seems to be a very risky situation for us to be in and i fully understand that these talks with russia an

to put russian boots on the ground.hey are aware of the fact that the united states has made some progress against isil but relying upon other opposition forces inside of syria. i think the other thing that bears mentioning is that president putin in the context of his meeting with president obama noted the importanceover a political transition inside of syria. now, he's not willing to make the same commitment that we are, the same observation, frankly, that we have that president assad has lost legitimacy to lead but implicit? president putin's discussion of the need for transition is the need for some kind of functioning opposition. that you haven't have a political transition in which politics don't change. so i think president putin understands that at some level there will have to be more of a political contribution from the opposition inside of syria and that's why the united states has worked hard to build is up the capacity of -- the military capacity of the modern syrian opposition inside of syria but also work

>> i take the russians at their word.there's no -- they're exceptionally clear about what they're saying and their actions now seem to reflect what they said they were going to do. so my problem isn't that i don't understand what they're doing. my problem is i think what they're doing is going to backfire and is counter productive. >> i thought they said they were going to fight isil. do you believe they're fighting isil? >> you were next. >> mr. secretary, aside from the sequencing aspect you've talked about, the bombing of isil and then working on a political transition away from assad, putting that aside for a moment, would you and other u.s. leaders welcome russian bombing not only of isil but of al nusra and of the other groups that the united states-led coalition has bombed? would that also be a good thing? >> i think the president has made it clear. it ought to be clear to anybody that if anybody who wants to join in the fight against isil or join the coalition of 60 countries that have made that same determination

the russians never told us they were coming into syria. they flew their fighter jets underneath the belly of cargo aircraft to keep it off the radar screens. why are we doing that? we should be telling the russians with no doubt about it, we're going to fly when we want where we want and do what we want, and you better avoid what we're doing or face confrontation, and then we have to double down what we're trying to do to succeed in syria and iraq which is an abject failure. lou: general, not cynical, sound like a realistic judgment to me. thanks for being with us, general jack keane. >> good talking with you, lou. lou: quickly, weather-related news, the bahamas are bracing for hurricane joaquin. it has become a category one hurricane that could hit the east coast in a matter of days. right now the storm is some 200 miles east-northeast of the central bahamas. 80-mile-an-hour winds expected to drop about 3-5" of rain as it hits the bahamas tonight and tomorrow moving north. the hurricane is projected to strengthen over the next two days, a

if they're coming under attack, coming under air fire from the russians, from russian air strikes, does the coalition have any kind of responsibility to protect them? and that's another question that we're asking around here today and we can't get a clear answer to. >> kristin welker at the white house, as we await president obama, who is due to speak in about seven minutes at the building next door to you. have we gotten any guidance from the white house? i know josh earnest spoke earlier today. >> well, there's no indication that president obama is going to address what we're seeing in syria, however, of course, you never rule anything out. and the ultimate decision does rest with him. white house press secretary josh earnest underscoring a lot of what we heard from the defense secretary, which is that there's going to be a cooperation between the u.s. and russian forces moving forward in the sense that they'll try to deconflict this situation. that means they'll hold discussions to try to determine and make sure there's no mistaken engagement between these forces in the air that coul

russian air strikes in syria. this is a significant show of force from russia in its alleged fight against isis. brian williams is following the breaking news for us and joins me now. >> thank you, thomas. we have been talking about this and looking at it all day. let's go quickly to the white house with nbc's kristen welker in reaction to this all day. and it's just been that, reacting to this news from overseas. kristen, good afternoon. >> reporter: brian, good afternoon. two highlights i want to point out from josh earnest's briefing so far. he said that u.s. officials have been in contact with russian officials. and that the goal of those conversations is to work out how they can de-conflict their military operations. that's washington speak for essentially making sure that if russia is launching air strikes and if the u.s. is launching air strikes, that's there no mistake in the skies. the other thing i want to point out is that josh said it's too early to tell what this specific target is of the air strikes

if you're russian, you can be killed. if you're russians, your civic rights would not be protected. ukrainian or ultra- nationalist, okay, you will be in the parliament, you will be the president, everything will be to you. but here, if you're russian, bombs, artillery and killings will be answer. this is, we're sorry, we answer strongly no. >> narrator: it is a sentiment that has played well at home. on the streets where they demonstrated against him only two years earlier, they were now singing his praises. meanwhile, the united states was calling for strong sanctions against russia, but in the capitals of europe, there was reluctance. >> we keep on trying to bring mr. putin in. we invite him to our summit meetings. we try and treat russia as a normal country. and we think we're trying to calm things down, but in fact, what we're doing is we're stoking things. we're giving mr. putin the impression that we're not to be taken seriously, and he continues to push us harder and harder and harder, and that's extremely dangerous. >> narrator: but then in july 2014, one violent act would

russian military efforts.these are the kind of things you could see. may not happen but the potential is there. >> and just one more for you, jeff. can you say a word about this announcement of military coordination -- i'm sorry -- intelligence coordination between iran, iraq, syria, and russia? >> with the exception of iraq, i think this kind of coordination has been going on forever effectively. who their partners and many things, they talk to one another. syria and iran effectively have an alliance, military kind of alliance. russians are involved in that and also includes hezbollah. so the fact they're coordinating this -- talking to one another about intelligence isn't really surprising or even new. the context is somewhat new. the iraqi context is different. have to see what comes of that. but the issue becomes really difficult, if it moves beyond intelligence cooperation into military operations. then you have another situation where the u.s. and the russians could be flying in the same or adjacent air

russian-made, it was nicholas i's idea to put russian stone in the rooms which is beautiful.re we have these big paintings of italian and spanish. charlie: that great room. mikhail: it is. two or three big rooms with a lot of wonderful, we get a lot of light. charlie: where do we go from here? mikhail: the dutch paintings. charlie: peter the great. mikhail: peter the great log the netherlands, holland. it was the most developed countries europe. he loved holland and he loved dutch art. after he was buying dutch art. we have the largest collection of dutch art outside of holland. certainly rembrandt and many, many other rooms. charlie: catherine, did she buy a lot of flemish art as well? mikhail: yes, and we'll see the flemish art. the dutch is small paintings with -- charlie: look at this room. mikhail: this is one of the rooms. these rooms are so beautiful. when you do the lighting, you don't know how to show, how to concentrate the light on the pictures definitely, but the ceiling, the walls. charlie: everything is beautiful. everything has been so thoughtfully considered.

all russians want to recreate the great russia. we told the story of imperial russia, which everybody wants to ecreate somehow. it's a frame which helps you understand what really is needed to create something that will look good as the good sides of imperial russia. we have central buildings and we have built big buildings for open storage to show everything we have, to be successful for the public. all the carriages, all the furniture. our goal is to bring to herm taj collections of american -- to hermitage collections of american hart. to be a great state means a great army, good economy and great collections in museums. we live for the future and we live because of the past. charlie: tonight we tour inside one of the largest and oldest repositories of art and culture in the world. all of my life i have wanted to museum in ermitage st. petersburg, russia. it's where catherine the great began assembling her personal collection in 1764. today it houses items from the anticy i it is -- antiquities to the largest painting collection

this time aggressor is the russian federation.ghboring country, former strategic partner that legally pledged to respect the territ y territorial integrity and security of the border of ukraine. this country used to be a guarantor of security under the budapest memorandum, where securities were provided to my country in exchange for the voluntary of the [ inaudible ] of the world third nuclear arsenal. moreover, this state is a permanent member of the united nations security council which is entrusted by the u.n. charter with maintaining international peace and security. in february 2014, russia conducted open and unprovoked aggression against my country, having occupied and annexed the crimea. bluntly and brutally violating the international law. shocking the whole world community. and i am deeply grateful to the delegation of the majority of our organization member states, that the last year supported the resolution of the united nations general assembly entitled territorial integrity of ukraine, which condemned the russian ille

that's why the russian approach is doomed to fail. >> sreenivasan: carter said the russian actions will deter the u.s.-led air war on islamic state fighters, that's been under way for a year. >> woodruff: late this evening, secretary kerry and russian foreign minister has rof came out together and agreed to military talks. we get a closer look at russia's military moves in syria with andrew weiss. he was the director of russian, ukrainian, and eurasian afairlz at the white house national security council during the clinton and george w. bush administration. he's now with the carnegie endowment for international peace. and steven simon. he's a visiting lecturer at dartmouth college. he served on the national security council staff during the obama and clinton administrations. we welcome you both back to the program. let me start with you, steven simon. is this an occasion for the u.s. to be pleased that it has a partner in going after isis or alarmed that the russians are in syria helping their friend president assad? >> i think on balance, there's cause for some satisfaction, and the pr

the northern territories remain in russian hands and continue to be an impediment to full japan-russian relations. but finally the united states remains the dominant power in the pacific although there are signs that might be changing. thank you. [applause] [speaking in other language] >> yes, sir? >> if you don't mind, are you arguing that truman felt or was briefed that conventional bombing was as horrendous as it was, the naval blockade, would swiftly save lives and therefore the decision to use the nukes was only about the soviets? >> it was about ending the war quickly before the russians to be fully prepared exercise their interests. >> so the use of the nukes in truman's mind was to end the war quickly and save lives? >> i agree with that. >> oh, okay. >> but it was also -- >> oh, sure. what the soviets did was therefore important but secondary. the primary was to stop this war now. so what was the objection from marshall and the others? didn't they want to stop the war now or did they not believe that conventional weapons and the blockade wouldn't do it? >> marshall was f.d.r.'s

no, the russians aren't. the russians marched? and said we are bombing get out of the area.eeting. putin probably sat there and nodded not believing how naive his ad investor sear is. 48 hours later he starts the bombing without any negotiations. the russians are acting with complete contempt for the united states. now, personally, i don't really care. this isn't about that that it is important when you are stepped on, other countries in the are looking around who they with rely on. russians walk in and dictate terms and we are the ones begging for a meeting. >> i want to play this from ben rhodes, advisor to the president, his take on the russia position. >> you know, everybody is looking at putin as if this is some offensive maneuver. again, they have had bases in syria for a very long time. this is their principle in the arab world. it's been collapsing. he is trying to prop it up. i think that's hardly someone who is in a strong position. >> hardly someone, jonah who is in a strong position. >> the last thing the administration should be doing is doing pr for the russian

-russian relationship. i am joined today by three experts who all participated in both of the dialogues that we conducted with the russians first in october and then more recently in june. on my immediate right is andy companiens who is director and senior fellow of the russia and you' eurasia program and we didn't overlap in the carnegie endowment and you were there before me and in moscow. next to andy is ambassador steve pifer who directs the arms control and steve is former ambassador to ukraine. so all of his experiences both in the ukraine and elsewhere during his foreign service career have been invaluable to our discussions and then next to steve is guy roberts who is a former deputy assistant secretary-general for weapons of mass destruction policy at nato and guy and i go back a long time in the arms control. >> not that long? okay. in the arms proliferation and arms control scene. i am going to try to limit my remarks. i'm just going to sets up, you know, how we did this dialogue and what were so

the question is not to speak to the russians but how to speak to the russians. >> the perception of weakness heard that from john mccain. what does that fit when americans look at that part of the world? when the syrian civil war really started to take root and the united states started to speculate about some sort of involvement there was a lot of war weariness in this country and an unwillingness broadly within the people not to get involved. is that weakness or a smart reading of where your country is at any point in time? >> in washington we look at strong versus weak not smart versus stupid. we're seeing the contradictions and the incoherence of our policy steering us in the face. the idea that assad must go, when it's completely unclear who in the world could possibly succeed him other than i.s.i.s. or the el nusra front which is part of al qaeda, and indeed general petraeus calling for cooperation, i wonder why it has not been validate until now. until 2013 president obama painted himself into the corner on his red lines, about chemical weapons. i think putin is doing that today becau

there are russian imgray tores considered staples of russian work. was around them and because of that the hermitage foundation found me and we got to work on a couple of interesting international contemporary projects. i have to really, really kind of cool. hard to say no to. >> rose: yeah, considering your background, characterize this museum for me. >> it's not an art museum. it's a museum of civilization. it's a museum that catherine -- when catherine the great founded it -- we're having our 250t 250th centennial -- she's, like, look, russia demands and deserves a museum much like nothing world's ever seen, and that was very much her personality, and she stafortd collecting. what's really interesting, everyone is thinking she's collecting work that's very ancient, but the joke among hermitagenics is she's correcting work that's contemporary to her. and i'd like to think we're collecting work contemporary to us, 20th and 21st century. when dr. piotrovsky comes, i introduce him to people who are interested in using the hermitage as a means to promo

we do have a major difference between the russian -- with russians over the issue of the assad regime. but i think it behooves the americans, as well, to do what ash carter asking of the russians, which is to lay out what our diplomatic, what our political way forward is. i mean, do we just want provisional elections for a provinceal government and constitution? i'm not sure that's enough to pull people out of the trenches at this point. >> ambassador chris hill, thank you so much for being with us. appreciate your perspective. reverend sharpton's interview, we showed you a clip of that with hillary clinton, airing on "politics nation" this sunday at 8:00 a.m. eastern here on msnbc. >>> coming up, did the possible incoming house speaker mccarthy make a big admission about the intent of the house benghazi committee regarding hillary clinton? >>> also, inside the pope's secret meeting with the kentucky court clerk jailed for refusing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. kim davis' lawyer joins us here. >>> donald trump is personal of family life with "people" magazine. the writer join

and the russians? while the defense secretary ash carter said on wednesday that he is taking the russians at their word, that they're going after isil, and perhaps other extremist groups, there really is the proof of the actions that the russian take. and so it's really going to be some tense hours as they try to get this whole communication scheme ramped up, and are really trusting that the scheme they set up is going to be the only venue that they're going to see this kind of communication, and that the russians are not going to be doing something outside of that communications scheme. >> ros jordan with the latest in washington, d.c. thanks so much. >>> al jazeera's peter sharp has this update from moscow. >> well, it's got to be said that the russian airstrikes were expected. they've been building up their military arsenal in the last 30 days, and there are nearly 60 aircraft on the tarmac near latakia, the air base. but it's not the kremlin who announced that the raid was taking place, it was u.s.

the russian system doesn't work that way. just the very fact we are able to hold these discussions and to have the level of representation we had from the russian federation said something that at least some areas of the russian government are supportive of continuing these types of discussion right now but in this context it emphasizes the point that guy is making that what we are doing us all that much more important. >> thank you. it is time to take questions from you. we have some roving microphone and i ask you introduce yourself and your affiliation and i will try and go in order. can you come up? >> thanks. i am a russian reporter and my question and what you've been discussing. first i think it's an important discussion. thank you. second, it's hard to even cover the event because i do not understand is practical significance. i have a group of experts who seem to be agreed from what i am hearing from all of you, you are for dialogue on the confidence building, all of them. on the russian side that is probably thinks

the first russian strikes began in the homes about 60 miles east of a russian military base. even though there are no isis targets in the areas according the pentagon they are in the area. it is said the u.s. planes will not complay and u.s. war planes continued carrying out strike missions in northern syria today. secretary of state john kerry meets his russian counterpart at the un today. >> i could not disagree more. i think it opens up more options. i think it is an opportunity to be honest with you. >> reporter: the russian actions made the work of the u.s. military much more difficult i am told. senior officials were caught off guard when they were approached requesting to be removed. this is not now nations to do business according to an official. >> there are indications this is not about getting rid of isis but propping up assad. >> reporter: exactly. isis is not in the area of where the violence took place. we are seeing the children being dragged from the rebel and that is the area where the free syrian army is located. >> peter brooks is joining us, now. a form ci

-russian relationship. i am joined today by three experts who all participated in both of the dialogues that we conducted with the russians, first in october and then more recently in june. on my immediate right is andy kuchins who is director and senior vote of the russia and eurasia program, and well-known author and i think we didn't overlap the carnegie endowment. i think you were there before me, and in moscow also. next to andy is ambassador steven pifer who directs arms control and nonproliferation initiative, and steve is a former ambassador to ukraine. all in this experience both in ukraine and elsewhere during foreign service career have been invaluable to our discussions. of the next to steve is guy roberts was a former deputy assistant secretary-general for weapons of mass destruction policy at nato. we go back a long time -- not that long? okay. in the nonproliferation and arms control seen. i am going to try to limit my remarks. i'm just going to set out how we did this dialogue, what were som

had been worried about for days that the russian military buildup was aimed at the russians supporting assad and propping him up and keeping him in power and exactly what the obama administration did not want to see. but deeper than that even, the pentagon not very happy this morning. it was a couple of days of course, that president obama and president putin said that the two militaries would sit down and have talks, technical talks about how the deconflict the operations over syrian air space, and instead, a russian general essentially went and banged on the door of the u.s. embassy in baghdad and said, get out of syrian air space, because we are about to bomb, and that is the extent of the russian discussion of deacon flick shun, a -- deacon flick shun, and that is the point with russian airplanes still in the air. >> and the issue of de conflick shun, and let me skip over, because i have a lot more about this the syrian developments, barbara, but then, again, in afghanistan, people were not expected to hear that the taliban were taking cities, and least of all a city like kunduz, a

but i come back to syria, and the russian activities today.fter four years in syria, the united states has stood by as bashar al assad, and his wa war on the syrian people goes on and on and on, and as this the slaughter, it has been the single greatest contributor to the rise and the continued success of isil, and have no doubt, it was bashar al assad that gave birth to isil. the president has said for years, for years that assad must go, but he has done nothing that has brought us any closer to achieving that the outcome. this administration has confused our friends and encouraged the enemies, and mistaken an excessive caution for prudence and replaced the risk of actions with the perils of inaction, and into the wreckage, and into the wreckage of the middle east's policy has stepped vladimir putin as in ukraine and elsewhere, he perceives the ap administration's action as weakness, and he is taking full advantage. over the past few weeks, vladimir putin has been engaged in a significant military buildup in western syria, and d deploying str

it's hard to see the russians not escalating. the question is, if there is any daylight between -- in terms of russian thinking between assad and the syrian regime, russia talks about avoiding state collapse, but essentially we're talking here about the partial preservation of the syrian regime, and this is where it's not clear. from iranian circle outside hear the regime is an inverted. you remove the capstone and it falls apart. i its unclear if the row russians see it the same way. some want to preserve the regime at the expense of assad and his family. others fear the way the regime is constructed is indeed -- makes it galvanized or makes it -- gives structure that resists a peaceful transition. i think russian intervention will not end the war, but there could be a silver lining. russia could help stabilize some areas under the regime's control in order to avoid the injureddist take over of damascus. i'm. no say they're going to take over damascus, i always doubted that. but on the bright side, if the united states is worrie

, by russian society.nd i think part of the problem that we face in dealing with this issue is that we can't either force or convince vladimir putin to treat his muslims nicely, and that i think is sort of the heart of the problem. is that it's a -- the muslim issue in russia is not one that america is in a position to address. only moscow can do that. and at the moment it doesn't want to do so very effectively. >> well, thank you, all, for joining us today. just a few short thoughts, and that is, let us remember that when saddam hussein was eliminated, it brought chaos. when gadhafi was eliminated, it brought chaos. there were alternatives there, gadhafi in particular but also with saddam hussein. and we were told that the third force was our alternate to assad. and i think the russians are very concerned that even if assad is eliminated by this third force, even if that's the case, you're going to have just what happened in these other countries, chaos, which is then exploited by the most radical islamic

but i just got this urgent, and it quotes a russian defense ministry spokesman who said that russianlanes conducted a strike in syria against isis military equipment, communications center, vehicles and ammunitions. do you think that's true? >> ain't buying it. truthfully, i'm not buying it. isis does not have any strength in homs itself, and their strength is in other places of the country. and they would not have done some of the things they did in terms of last-minute notification of both elements in baghdad and the u.s. embassy there. so this is truthfully a support for assad. they are trying to keep him in power. they have bases in syria that are critically important to their mediterranean strategy. so i anticipate more things like this happening, and frankly, i think the military and state department officials on the ground believe that this will continue as well. >> okay. so the other concern is before these airstrikes began, a russian official marched into the american embassy in baghdad and said, look. we're going to conduct these airstrikes, so you need to get your, like, w

around 100 russian soldiers have been spotted there.eral russian ships have also been unloading equipment at its naval base which is 100 kilometers south. russia has backed the syrian president throughout the country's four and a half year civil war. some in the west believe the russian military buildup is meant to force president assad to be part of any political agreement. >> reporter: russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov admits russian aircrafts are delivering military supplies and humanitarian aid, but denies any military build up. >> translator: we have helped and will continue aiding the syrian government in equipping the syrian army with all that is necessary to prevent a repetition in syria of the libyan scenario, and other vennes that have occurred in this reagain, because of an obsession with some of our western partners with ideas of changing unwanted regimes. >> reporter: officials say rur russia is sending ships, and naval material to syria. russia is also sending more naval vessels to the mediterranean. russia has maint

russian bombs will fly soon, and coalition forces should stay clear. it was not when, but who was targeted that angered the administration. the u.s. administration said that russian bombs hit areas where there were no known isil fighters. a clear implication, russia is bombing groups fighting on the side of the u.s. secretary of state john kerry issued a warning. >> we would have grave concerns, should russia strike areas where isil and al qaeda affiliated tarts are operating. >> meeting monday, president obama and valid valid pledged to avoid conflicts between u.s. and russian airplanes in syria, but before those talks got off the ground, russia launched it's strikes. and they stated their reason for intervention in syria, to support bashar al-assad. the u.s. insists that bashar has no role in syria's future. he is trying to rescue russia's last ally in the middle east. >> russia is not going to be successful in this, and they will be no more successful than the united states in opposing iraq, and certain no more than russian efforts in afghanistan th

but the purpose was to steal $230 million of taxes that we paid to the russian government, from the russian government. and they succeeded in that. so government officials stole our companies, applied for a tax refund of $230 million-- >> tax you had already paid. >> tax we already paid. so we discovered this. we-- and-- and-- and then the-- the moment that-- and we thought this is not-- just a threat from us. this is a theft from the russian government. and so we thought let's file a criminal complaint. and so we got all of our lawyers, including sergei, to draft criminal complaints. we filed them with all the different law enforcement agencies of russia. and then we waited for the good guys to get bad guys. and it turns out-- there were no good guys over there, just bad guys. and they opened up criminal cases against all of our lawyers. it turns out our lawyers were in harm's way. and so i went to every lawyer and i said, "you gotta leave russia". but sergei-- who is about ten years younger than the other guys-- and hadn't been sort of fully aware of the-- how horrible-- the soviet system

>> well, there are russian troops on the ground. he has deployed russian troops. that's part in parcel about 3,000. that's what you need for an air base. but let's look at the assets he has put there. he has put two dozen fighter aircraft. tanks, and other hardware. is this enough to shift the balance, to tip the scales, if you will, in the fight against isil? well we've already shown that airstrikes are good at perhaps maybe containing them and but it's not enough to drive them back and it's not enough to defeat them. what will it take to defeat isil? that russian military deployment alone is not going to be enough. what putin has done and what russia has done is that they are changing the tactics of the game, if you will. and again putting themselves in there, trying to form this international coalition within syria against isil to beat back isil, and again keeping russia relevant as a power on the world stage. >> okay. where might russia, if this is the strategy that putin is using to become relevant, where will he pop up next. >> well, that's part of his strat

-russian negotiation. if washington and moscow agreed to cut their totally nuclear arsenals in half, that would be six to seven times larger than the nearest third country. the russians are saying, no, the next negotiation has to bring in third countries. there might be a half step that you could do because i don't believe that the chinese are going to be prepared to say, yes, we're going to make a commitment to a treaty of not above 300. could you ask the chinese, the british, and the french to undertake a unilateral political commitment. we will not increase the number of our nuclear weapons as long as the u.s. and russia are reducing. >> meg, it's a great question. there's no question the russians are concerned about what china is doing and could possibly do in modernization and expansion of their nuclear weapons capability. over the years, they've been frustrated, i think, at least in discussions with me about what they see as a lack of transparency in chinese programs. now, the china-russia relationsh