-russian relations now. in other words, is it possible that until that issue was resolved, both major powers have no way of knowing that the basis for significant move forward? do we have to wait for the resolution of that crisis? >> paul, quickly. >> yes. i don't think of both sides necessarily have to wait. certainly it's quite difficult in the current environment, pretty significant constraints on the trump administration in what it can do, any certainly any effort to make changes in the sanctions without russia fulfilling the minsk agreement as steve mentioned, could produce a backlash in congress. there are other cop -- constraints. far greater scrutiny of the u.s.-russian relationship than at any time in the post soviet u.s.-russia relation shape. there's also a question of are there things that the administration can do to change the narrative that would allow the administration to -- greater flexibility in dealing with russian than has now. and like the cruise missile attack that mike kofman talked a

russian relations now. is it possible that until that issue was resolved, both major powers have no way of knowing for a significant move forward? do we have to wait for the resolution of that crisis? >> i don't think both sides necessarily have to wait. it is certainly quite difficult in the current environment, pretty significant constraints on the trump administration and and certainly any effort to make changes in the sanctions without russia fulfilling the agreement as mentioned could produce a backlash in congress or other constraints. there is probably far greater scrutiny of u.s. russia relationships than there has been at any other time. at the same time, there is also a question of are there things the administration can do to change the narrative that would allow the administration greater flexibility dealing with russia than now? certainly, to my mind, things ,ike the cruise missile attack i think it does change dynamics of our conversation when the trump administration takes an action like that

every living russian. the country's national narrative is impossible without it. in 1941, hitler's armies were stopped just outside the gates of moscow. in 1945, stalin's armies entered berlin. that was russia's greatest generation. generations of russians since then have been taught that their country was at its most secure then because it was protected by a buffer, the warsaw pact and the soviet empire. in 1991 russians lost that buffer. the legacy of their greatest generation. with their country falling apart, russian leaders had no choice but to accept this loss. for as long as russia would remain weak. the 90s were a terrible decade for russia but a great decade for the west. for russian leaders, and many regular russians, the dominance of the west came at the expense of russia's loss in the cold war. russia would not remain weak indefinitely. its economic recovery led to a return doing much more assertive posture, on the world stage. we saw it in the crushing of georgia in 2008. in the annexation of

inside the russian mission they thought they were essentially on russian soil. they certainly had diplomatic immunity, they were in russian space, but the documents they had were bugged. there were microphones in the binders. so the fbi got hours and hours of tape off those microphones in the binders of these guys talking when they were sure nobody could hear them. one of the things those guys talked about was the other guy in their spy ring who worked in the bank. that's how they got him. another thing we talked about was their repeated efforts to recruit americans for their spying efforts. when this case broke open in 2015 and they released the indictment, a lot of the news coverage was about the facts he wanted to target college girls in new york to be russian assets. that had a nice tabloid appeal to it, even though the indictment didn't indicate they had too much success with the college girls effort. where they did have success was with male number one. a quote from the indictment here. quote, on or about april 8th 2013, the defendant discussed efforts wor

>> if you look at the definition of meeting in russia -- in a russian context -- >> do you speak russian by, i understand what's happening in meetings -- >> you're saying you're using the russian definition of meetings -- >> i have been in smaller rallies -- >> hundreds or tens of thousands of people who have been to donald tru donald trump rallies, can they say they have been in meetings with trump? >> they were often discussed in rallies, et cetera as well. >> if i go to a rally of donald trump's, it doesn't mean i'm an advisor to donald trump, it doesn't mean i'm going to a meeting with donald trump, i happen to be -- i'm a rally. so you went to a bunch of donald trump rallies. >> yes, things like that. >> donald trump name you as part of the foreign policy team, that was in march, then in august, they say you were an informal advisor, and then james miller said you're not an advisor and you made no contribution to the campaign. >> i never met james miller. i think he joined kind of mid summer. >> did you actually write policy papers and send them to the campaign? >> i don't like talk

other russians say. so when russia looks out at the world today, it doesn't define its security perimeter, its security in terms of the scared of the borders of the russian federation. it looks out to the whole post-soviet space, all of those countries that were once part of the soviet union. from moscow's point of view, people about and i would see even true in the '90s, although russian was weaker then, the defense perimeter if you like in the security perimeter are those borders. so that if a ukraine decides that it wants to move west, once to join nato or the european union, neither of those things are on offer, that is seen as a direct threat to the russian hotline. you can see from our point of view we don't understand -- heartland. it's not directed against russia, and indeed it has many other things that is been doing for its mission has completed change. but that is not happy to see him. essentially when president putin said 12 years ago or whenever that the collapse of the soviet union was of t

it was very anti-russian. i can see why any type of spy, kgb would want to at least talk with this guy. he was obviously to a certain etch te extent on their side. he was not critical of russia and very positively about putin. it makes sense. what they could actually get from him is another question. whether he actually gave them anything that was of any use. in one of the documents the fbi documents as i understand, he was described by the kgb agent who was trying to get him to recruit him as an idiot. did they get anything from him? i don't know. their job is to get information. even if it's from an idiot. >> or to compromise somebody and get information from them. we will continue this. thanks. >>> just ahead tonight, what are russian warplanes, four in the last four days, doing near alaska? what are the pentagon and state department doing about it? >>> health care and tax legislation. what the president is doing to push it forward. what he is doing to make it sound like it's no big deal if it happens next

i'm sure even though i've not heard it, the russians are going to deny this. >> assad is the russians and the iranians poodle. he will do what he's told. russia really wants to main thane that foot hold on the mediterranean, so they're going to be really tough and holding on to what they've come up with already. the iranians want to lead a shiite conquest of the whole region. we have a real mess on our hands. that's why we have to have economic strength to play successfully. >> neil: thanks, sir. you know what susan rice was saying against week and the lakes before that? the latest thing that she had trusted that chemical yes -- weapons were addressed. on top of that, what she said about russia's involvement in our election and on and on. so when someone calls for her to be studied and probed, the republican congressman that recommended just that, he's the one that is booed, not susan rice. >> one of the more serious roles is that of susan rice -- now why is it -- how interesting. what is good for the goose isn't also good for the gander? ♪ hey, i'm the internet! ♪ i know a bunch of p

the story of the russian hack and the russian disinformation program.rlie: you get to moscow and there is much drama this morning, as he went to broadcast at cbs about whether vladimir putin would meet with rex tillerson. why did he decide to do it, did he always decide to do it? has there been any reporting on the subject? david: that would be inside vladimir putin's head. but we have seen this before moments when he kept john kerry , and president obama at various waiting to see whether or not or when he was meet. we've seen this happen. in this case, because he's known mr. tillerson from the days that he was the chief executive of exxonmobil, it surprised us a little bit because he was obviously dealing with a known quantity here. this was the first meeting between anybody senior in the trump administration and vladimir putin, or at least the first one that we know about. it have somewhat critical to watch whether or not they could get past this remarkably different set of facts they have been describing, and based on the only voice we have heard sin

how good are the russians? >> it is a very capable cyber attack operation. >> reporter: and now adding to the intrigue are the revelations of key trump staff campaign aides -- paul manafort, general michael flynn, adviser carter page -- who all had suspect financial ties with russia. and page was actually suspected bit fbi as working as a russian spy inside the campaign. according to a report this week in the "washington post." this morning on "good morning america," page denied the allegation to george stephanopoulos. >> i do not talk about any ongoing investigations. >> reporter: for all of the russian efforts to cultivate trump and help him win the election, the developments this week suggest it may have backfired. >> we may be at an all-time low in terms of relationship with russia. >> reporter: and now the russian operation out of that building in st. petersburg may be finding new american targets. >> now they're coming after donald trump. >> reporter: and looking to the future, u.s. officials say they fea

russians really targeted them. they really really tried hard to hurt hillary clinton and help donald trump during the presidential general election. but what we did not necessarily get before is that the russians reportedly didn't help trump just win the election, they helped him win the ren nomination as well. >> through end of 2015 and start of 2016, the russian influence system began pushing themes and messages seeking to influence the outcome of the u.s. presidential election. they were in full swing during both the republican and democratic primary. senator rubio in my opinion, you doelgts suffered from these efforts. >> senator marco rubio took that in stride in that moment in the hearing. he later confirmed in the hearing that his office was aware of him being targeted by russian cyber attackers. part of that is trivia about how the republican primary went down. honestly none of us can say the way a particular election would have gone in the absence of any one forks including the russian attack. but the inve

there were russian people at the russian military personnel at the base that the united states struck. that's, you know, very tense, dicey situation for two sides to be in. >> you believe the russians were complicit in that chemical weapons attack against those civilians in syria? >> i don't think we have any real way of confirming that. my guess is we won't. some of the information that's been used is very circumstantial. there was a russian drone over the syrian hospital, so they must have known. this is the sort of thing that will be argued back and forth without much real resolution. >> as you know, the secretary of state rex tillerson is in moscow. he's going to meet with sergey lavrov, the russian foreign minister. no word yet that president putin is going to invite him to a meeting, but do you expect that meeting to take place? >> russian officials are telling russian journalists today that there will be a meeting and that makes sense. putin is somebody who worries about looking weak. he wants to show his disapproval of what the united states has done, but he also wants to hear

would the russians allow a no fly zone? it's the russian's airspace.s as complicated as any foreign matner the world right now as hundreds of thousands are dying before our eyes. we have that and a lot more on foreign policy challenges facing the trump administration. the meeting with the chinese leader, xi jinping is about to happen right now. on any normal day, that would be the headline. oh, by the way, the leader of the house intelligence committee that has been working to investigate the russian matter who said why would i step down? he just stepped down. that would also be the lead on a given day. devin nunes, what is next for that investigative body. still to come on fox news channel. tomers. who's with me? we're like a basketball team here at ally. if a basketball team had over 7... i'm in. 7,000 players. our plays are a little unorthodox. but to beat the big boys, you need smarter ways to save people money. we know what you want from a financial company and we'll stop at... nothing to make sure you get it. one, two... and we mean nothing. ♪ ♪

russians involved up there. from our understanding this will not task efforts to retake raqqah but you're talking about the principle of unintended consequences here, this is war after all and this is being described as to proportional strike by pentagon and by the national security advisor, it can have unintended consequences and it's not clear how the iranians are going to react. there are 100,000 iranian forces inside iraq. of course 6,000 u.s. troops on the ground. so very dicey situation. very close quarters, and we'll just have to see in the days ahead. >> before this happened, we had word that something was in the works, and we received word pretty early that they were trying to avoid any chemical weapons storage areas in these strikes, right? >> well, it's interesting. we actually did know that this was in the works, and we were for operational reasons ongoing we could not go on the air and report when we knew when we knew it earlier. we did not want to jeopardize any aspect of the operation. we knew tha

guest: the russians have come back and joined in the agreement so the pentagon the russian ministry of defense do not plan on shooting each other in the sky. it is more problematic, will we work with russia on the transition from president assad? mr. tillerson's said we do not think it is russia's future. we are not at the stage where we can sit down with the russians and talk about syria going forward. it is a preliminary, get to know you meeting and hopefully it will produce an agreement. host: what you think the secretary of state's message? guest: -- i think he did quite well. in the press conference, he moderated some of the things others in the administration said. he did not say it was necessarily proven the russians knew about chemical weapons and other officials said as they did. he did as well as could be expected. host: as far as a going forward aspect, what is on the timetable as far as meetings between the two countries and the topics? guest: the meeting between the two presidents will take place in july at the g 20 in germany. president trump at the beginning said he woul

russian infill federation? cnn has learned that the fbi has indications that russian intelligence tried to infiltrate the trump campaign. the alleged plan was to use a trump advisers to monitor campaign operations. was it successful? >>> on alert. around-the-clock surveillance of north korea but u.s. spy planes and satellites watching for any sinister move, including a possible nuclear weapons test. missiles preyed through the country's capital just days ago are now headed back to their bases. what will kim jong-un's next move be? missing the mark. the clock is ticking on president trump's promises of multiple accomplishments during his first 100 days in office. now he owes dismig missing the marker he touted on the campaign trail a ridiculous standard. how worried is the white house? and arctic ambitions. russian president vladimir putin visits the site of a planned military base in the arctic. the sprawling futuristic if a tilt will host troops and warplanes in some of the world's harshest conditions. what's

in a russian context -- >> do you speak russian? yes, i get by. >> you are saying -- using the russian definition of meetings so hundreds of thousands of people who have been -- >> no, i have been in smaller, can they say they have been in meetings with donald trump? been in smaller ones as well. >> have you been in a meeting where policies were discussed? >> anderson, they were often discussed in rallies and etc. >> i know, if i go to rally donald trump, it does not mean i am an adviser with donald trump. i happen to be at a rally. you went to a bunch of donald trump's rally. >> donald trump names you as part of the foreign policy team, that was in march and august. they say you're an informal adviser. a month later, jason says, you are not an adviser, you have been sending policy papers to the campaign far back as in march. . i think he joined mid summer. >> do you write policy papers? >> i don't like talking about specifics of -- you told them of your time of march 25th. >> that's fair enough. >> can you say who you sent policy p

russians to ne? >> that's not clear. i think that i think there is as hanging in the back drop of our conversation was the meeting that was going on at the time we were talking, between secretary of state tillerson, foreign minister lavrov and the conversation with president putin. so what the results of those conversations were was not exactly clear in our conversation. and i think he was holding back a little bit to see what comes of that. you know there is a question out there of when does president trump meet with his russian counterpart with vladimir putin. that may happen sooner than later because this question that you just raised, is in fact going to have to get hashed out. >> rose: i guess the chance to me would be at the g something meeting in italy. >> that is a possibility. but the russians made noises about wanting to do something directly one-on-one maybe sooner than that. but at a minimum, that's probably where they are going to have to sit down and look each other in the eye and say w

the russians veto and that puts a big question in my mind about russian credibility young promises.nother one, i was talking about the geneva talks after the obama redline incident -- the russians agreed with us on the agenda. the agenda for that round, political transition was at the top. we get to the talks a couple , months later, the russians walk back and say they can't discuss political transitions. again, i think the lesson all of us should take out of this is treat russian promises with great caution. charlie: was it section seven that allowed the united states to do and europe to do what they did in libya? robert: exactly. the russians went ahead thinking it would be military action only to prevent the assault on benghazi. they were then upset that the united states and european countries used that same un security council resolution to help libyan rebels overthrow moammar qaddafi. they said that was not the intent of the resolution. charlie: and the russians haven't done very much in the fight against isis either. their huge emphasis and strong intervention, their huge emp

and russian aircraft and u.s. and russian ground forces safe from accidental strikes by the other side. so how is russian responding to that new reality? >> well, jim, you're right. from a certain point of view, it seems like a self defeating move. russia has today confirmed that it is suspending these deconfliction lines of communication between the russian and american forces over syria that are supposed to ensure they don't accidentally bump into each other and create some sort of incident that could rapidly escalate. they're doing this as a protest because they say they feel so strongly against the american strike on that syrian base. in doing so, they still acknowledge that this, in fact, does raise the possibility of unintended conflict between russian and american forces. to the highest level that, perhaps, it has ever been. these channels have been in place since october 2015, very shortly after russia began operating in syria. there's always been that direct line of communication. so one side could let th

here are four big russian bases in this country. there are thousands of russian troops there.don't have an exact account of how many. we know it's thousands. that means jets and helicopters and transport plaibs and vehicles and radar centers and aircraft defense systems. here's some proof of that. look at the plild flag over here on the far side. that's this area. i want you to watch. this is in 2014 when this picture was taken. look down here and look how it changes through 2015. all of that is a brand-new state of the art russian military base built up there. they're not going anywhere. that's built to stay, not to go anywhere. indeed russia just like the united states is interested in having influence in the middle east. they've had a long history. syria has been a long ally and they want to hold their ground. erin. >> it's been a long ally and of course the decision by the united states under the prior administration to got get involved perhaps left a vacuum for them to build those structures. when you look at that map, as the united states thinks about striking, and addit

commanders warned the russian military one hour in advance to avoid accidentally striking russian military personnel or assets. still, russian president vladimir putin, assad's primary backer diplomatically and militarily, immediately declared the u.s. air strikes, quote, an act of aggression that, quote, dealt a serious blow to russia-u.s. relations. syria, which says nine people were killed in the strikes, claimed the u.s. has undermined the fight against terrorism. >> translator: this condemnable u.s. aggression confirms the continuation of the flawed u.s. strategy, and it undermines the process of combating terrorism. it makes the u.s. a partner of the islamic state and al nusra and other terrorist organizations. >> reporter: march to military action took little more than 48 hours. the planning began tuesday, the day the world saw the first images of victims, many of them children of the chemical weapons attack. on thursday before president trump sat down to dinner with the chinese president, he met with his national security team to discuss military options, deciding then to order the

by russians? >> by russia or by syria. >> well, by syria, yes, i presume in one way or another, but what kind of attack and where? i mean, you'd have to figure where are american troops, what could they do, let's say, but i don't think that they're going to want to do something that's very overt, because they could be knocked out very quickly by u.s. forces, if need be. there may be other ways of retaliating. i don't, at this point, think that the russians would retaliate. i think we're going to see more political action, diplomatic action, perhaps criticism for unilateral action, but again, you know, there was -- there's really no love lost between putin and assad. they know that he's a problem. but the only thing is, they support him for a variety of other reasons. and so, i think it's going to be a nuanced response as far as who, but we have to watch very carefully. >> jill, stand by, thank you very much. we'll be getting back to jill. our breaking news tonight, president trump launches a milit

that story is fake, it was not a russian bank, it was a czech bank, actually, with some russian participationllion loan was given to the front national, the bank actually went bankrupt. and those people who have undertaken their affairs, they are now demanding the money back. and so those who said, for example, mikhail kasyanov, who was prime minister under president vladimir putin before he joined the opposition, said: "for me, there is no doubt the loan was authorised by the kremlin". is he wrong? i am sure he is wrong. he was prime minister very long ago. ok, let's move on to germany. you say all these things are inconsequential, what about the fact that the german chancellor angela merkel refers to russia "sowing false information in germany", and her warning that it could play a role in the coming election campaign? well, i respect her views as a german politician, and as a candidate in the upcoming bundestag election, and of course, as chancellor of the federal republic. but, whether there is hard evidence, i don't know if there is. maybe she would like to present it. the head of the ge

russians really targeted them. they really really tried hard to hurt hillary clinton and help donald trump during the presidential general election. but what we did not necessarily get before is that the russians reportedly didn't help trump just win the election, they helped him win the ren nomination as well. >> through end of 2015 and start of 2016, the russian influence system began pushing themes and messages seeking to influence the outcome of the u.s. presidential election. they were in full swing during both the republican and democratic primary. senator rubio in my opinion, you anecdotally suffered from these efforts. >> senator marco rubio took that in stride in that moment in the hearing. he later confirmed in the hearing that his office was aware of him being targeted by russian cyber attackers. part of that is trivia about how the republican primary went down. honestly none of us can say the way a particular election would have gone in the absence of any one forks including the russian attack. but the

with russian agents. wolf? >> ka what is carter page saying about all this? >> we reached out to him today and communicated. he disputes the idea he has ever collected intelligence for the russians saying at times he helped the u.s. intelligence community and this is what he said, quote, my assumption throughout the last 26 years have been going there has always been that any russian person might share information with the russian government as i have similarly done with the cia, fbi and other government agencies in the past. now wolf, u.s. officials say the intelligence suggest russia tried to infiltrate and inflew enthe trump campaign by using back door channels to communicate with people in the trump oisht, people like carter page. it is important to note that within the trump campaign, carter page viewed as someone with little or no influence. one of several trump advisers who u.s. and european intelligence conducted contact with u.s. officials, wolf. >> where do they stand with this investigation? >>

this is not new for the russians.s europe, but it was much more engaging this time in our election. why now? mr. watts? >> i think this answer is very simple and is what no one is really saying in this room, which is part of the reason active measures have worked in this u.s. election is because the commander in chief has used russian active measures at time against his opponents. on 14 august 2016, his campaign chairman after a debunked -- >> when you say "his" -- >> paul manafort cited the fake incirlik story as a terrorist attack on cnn and used it as a talking point. on 11 october president trump stood on a stage and cited what appears to be a fake story from sputnik news that disappeared from the internet. he denies the intel from the united states about russia. he claimed that the election could be rigged. that was the number one theme pushed by rt sputnik news all the way up until the election. he's made claims of voter fraud, that obama's not a citizen, that congressman cruz is not a citizen. part of the reaso

what happened with some of the smaller powers where the russians did do some damage, the russians were not there long. you will see there is this slow tracking shot along the supply wagons you can take a look at the background and see how much wreckage there was. >> just imagine trying to supply a massive army with these wagons. they have an infinite number of them. >> this is east prussia. for people who don't know what is east prussia and the russians invaded there in august. is that correct? >> it was a part of germany. it was quite for east of most of germany. it is now part of poland since world war ii. the russians were pretty rough here. maybe no worse than the germans were in belgium. i'm not going to get into who is worse. by the way, this is another city that really took it. somebody said there was only one family left in the whole city after the russians got through with it. the counting countess of the reigning -- the count and countess for the rain nobility and were supposed to have taken care of the area. after their own castle was burned by the russians. >> you can see s

/russian relations, colonel? >> these relations between russia and the united states are basically put in the icebox, at least for a bit. we're going to see some very frosty exchanges. we've seen president putin's statement, a cold statement. we're expecting a statement from the russian foreign minister shortly. those kinds of things will come out. there will probably be much more difficult work that diplomats at the united nations will have with the russians. that nato will have. we could see something else happening in ukraine. there's a lot of different things that could happen. i's going to be a difficult period for u.s./russians relations. they thought they had somebody that they could use to their ends. that may not be the case. >> one military official says these may be worse than a cold war. >> the head of the russian parliament, one of the committees said it should not affect the upcoming visit of rex tillerson. >> that's in the next week or so. we don't have a date for that. >> going to russia. and for

it's important to keep in mind that the russian military is involved here as well, have the russians been notified? >> our understanding is that prior to the launch of these tomahawk's that the russians would have been given a call on the hotline to moscow. that is a hotline that has been set up between the airbase from which the u.s. conducts air operations in the middle east. right now it looks as though the u.s. tomahawk's have targeted at least one air base, two locations. there was talk at some point about sending overwhelming number of tomahawk's to multiple locations. it looks as though this is a very limited strike, a large number of tomahawk's of course, 43 we are told, it's not as though they have struck at multiple bases where these russians would be located. in fact, the fact that they are not using air strikes means they did not have to necessarily take out the air defense systems which are manned by russians. we know that one of the concerns of the defense secretary jim mattis when he briefed the president was that russians could die in these tomahawk strikes, given the

-russian relationship, the syrian civil war and allegations of russian interference in the u.s. election. this is one hour. >> good evening. this has been a long day. we have the secretary of the u.s., rex tillerson. we have had a long conversation with the president of russia. the negotiations have proved to be substantial and very frank. they have comprised a gamut of issues of importance to power ballad and the introduction to the international community. we are aware of the current well of a relationship, as -- there are certain issues from the previous administration that have been inherited. we're being realistic and we understand the inevitable obstacles we have. we seek to do that. we understand how american counterpart will do this as well. our president confirmed we see that attempt as escalating a confrontation but we don't believe this is an approach. we do understand this is for the benefit of not just our nation, but the sake of the world. we have reaffirmed that we both seek to fight without any compromise in terrorism. this issue has been raised by our president

so a lot is at stake for russians. so we wouldn't be surprised if to interfere with these elections and, for news or create fake false stories about the leading la pen. to his name is makong. already. e seen that and i wouldn't be surprised if same in ctly the germany. o i have no doubt that the russians tried to interfere with our election campaigns, and we should do all we can to counter that. but my point is the best way to counter it is to achieve it rtisan policies when comes to russia. enjoys e that mr. putin very much the banter on the hill here in washington right now. he's laughing, because this weakens americans. how you finally asked me this will impact on nato. of course, if the russians creating a split within our western alliance, weaken nato. this also is the reason why it's so important that the secretary of state tillerson today visited brussels, and i'm sure message of unity once the counter meeting would be concluded today. host: okay. linda is calling on the democratic line from longwood, florida. l

that is not the russian posture.ou take these things happen and you attack the people of these problems in a firm and forward way. many thanks for that. we are going to stay on this story and speak to noel schneider, the moscow correspondent of the economist magazine. thank you forjoining us. are you slightly surprised this has taken place in st petersburg? thank you for having me. i think the question of whether it is in st petersburg were moscow is of less importance as you just discussed and the point is to strike, potentially, a major international target, of which there are two in russia. the fa ct which there are two in russia. the fact that president putin was in town, that it is his hometown, as to the symbolic impact of this event. we just heard the point that because president putin was in the city, you would expect security would be much tighter and, therefore, this kind of attack is even more of a surprise. absolutely. it is a surprise even more so because we haven't seen an attack of this kind in quite s

navy ships and russian ships. in terms of putin's bluster, we're used to it and we'll hear more of it. frankly, russia and iran is in a good spot. let's face it. they beat back the opposite forces out of aleppo. they consolidated the regime's holding. russia was able to succeed and accomplish what they intended to do, prop up the regime when they were in danger of being overthrown in 2015. they accomplished what they wanted. i think for them to do anything that would aggravate the situation further doesn't make a lot of sense to me. >> after 37 years in service and we thank you. you have a lot of good contacts. i wonder what your understanding is of the next steps. >> well, i think certainly as sad is controlling fate here. if he wants to continue to use wmd, we'll take down those other five air fields and make certain that all of his aircraft are grounded permanently. so he holds that fate. i don't believe the russians will do anything to aggravate the situation with the united states. they do not want to have co

-russian relations. secretary of state rex tillerson has wrapped up a visit to moscow where he met with russian president vladimir putin and russian foreign minister sergey lavrov. the meetings come at a time of increased tension between washington and moscow. on wednesday during a press conference, president trump said rerelations with rusussia hadd reached a new low point. pres. . trump: it would be wondererful, , as we wewere disg just a litittle while ago, if no and our country to geget alongng with russia. right now w we're not gettiting along g with russia a allll. we m may be at a an all-timeme n terms of relationship p with russia. this h has builtlt for a long pd of time. it we'e're going to sesee what hahappens. putitin is the leader r of russ. a strong country. we are very, very strong country. amy: trump's comments came a day after the white house accused russia of attempting to cover up the role of the syrian government in the recent chemical attack in syria that killed 87 people. russia has

meddling in the russian elections? kicks it off the front page for sure. >> yeah. >> rose: the investigation continues by the f.b.i. >> it will continue and i think it will come back. i don't think that story is over, i don't think that story should be over. we need to know what russia did and how they did it to prevent it next time around. >> rose: and we feed to know if there was any coordination or collusion. >> right, was there any collusion. i'm never going to sleep easily on this issue until i see donald trump's tax returns. there is two issues. there is the issue of actual collusion between trump people and the russians to tilt the election his way. from what i've seen so far, don't really see any hard evidence of that in any significant way. but then there is the question of is he compromised? and until we see his tax returns we won't know the answer to that. i assume there is a reason he's hiding them from us. >> rose: clearly. basically, the people around him says he'll never show you his tax returns. >> i as

now it is up to secretary tillerson to get the russians to understand we are serious, and for the russianso turn to their syrian allies and say to not keep doing this. charlie: do you think that will happen? robert: i don't think the russians are happy that ass ad used chemical weapons. i think the russians are trying to get them to get rid of it. charlie: do you think they are complicit in that they knew they had access to chemical weapons? robert: i think they knew that very well. a question that if they had them. issued ad nations report saying that on at least instances, asd well as others, the government had been dropping chlorine gas idlibis area of syria, province, and 2014 and 2015. charlie: what were the primary gases the syrian government gave up at the time of the negotiation? robert: they gave up materials related to the production of sarin and other nerve agents, but they kept all the time chlorine, not prescribed under the chemical weapons convention, as using it as chlorine gas a weapon is against the geneva conventions and the un security council resolutions that the russia

-led coalition and the russian forces.lked about the deconfliction memorandum during the operations in syria. you know that this was halted. but president putin confirmed our determination to put it on track again, confirming that the main aim, of course, is between these forces of the coalition and the russian forces is to combat al-nusra and others like isil. the publicized intention of america and russia -- we trust that countries in the region should not repeat this kind of incident, particularly the countries of the mideast. we confirmed once again the overall determination to route isil, that remains in force between us and the war today confirmed fully. apart from fighting terrorism in syria and the region in general, we have a common interest to make sure that we get a political settlement of this very acute crisis in syria, russia, over the past years, has tried to get a compromise, has deployed many efforts in order to do so, and make sure that many of the players inside syria and outside get them around the nego

russian is expected to veto it. that would be the eighth time that they have done so, supporting bashar al-assad and again the u.s. and other nations have here denounced moscow for their continued support of the syrian dictator. the resolution condemns the use of chemical weapons, which were banned in 1925 by the geneva convention and calls on syria to cooperate with the investigation of what happened in that attack. the resolution states "the use of chemical weapons constitutes a serious violation of international law. those responsible for use of weapons must be held accountable." it demands the syrians turn over flight plans and flight logs on air operations. the names of those that commanded the squadrons. while the closed door session spilled out in the open public earlier today when the deputy russian ambassador lashout at his british counter part. >> look at me when i'm speaking. don't look away. why are you looking away? this is precisely why you today didn't say anything about the political process. you mak

the russian guy just got arrested. he is known online has peter severa. he's also known as peter levashov. according to spamhaus.org he's a spammer who writes and sells virus, spamming spam ware and bottom net access. he's probably involved in the writing and releasing of advisors and trojans. he's one of the longest criminal spam lords on the internet. now, the reason this kind of criminal arrest is now american politics news is because one of the things we've all had to learn in reporting and understanding the story of the russian government hacking our presidential election last year, one of the things we had to get familiar with about those attacks, we've had to learn about the overlap in russia between criminal hacking, hacking for profit, hacking just for thievery, and russian government intelligence work. yes, america is still king. world when it comes to online spam and stealing, but russia is pretty good too. over the years, the russian intelligence services including their military intelligence service, they have moved beyond just trying to tap

expelled 30 plus russian officials we anticipated equal action from the russians against the u.s.hat never happened. that was mysterious. you make a fair point there. this whole conflation, is this by design? >> i think so. i think it's designed to muddy the waters. since march 4th when the president tweeted that he was being spied on by barack obama, the administration in some way shape or form has been looking for evidence to substantiate the claim. what they're talking about with unmasking is trying to muddy the waters here. let me say this, unmasking is not leaking. unmasking is trying to understand the content of the surveillance that you are looking at. it's trying to understand the intelligence that's in front of you. as susan rice explained, again, i have no problem with her going before the committee, but this -- her unmasking was to understand things and not to leak things. she said if she asked for something to be unmasked, it was delivered to her and it wasn't distributed to a wide group of people who can then leak it all over the place. i think it's a diversion. >> da

from the russian people.hat's now 44 people sanctioned under the act. and bunch of names came in mid-january where the former administration was in place just in time. and i have to say that this was an important day when that came. had many conversations about this in the last few years. was a guy called the head of of it. this was a person who was basically tailor made. he was in charge. but this is supposedly the top official in charge of all the politically motivated. he was in charge. he actually admitted it. it's not some allegedly. he said it. he said sorry afterwards, as well, but i think that's not enough. he was put on that list. and he is the most high ranking. and we really hope despite everything this law continues to be implemented and it's very heartening to see other countries beginning to follow the example. it was the first european union country that had the tenacity to say no. we're going to put a block to the human rights. and now the united kingdom is in it. that would be a potential gam

with the russians and the foreign payments. that and that's part of what they knew they were getting and that's part of what they wanted. that's, of course, the worse case scenario. it's hard for me to understand the implications if that's true. joining me is clint watts testified gin today at the senate armed services committee on russia. mr. watts, i appreciate your time tonight. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> let me ask you about the mike flynn story big picture. you did a lot to educate people about how russia approached their attack on the u.s. election, what they're trying to get, how they think strategically on these matters. house does the flynn part of this story make sense in terms of the overall russia situation? >> well, the one issue that they could come to terms with and really match would you please flynn on was finding what flynn would call radical islam. but also throughout the entire fight globally. where his down fall really comes from is his vengeance, revenge against the obama adminis