putin came in with a message that he was gonna reanimate russia's proper place. a place of greatness on the world stage. - [narrator] vladimir putin took the reins of an unstable russian economy. putin partially re-nationalized the oil sector. he also went on the attack, arresting some of russia's wealthy oligarchs. (hopeful music) - he sent a very clear message to the russian business community. that it was best to stay out of politics all together. - [brzezinski] he did it because he wanted to demonstrate he was asserting control. he was imposing justice on those that had unfairly benefited from the chaos or the freedom of the reforms of the previous decades. - [vanden heuvel] there remains rampant corruption, but pensions were paid, factories were reopened. the country was revived. the fact that his poll ratings are so high is not simply manipulation of state television. (balalaika music) - [narrator] the russian economy grew from near bankruptcy in the early 2000s to one of the fastest growing economies in the world. - putin caught the wave of rising energy prices which started to go up, up, up and that gave yet another boost to this oil-based russian economy. - h

russian imposters on social media used hashtags including trump train trump twenty sixteen and hillary for prison named in the indictment as if any prisoner triggers in a close associate of russian president vladimir putin and one of russia's richest men he's listed as financing the troll factories operations were a challenge has more from moscow. russian response so far has essentially amplified a sense of incredulity incredulity that thirteen people could of influence the voting of more than three hundred million americans incredulity that these thirteen

big no way a very just to be good no one on this show or in this interview is defending the russians of putin and the report criticizes russia very heavily you're right about that but it does say that you started the war in defiance of international law you can reject that conclusion but that's what the report says don't shoot the messenger i would say. and then somebody initial i'm sort of but i'm international i mean you were a lawyer ok right now just before we finish right now you have not the ukrainian nor georgian citizenship so what's next for you because i can tell you we're going to be a year from now two years from now i'll be fighting together with people of ukraine and georgia against. europe or liberation of our country from russian that missile program hostile armies but as well as from domestic oligarchs and corrupt elements that seize power in our countries and our prospects for our population i think ukraine will become superpower of europe and georgia will be again once again be shining example of success and the reports world wide as it was under my bed because i really tha

given that is only viable opponent has been barred from running so we'll putin be president for life or is there a version of russian democracy that exists in spite of him that's our debate but first did putin's russia collude with donald trump during the twenty six thousand us presidential election former f.b.i. chief robert mueller who's investigating that claim last week indicted thirteen russians and three russian organizations but did the campaign participate in the election meddling and should the u.s. really be lecturing russia on undermining foreign elections given how many governments the cia has undermined and even toppled this week's headlines from critic former top spy and twenty eight year veteran of the cia and its clandestine service john seifert. thanks for joining me on up front the latest indictments from the special counsel's investigation into the twenty sixteen presidential election in the u.s. accuses russian nationals and organizations of having allegedly meddled in the election are you of the view as many people seem to be in the u.s. these days that the trump campaign colluded with russia an

russian foreign ministry. yes, it is part of vladimir putin's government. of course, perhaps the highest profile guilty plea thus far, michael flynn. he had contacts with the russian ambassador, which he later lied about to the vice president and, allegedly, to fbi agents. we don't even need to go that far. flynn attended a paid speaking event in russia without getting permission from the proper authorities since, as you recall, he was an army officer. guess who he sat with at the head table? vladimir putin. the web of russian influence on the trump campaign is getting clearer by the indictment. >> joining us now is msnbc legal analyst nick acu acuraman. he's a partner at dorsey and whitney. we keep talking about the obstruction of justice, the people who didn't say the right thing. they lied to the fbi. it's all very interesting. you have been just written an article that says it isn't about the coverup. it's about the crime. what do you mean by that? >> what i mean is, what's really at issue here is the underlying crime. the obstruction is the motive for t

russian citizens that reside in latvia, 75% of them voted. if you take ethnic russians russian citizensliving and lotn citizens, noncitizens, those deprived of vote even in municipal elections, support of them for putin would go at least 90%. how could you explain that? >> there were two questions together. >> i would like to ask out the russian adventure in syria fits into what you have been .escribing has the motivation changed? does this add or detract from legitimacy, and has the weakness of u.s. fed an appetite for a new russian adventurism abroad? >> two questions. anyone want to take the first shot daca -- the first shot? the second one, the original russian objective was littered with saving the regime from collapse. russia viewed it another example of u.s. promotion of regime change. saddam hussein, gaddafi. it got more ambitious. the incoherence of the western policy, it can make deeper policy, it can make deeper inroads. and become one of the arbiters of the future, the direction of syria. loose.t mostly, i don't think it was a mistake. appetite, andssia takes a because it will expand their long-standing u.s. allies with egypt. playing around with the general and libya. they will push on a

on monday leaving no doubt about who is really in charge of syria's military russian president vladimir putin announced a twenty four hour humanitarian pause in syria's eastern kuta now the image of syria's civil war are always disturbing but tonight they warrant an extra warning due to their graphic nature including the bodies of children. these are the images that observers claim of proof of a chlorine gas attack that has killed at least one child infants still in diapers or among more than a dozen people being treated doctors say their skin and on sunday. a cease fire is yet to come into effect despite a resolution passed by the united nations security council on saturday the wounded continue to fill up the districts over run hospitals. there's been no calm whatsoever there hasn't been time to catch our breath the blood is flowing in the hospitals are overflowing with patients and there are no places to evacuate them. but syria's ally russia denies the assad regime is behind a chemical attack foreign minister sergei lavrov says the reports are an attempt by rebels to provoke fresh fighting

people who are defending trump referring to the steel memo for example say and it's full of russian dirt and putin's propaganda and we have no way of knowing where this british spook got this or how reliable sources were how much of this was just made up because they were getting paid your client wants dirt will give you dirt well but the russian bad narrative has been so entrenched now i'm not sure how we get it out you know that's good that leave that's interest that's a very interesting well and i agree with them completely because they die it's been cast on that element there ok across the board you can there if you question it to your viewer your europe.

russian orthodox as a substitution for the communist ideology. it will not work. 10% of russians go to church. where -- ntry putin is a middleman and he will serve as a myth -- as a front for the corporation but i think out formistake to carry the notion of revenge in 2014, when -- with the success in ukraine, he would've carried this notion of revenge out for the notion of revenge and it resulted in the annexation of in theand russian forces eastern ukraine is the result of the otherave up on forces inside his own government which were more liberal to a certain extent. of theme the hostage information that was coming out from the fsb. there will be reform in the next several months but intelligence will be back under the auspice of the fsb. [indiscernible] all the analysis is done by the department of the fsb. the decision-making body is his security council which is kgb people and his deputies. he himself made a hostage of that situation and i don't think there is a way out for him. elections. -- a very talented politician. capable tone who is when he was under house arrest for a year, he read so much books and

politics at russian and the influence of russian president vladimir putin. speakers include a russian journalist, a former u.s. ambassador to russia and nato and the first russian foreign minister who served under boris yeltsin. this is just over an hour and a half. john: good morning. my name is john herbst. i run the eurasian center here at the atlantic council. thank you all for coming. we have a wonderful program for you this morning. and i should mention that this is part of our series on internal developments in russia. we began with a session in october on demography in russia. and this of course is on politics. next month, we are doing a session on the russian economy, followed by a session a session probably in april on energy sector in russia. we have a real treat for you this morning. we have a wonderful lineup of speakers. i will not describe them except to say yevgenia albats, a top-notch journalist from moscow, who has written a very provocative and a fascinating paper on russia politically. foreign minister kozyrev will comment on that, as wil

well at the end of last year russian president vladimir putin announced that he would start withdrawing troops from syria russian airstrikes like those from the maimane air base in the country's north played a crucial role in turning the tide in favor of president bashar al assad's forces now the total number of russian troops who served in syria remains unclear but in december russia's defense minister. said that forty eight thousand troops had been serving and gaining combat experience since the beginning of the mission in syria however the total number of russians who fought in syria is likely to be much higher than that there is ought to be many russian mercenaries fighting alongside pros here and forces are correspondent and we sure would travel to a small town in the urals which reportedly saw a number of local men joining a private military company as contractors. it's about as far as you can get from syria and yet here in the russian town of kid there all the people are waiting for news about seven locals who reportedly went to fight in syria they allegedly worked as mercenaries

government forces to accuse them of all possible deadly sins and military crimes in order to continue actions in the eastern regions. russian president vladimir putin's demand for humanitarian pause all his hope of a much needed rest bite being eastern. and will that so-called humanitarian paul's really come into effect to talk about that i'm joined here at the big table by marcus he is a middle east analyst with the german institute for international in security affairs here in berlin it's good to see you again see so now we're hearing that the russian president vladimir putin has ordered this polls to start tomorrow a daily polls. is that simple can moscow say stop fighting and the fighting stops not really i mean it can. tell the syrian troops to stop the fighting but past experiences tell us that the islamist rebels where two groups being present in the east and i have no interest in stop the fighting and then we will meet is the use this as some kind of pretext to renew the fighting to intensify as the fighting so i'm pretty skeptical that this will lead to a permanent cease fire ok if it's not permanent timber riri. what's the purpose then to g

russian president's great anger the u.s. won in the penalty shoot out. putin called a meeting of his security council in moscow his plan was to invade crimea which was part of ukraine its population is russian speaking and there is a russian naval base on the peninsula. but a military invasion of a european country was not an easy step to take. put into liberated and sought counsel. in the upper echelons of power the hardliners demanded that he take the offensive. one of those making the case was constantine malouf a of. a young only garc and an ultra nationalist champion of the great christian russia. that was he's decision. and i can again you know just to tell you what i heard that it was not easy and of course you know dead horse debates it and realize there what would happen after and what would be their reaction from from the west from our from americans who sponsors. this in kenya and of course you know there is their reaction soldiers not three nine year old jamie. watching believe that obama would not dare to oppose him and gave the green light. on the twenty third of fe

of syria. well the break in hostilities a nice and good to have been ordered by the russian president vladimir putin now this followed international outcry over more than a week of airstrikes on the rebel held region that left some five hundred people dead but just hours after the truth began reports of renewed mortar fire and air attacks or it's far moscow says it is the rebels who hold the enclave who first broke the cease fire with a series of attacks. the skies over eastern ghouta were supposed to fall silent. but a five hour humanitarian pause brought little relief to besieged residents in the rebel held on klav strikes were reported during the polls and observers say that syrian government won't planes resumed their bombing as soon as it ended. up we pray to god for help what kind of ceasefire is this without attacks and barrel bombs. humanitarian corridors set up to allow residents to leave and aid to enter went largely unused rebels claim people are refusing to leave on buses out of fear of being captured by government forces. and i'm about a family here meant to pick up the wounded from eas

of behaving like an arsonist and a fire fighter in syria u.s. army general joseph foetal lashing out at russia today after a temporary truce collapsed a truce that was ordered by russian president putin in the rebel held on klav of eastern ghouta near damascus as you see right there must go accusing the rebels in the enclave of being the first to a lot to launch the attacks. today the skies over eastern ghouta were supposed to fall silent but a five hour humanitarian pause brought little relief to besieged residents in the rebel held on klav strikes reported during the polls and observers say that syrian government won't planes resumed their bombing as soon as it ended. up we pray to god for help what kind of ceasefire is this without attacks and barrel bombs. humanitarian corridors set up to allow residents to leave and aid to enter went largely unused rebels claim people are refusing to leave on buses out of fear of being captured by government forces. and i'm about a little thing and we're meant to pick up the wounded from eastern guta and take them to the clinic in the suburbs of damascus on humanitarian grounds. to them a chevy. syria's ally russia accused the rebels of preventi

russian imposters on social media used hashtags including trump train trump twenty sixteen and hillary for prison named in the indictment as if any prisoner triggers in a close associate of russian president vladimir putin and one of russia's richest men he's listed as financing the troll factories operations were a challenge has more from moscow. russian response so far has essentially amplified a sense of incredulity incredulity that thirteen people could of influence the voting of more than three hundred million americans incredulity that these thirteen people could have acted against a billion dollar budget serve u.s. intelligence services and counterintelligence against all the latest innovations and technologies. guinea prigogine who is right at the heart of this indictment is what is widely believed the financial muscle behind this troll farm in st petersburg is also known by the way as putin the chef a billionaire businessman and now he says well the americans are very impressionable people and they see what they want to see he doesn't mind being on this list years already on a u.s. sanctions list and says that if the americans want to see the devil will let them the russians are also going to b

and having unleashed full-blooded russian nationalism with the annexation of crimea and all the rhetoric about defending the russian world, putin or any other leader will be, i think, very wary about entering into deals that would have to defend it against nationalists at home such as a deal to genuinely pull out of the donbas and hand the valiant people's republics back to ukraine. it's not impossible and i think the trump administration is right to try to test the russians at the bargaining table with discussions about a u.n. peacekeeping force. but the leaders of this kgb-led system may see little payoff in making the concessions that will be needed to pay off with the west. rather they will opt for continued efforts to divide the west, to command attention to russia more as a spoiler than partner or problem solver. china doesn't fully reject that, or iran so for the united states and its allies, we need to continue to prepare ourselves for long-term strategic competition with russia bolstering our own defenses, strengthening our countermeasures against destabilization, hybrid warfare try to support the resilience of russia'

he was not critical of the russian president vladimir putin . i did not get a sense of outrage in what the president put out there in his tweets, saying he is angered another country, russia, try to interfere with the u.s. presidential election. sarah: he actually called out russia by naming his official statement that went out shortly after this indictment came down. he called them that actors and specifically called out russia as the only individual in that statement. that was the first reaction. i would disagree with you. tough onso extremely russia, and we will continue to do that. people are outraged by the fact that russia -- sarah: he is angered that anybody would meddle with our system. again, i think it is important to remember that we are looking forward to securing the best ways on making sure it does not happen. >> a few questions. you mentioned the president ordered background checks. the house built for kerry includes that? -- open carry includes that? sarah: i have not spoken to him about that specific procedure. he spoke to senato

intelligence committee, even critical of his predecessor, but he was not critical of russia, of the russian president vladimir putin. i didn't get a sense of outrage in what the president put out there in his tweet today. he is angered that another country, russia, tried to interfere with the u.s. presidentiali didn't get a sense in what the president election - >> he called out russia by name in his official statement that went out shortly after those indictments came down. he called them bad actors and specifically called out russia as the only individual met statement. that was the first reaction of the president. i would disagree with the premise of your question. has beenagain, extremely tough on russia in a number of ways and we will continue to do that. >> anger or outrage by the fact that russia -- ms. sanders: angry that anyone would try to manage -- metal in our system. to remindimportant the we are looking for ways to figure out the best way to not let that happen again. mentioned background checks, the bill includes -- ms. sanders: i haven't spoken to him about that specific or seizure. he spoke with se

in washington. >> december 13, 2016, kushner meets with sergei gorkoff, the head of a russian bank that's funded putin'schi olympics. the bank was also used as a cover by a russian spy in new york city who went to prison for espionage. >> was actually one of three russian spies. >> and gooff himself aended the training academy for russian intelligence operatives. >> what did you really speak to jared kushner about in new york when you met him in december? >> no comments. >> there have been questions about whether kushner might have discussed his family's business. kushner owns a fifth avenue building with a reported $1.2 billion mortgage coming due in 2019. kushner says that his business dealings never came up with gorkoff and all of his meetings with russians were nothing to worry about. >> i did not include with russia, nor do i know of anyone else in the campaign who did so. >> your bank said it was a business meeting. >> but gorkoff's bank implied it was about business. robert mueller's team has expressed interest in kooushner including his firirole in the fg of james comey. investigators still have

of state sponsored duping at the sochi games back in two thousand and fourteen. competed his neutrals in pyong chan was on tuesday president vladimir putin on a diminished russian patriots. the country's a limp a green statement means the next time any of these athletes win a limb pick goals up top the podium hearing that only one of them once more putin keen to move on from the dating scandal in total russia's ban lasted less than three months the i.o.c. is moved and surprisingly welcomed by russians and picked committee. and there's an issue with that is today's decision of the i.o.c. is one of the most important for us because the russian olympic committee is once again completely reinstated in its rights and is now a completely full fledged member of the olympic family. the speech before it was revelations from this man calls that it helped lead to the ban the former moscow director of the whistle on a state backed plot to cheat doping tests at the twenty fourteen sochi games as a result clean athletes from russia were only allowed to take part in chiang under the olympic flag the red white and blue kept firmly out of sight. and today two of them including alexander

but at the end of last year of russian president putin announced that he would start with drawing troops from syria russian as strikes like those have from the base in the country's north beat a major role in turning the tide in favor of bashar assad's government forces the total number of russian troops have served in syria remains unclear but in december russia's defense ministry said that forty eight thousand soldiers again to combat experience there since the beginning of the mission but the total number of russians who fought in syria is likely to be much higher than that they are thought to be many russian must memories fighting alongside pro syrian forces a chorus line emily showing travel to a small town in the urals which reportedly saw a number of local men join a private military company. it's about as far as you can get from syria and yet here in the russian town of kid there all the people are waiting for news about seven locals who reportedly went to fight in syria they allegedly worked as mercenaries which is illegal in russia the topic is sensitive many people here say th

welcome back a quick reminder of our top stories this out of give us some breaking news first the russian news agency reporting that president vladimir putin has ordered a humanitarian pause in eastern between nine am and two pm local time and the opening of humanitarian corridors of rebel held on played in syria has been intensely bombarded by the government for more than a week opposition medics say they are treating people after another suspected thorin gas attack. three nobel peace prize winners have called on their fellow noria unsung cinci to speak out against violence against range of muslims that warning me in mass media she risks prosecution for genocide. visiting ranger refugee camps in bangladesh. and yemen's transport ministers accusing the united arab emirates of trying to fragment the country by creating regional and tribal armies. one is warning that al qaeda is exploiting the internal conflict to spread its influence. now the french president i'm on your mark ross has told his turkish counterpart that a u.n. cease fire across syria must also apply to the northern a free region turkey launched an offensive against the kurdis

russian foreign policy out of what existed under soviets. for instance, my understanding -- i don't want -- my understanding of this whole syria, an act of desperation that putindmitted. he saw the success of the crimea annexation in russia. he was looking for something that would prolong this effect. apparently russians give lip service to what's happening in syria. so it didn't work. i think that will be another kind of thing that we should expect. thank you so much. ambassador herbst: thank you. all our panelists, thank you. thank you to the foundation. thank you, all the audience. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up friday morning, max talks about the federal workforce under the trump administration. also, alex explains immigration reform and so cold chain migration and the foreign intelligence surveillance act and wiretapping of u.s. citizens. be sure to watch washington journal, live at 7

people who are defending trump referring to the steel memo for example say and it's full of russian dirt in putin's propaganda and we have no way of knowing where this british spook got this or how reliable sources were how much of this was just made up because they were getting paid your client wants dirt will give you dirt well but the russian bad narrative has been so entrenched now i'm not sure how we get it out you know that's good that leave that's interest that's a very interesting well and i agree with them completely because they die it's been cast on that element there ok across the board you can there if you question it to your viewer your europe. your useful idiots but the interesting thing also that well you know the media the i mean everything on hold or the other side though is that we see the level of corruption at the highest echelons of a law enforcement so you get the worst worst possible words or worlds here go headly go jump in here. what it is this is a disempower mation operation against russia period that's what this is and you can't have a distant from asian operation by on

clinton named in the indictment as you have been yet again a precaution a close associate of russian president vladimir putin and one of russia's russia's richest men is listed as financing the troll factories operations and twelve other individuals are also unnamed accused of undertaking work in the united states to further the firm's objectives mike hanna reports from washington d.c. . and anti trump protest march in new york shortly after his election this one of the pro and anti trump rallies the special council alleges were organized by the group of russians sometimes at the same time on the same day part of a massive campaign the indictments say were aimed at promoting donald trump at the expense of his opponents both republican and democrat. special counsel robert mueller has indicted a total of thirteen russian nationals and three companies for alleged interference with the twenty sixteen elections according to the unsealed indictment the accused conspired from two thousand and fourteen until today to interfere with the us political and electoral processes including the presidential election of two t

russian oligarch who according to the u.s. indictment bang rolled the troll factory operation. he is known as putin's chef because one of his companies provides catering services to the kremlin has denied any guilt. americans are very impressionable people he told russian state media. they see what they want to see. i have great respect for them. i'm not at all upset i'm on this list. if they want to see the devil, let them see one. but it is the devilish work of russia's internet trolls and the social divisions they have insighted that the u.s. has now moved firmly against. so far today the kremlin itself with putin as president has not officially issued an response to indictments. we're expecting something from them in the days ahead. in the past, they called these allegations a witchunt. we're expecting to hear the same kind of language in a few days. >> matthew chance live for us in moscow, thank you. >>> let's bring in a cnn political analyst, amanda turkil, washington bureau chief of "the washington post" and steve hall, retired cia chief of russia operations. >> steve, first out to you. this was obviously an elab

of two or more persons by negligence but mr smith. as the salvage operation continues russian president vladimir putin has postponed travel plans to monitor the investigation. to some of the other stories making news around the world eight people have been killed in an explosion at a carnival for it in bolivia police say a street vendors gas canister exploded during carnival celebrations in the city of all rule at least forty people were injured. and at least nine people have died in a gun battle between the indian army and separatists in the disputed region of kashmir militants stormed an army camp there on saturday and no group has claimed responsibility but the indian army says pro pakistani militants carried out the assault. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu says his country has delivered quote severe blows to iran and syria with saturday's air strikes which israel carried out after syrian forces shot down an israeli jet on its way home from a bombing mission it was one of a group of planes targeting iran backed positions inside syria. mourners have gathered outside the home of pakistani human rights campaigner. she died on s

government was going to use the resources to compile a list of russians that became millionaires because of putin's regime through ill gotten means, right? there are credible reports such a list was actually produced by specialists career employees within the u.s. government. that was first reported by the atlantic counsel. we were able to confirm it with a person who had knowledge of the process by which that list was created. we believe such a list was generated as a u.s. government work product as required by that u.s. sanctions law. but when it came to the deadline, came time to push publish the list, it never arrived. steve mnuchin's treasury department put out a list of rich russians they copied from the forbe's magazine billionaires list and a directory of people that work in the kremlin. putin's government had been terrified about the actual corrupt putin connected list that the united states was about to put out. they expected to have global consequences in terms of the ability of the putin regime and it's enable lrs in russia to maintain the wealth. they were shaking in their boots about

news, coauthor with david corn of the forthcoming book, "russian roulette: the inside story of putin'sar on america and the election of donald trump" out next month. michael, this gets confusing for some who are not read in. give me context so i understand the reference to you in that memo. >> well, i've got to say, i was as surprised as anybody that i was cited in the memo, and apparently having -- was cited before the fisa court. but the story that i wrote in september 2016 was the first story to reveal that there was u.s. intelligence investigation of somebody associated with the trump campaign. and that was carter page. christopher steele, the author of the dossier, has acknowledged in a british court filing that he came to the -- to washington in september of that year, and briefed multiple journalists, including one from yahoo! news. that's me. so i am free to talk about that, and say, yes, in fact, he did. i heard -- i met him and heard about the work he was doing, and the concerns he had that he had picked up about carter page's contacts in moscow during that trip in july. i th

safety both resulting in the death of two or more persons by negligence but mr smith who bully leads as the salvage operation continues russian president vladimir putin has postponed travel plans to monitor the investigation. now for some of the other stories making news around the world eight people have been killed in an explosion at a carnival parade in bolivia police say street vendors gas canister exploded during carnival celebrations in the city of rural at least forty people were also injured . and at least nine people have died in a gun battle between the indian army and separatists in the disputed region of kashmir militants stormed an army camp there on saturday no group has claimed responsibility but the indian army says pro pakistani militants carried out the assault. and in turkey the main pro kurdish opposition party v h d p has elected a new leader is somebody lawmaker pair of in bold on and says merely the only candidates will be new co-leaders of the second largest opposition party in turkey's parliament hold on husband was murdered after the turkish government said it had a list of people who were funding the outlawed p k k party th

speaker of the house of representatives, following the charges against 13 russian nationals and three russian companies. one of those charged, yevgeny prigozhin, is said to be nicknamed putin'sef, a reference to his closeness to the russian president. however, a russian foreign ministry spokeswoman called the allegations of interference in the us elections, "absurd". what is clear from the indictment is that the alleged interference, which involved hundreds of people in a spider's web of online activity going back for years, was not only designed to damage hilary clinton's presidential campaign, but it didn't stop after donald trump reached the white house — his presidency became the target. a little earlier this evening, this is what the us deputy attorney general had to say. on september 13, 2017, soon after the news media reported that the special counsel's office was investigating evidence that russian operatives had used social media to interfere with the 2016 election, one defendant allegedly wrote, "we had a slight crisis here at work. the fbi have busted our activity." so i got preoccupied with covering tracks, together with my colleagues." and trump tweeted tonight

putin. i mean, it is just incredible, and this goes back years. he has not acknowledged any sort of wrongdoing on the part of the russian goflt, and especially on behalfit remains one of the mysteries of why he is so insistent on defending russia and diminishing this scandal which is now completely apparent to anyone who is paying attention. >> in contrast to that, david, he goes after former president obama. he was president up to and beyond the 2016 election, so why didn't he do something about russian meddling. so he is accusing his predecessor of not doing enough when he hasn't done really anything over the past thirteen months. >> right. couple of things, wolf. flaw in the president's logic. if it is a ruse and a hoax, how can president obama be in the wrong for not addressing said ruse and said hoax. the other thing is that of course in october of 2016, president obama's department of homeland security and director of national intelligence issued a joint statement saying the russians were meddling in the election. it happened to drop the same day as the access hollywood tape, didn't get the coverage it otherwise would have. >> let me get to you,

people who are defending trump referring to the seal memo for example say and it's full of russian dirt in putin's propaganda and we have no way of knowing where this british spook got this or how reliable sources were how much of this was just made up because they were getting paid your client wants dirt will give you dirt well but the russian bad narrative has been so entrenched now i'm not sure how we get it out you know that's good that leave that's interest that's a very interesting well and i agree with them completely because they die it's been cast on that element there ok across the board you can there if you question it to your viewer your europe. your useful idiots but the interesting thing also that well you know the media the i mean everything on hold or the other side though is that we see the level of. corruption at the highest echelons of law enforcement so you get the worst best worst possible awards worlds here go headly go jump in well here's what it is this is a dish information operations against russia period that's what this is and you can't have a decision from ation operat

hillary clinton yevgeny pretty goshen is named in that indictment he is a close associate of russian president vladimir putin and one of russia's richest men he is listed as financing the troll factories operations twelve other individuals are also named accused of undertaking work in the united states to further the firm's objectives oh you just love much as of is a former russian diplomat he joins us now from moscow so. i'm not sure if you've had a time had time to look at this indictment and what it is alleging but what do you make of it. well. any decisions made by us today by of the united states about the russian punishment. because it has become in the russia like another story and other news story and it was only a reaction over russian society on the it not blaming those people who are in the least black the least of us in the united states on the contrary the united states more and more itself in the russian society as a. enemy and as a contrarian that in danger russian society as i see it is a wrong policy. it is result of america view on the world as a pariah the interest of america or russians d

russian presidential election doesn‘t have an impact on our lives, think again. tonight, an extraordinary film ahead of next month‘s vote. tomorrow, vladimir putinhe speech is likely to contain a slew of spending promises, but even if he feels the need to go a—wooing, there‘s little doubt that he‘ll be the man delivering them after the election. the first round is in less than three weeks, and without some seismic upset, putin will win his second consecutive term, and fourth term overall. in a race where at least one contender, opposition leader alexei navalny, has been barred from participating, why would anyone risk all to challenge vladimir putin? ksenia sobchak is a former russian socialite turned opposition journalist. she‘s now running for the russian presidency. but many opposition supporters say she‘s a fake candidate, running a no—hope race to boost the kremlin‘s democratic credentials. she herself admits she has no chance of winning. but take a deeper look, and her candidacy in fact reveals much about contemporary russia. gabriel gatehouse joined ksenia sobchak on the campaign trail and found a twisted tale of intrigue, power struggles

of at least a kilometer investigators say using the latest equipment to cover the territory they are using drones to get an aerial view that. as emergency crews worked late into the night russian president vladimir putin travel plans to monitor the investigation. now into some of the other stories making news around the world eight people have been killed in an explosion at a carnival parade in bolivia police say a street vendors gas canister exploded during carnival celebrations in the city of rural at least forty people were also injured. and at least nine people have died in a gun battle between the indian army and separatists in the disputed region of kashmir miller. stormed an army camp there on saturday no group has claimed responsibility but the indian army says pro pakistani militants carried out the assault. in turkey the main pro kurdish opposition party the h d p has elected new leaders lawmaker peven bold and says. the only candidates will be the new co-leaders of the second largest opposition party in turkey's parliament the vote follows a crackdown on the party for alleged terror links that led to the jailing of its former leaders and hundreds of arrests. mourners have gathered outside t