-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

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

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

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

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 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

russians really targeted them.ey really really tried hard to hurt hillary clinton and help donald trump during the presidential general election. but what we did notecsarily 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 investigati

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

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

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

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

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 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, arbitrator april 8th 2013, the defendant discussed efforts working as an intell

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 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

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

>> 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

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

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

the russian government? >> thanks, senator. i would first start off with i'm not the foremost russian expert. i came to this through the islamic state in isis. i'm really a counterterrorism expert. mostly active measures came off after me. the second part i would add to this discussion, though, is there is a money trail to be searched for, and discovered. and we have focused very heavily on elites in our public discussion. what are elite people doing. but this influence action has both virtual component and a physical component that's happened. i would say that what i can't see, which i would want to know, is what is happening in eastern europe. there is a disproportionate number of fake news outlets, conspiratorial reb sites that are run from there that are english-speaking editors that are pro russian. trained in russia sometimes. how are they funded? that would be one component. i would -- i might guess or might estimate, my hypothesis, working in the intelligence field, is that there is some sort of russ

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 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

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

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

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

by the way, the russians. how do you think the russians feel?ave you looked at a map how russia crawls around? north korea has a nuclear weapon on their doorstep. they can say it is not aimed at us, it is aimed at you. charlie: some worry about his temperament, to say it kindly, who believes nuclear weapons are the only thing that will gain him status. >> unfortunately, we will have to give him a few toys because he or he has too many. i think that key thing now is to limit his delivery system so it cannot hit us. times"eagues at "the have reported we have a lot of excellent cyber activity going on to mess up their missile system, but you cannot count on it indefinitely. charlie: let me go back to syria. you think in the end, this was an appropriate action even though the future is almost impossible to figure out a way to finding a solution without having the russians change their mind about seeking a transition government. >> yes. i believe in response to this poison gas attack, this horrific violation of the basic norms of humanity, that it wa

and the russians did not like it. one of the responses the russians took was sending that war ship steaming towards the two destroyers that launched the missiles last night. they are alsoown what's called a line of communication, deconfliction line. this is something they set up with the u.s. and syria in order to make sure aircraft were not flying in the same zones at the same time. united states used that line last night to warn the russians that this was coming. that line was still up until just very recently. but now it has been taken down. one little bit of development here, at the united nations just a short time ago, the u.n. ambassador nikki haley suggested that the united states may take further action against syria because of its chemical weapons program. melissa? >> melissa: we'll be there live with david lee miller shortly. stay tuned for that. thank you very much, john roberts. helicopters flying over the syrian air spice destroyed by u.s. tomahawk missiles overnight. it is unclear though who they belong

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

there are russian troops on the ground. russians have bases. they are flying missions over syria. if the russians were hit even by accident, it would escalate the situation dramatically. also there are hundreds of american troops inside syria. they're there on the counter-isis mission. if large numbers of syrian troops were killed in this raid, syria might feel compelled to respond to an attack on its troops with an attack on u.s. troops. so finding the response that sends the message but doesn't escalate with russia, doesn't put u.s. troops in the syrians' crosshairs or even the russians' crosshairs, it is difficult. that's why what i'm hearing from some sources is that they're trying to find a more limited option targeting the weapons capabilities, particularly those linked to chemical weapons. >> last question, richard. what's the gain or the purpose of a punitive attack? in other words, it's not an existential attack on the regime over there. they remain in place. the assad family remains in power. the regime holds, but we somehow administer a punishment to them. what is the e

germans against the russians. also because plenty of germans are catholic and since the polls are catholic there is an affinity there to thank. >> the central powers had to make friends quickly depending on how the power was flowing. they had to survive. it was survival. so this is being built because the russians destroyed bridges? >> yes. pretty much the only destroyed the bridges in warsaw. >> in the background, i think you will see the bridge. >> that comes later. >> there is. in the top right, you can see this war. there will be a couple of the shots of its too. we don't know where they are going. >> i don't know if they are looking for shelter. later on you will see some of the peasants in the farm coming back. is just utter disaster. the alexander street bridge. i am sure the russians did blow the bridges very there would not have been much of a point in the germans blowing them. they were trying to go in that direction. >> this was a bridge that was ill by the germans, i guess. is the bridge that the russi

there was some surprise in russia, but i would say the russians were not -- the russian government and the kremlin's were perhaps not as excited as some here would suspect by trump's election. shortly thereafter he was not mentioned in the media to the extent that he was moments before his inauguration. i think perhaps the strike was a surprise because we notified them in order to avoid certain military conflict. certainlyink it is rhetorically changing the room into which tillerson is walking, i think their positions are still sort of fundamentally as they were. i do not need to say it was bluster. there was a very real chemical attack in a very real airstrike, but the positions are still fundamentally what they were . indiana,m jasper, independent line, jasper, you're up next. caller: thank you for taking my call. i've been trying for two months to get you. i think the countries if they were intelligent, they would all try to get along and it would be more profitable for all of them. trump, he'sresident our president now and it is our because weort him seem to be not the united state

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

russian perspective. we're against sanctions on russia and the russian people and this san important point for us and i had an opportunity to testify in the senate yesterday, the appropriation subcommittee hearing pat the chairman of the subchit tee lindsey graham has the lead response or of the thakt was introduced. i said to him that it's very important to be careful about the language. it's essential that the u.s. is not seen as seeking to punish the russian people for the actions of a regime that they can neither unseat in the free election because we don't have any, and cannot hold to account through independent media or legitimate parliament because we don't have any either. this is very important there are goes back to the same point that i mentioned earlier not equating russia and the putin regime. >> i think the most effective sanctions and frankly the most principaled sanctions are the individual ones, the targeted sanctions. the act that was introduced more than four years ago, we had them spea

, the russian spokeswoman said any minute now, i think we are waiting for that the russians have beentop on the west and the brits in particular for blaming assad and the russians for these chemical weapons and so i think when they look at rex tillerson statement which makes it very clear that the russians promised us that they will be able to control what was going on inside of syria with chemical weapons and they were not able to do it, either they were hoodwinked or they just failed. and i think that statement from rex tillerson is extremely tough and i think that puts it right in the center of the russian is why to the tomorrow security council meeting will be very interesting to see what the reaction is but now is the time for diplomacy. now is the time for a very tough diplomacy. i would think that this is going to force the assad regime to the table. they are looking at donald trump and they are saying i am not sure that we are going to be able to survive this and we are going to have to recalculate what we want out of this. she does he want to live come up he want to escape? t

and russian navy as the u.s. try to assert their rights to water and islands in that part of the world. there are places where there rhythm could still go sorryly off the tracks but for now, the impression that donald trump has is that i can make this rhythm work. charlie: he did talk about chinese currency, didn't he? jarred: he did and contrary to what he said in the campaign, the u.s. government is not going to officially declare that china is manipulating its currency to increase it power in trailed, in kruise crease its ability to export and make it harder for people to send their products to china. that is a decision the government has to make in a few day and they've already made the decision that they're not going to declare china a currency manipulator. why? because they're not trying to drive down their currency to gain trailed advantage. in fact trs opposite is happening. he trade is appreciating and the chinese are trying to drive up the value of their currency. the trump administration said we warned

those are all russian-made. but what about russian personnel? in the united states, we have to worry about force protection efforts for our own 500 to 1,000 service members wh are on t ground in syria. russia, obviously, has a large number of their own personnel on the ground there. is there -- is the deconfliction process something that would be expected to protect them as well? >> reporter: absolutely right. those are the two key differences between president trump's decision and president obama's decision in 2013. when obama was weighing this up, there were no u.s. grounds on the troop in syria and there were no russians. now for the last 18 months, we have both american bombing and of course large numbers of american -- of russian troops on the ground. the last time i was in aleppo, for example, there were russian foot patrols out on the streets. the russians and syrians are intermingled all over syria, at air bases, at advising the syrians. there are thousands of russian troops there. so obviously the danger with the united states which doe

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

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

from the russian people. that'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 g

there are russian military forces, russian equipment, aircraft, ground weapons all over the place in regime held areas in syria. the pentagon knows it wants to make sure where it strikes, if it does they don't inadvertently strike the russians. nobody is looking for a wider war. >> if they strike the airfield, it's possible there are russian personnel stationed there all over the place. >> exactly right. let's look for a second the common sense view here. if you start with the proposition the u.s. military is ready to go tonight if the president were to give the order, that would mean they've done the overhead reconnaissance, they have a pretty good idea where everything is. if they wait much longer assad begins to move his stuff around and russians move theirs around and makes it more challenging to locate these targets and have that precision you want. it's a difficult proposition because we have seen this before, any military force, you can strike a building and have all the satellite imagery for days on end and you may not know exactly who's inside, they don't want to strike the