one of mr putin's inner circle is my guest today. vladimir ran russian railways for a decade and was a close putin adviser. so much so the us made him a target of sanctions after the invasion of crimea. he left the railway two years ago. is he still a true believer in the putin project? vladimiryakunin, welcome to hardtalk. hello. i think it's fair to say, you, for a decade more, were one of vladimir putin's closest associates and advisers. in general terms, as you look at putin's impact upon russia, would you say that you believe he is taking russia in a very positive direction? thank you for your introduction. listen, to tell the truth, i never considered myself a voice to be in the position to be considered an adviser of mr putin. i was doing my business, i was ceo, i was the head of the project, that is true, but i never was the adviser, to either the prime minister or the president of the russian federation. as far as your question is concerned, i suppose that is the knowledge and i suppose the reference is to the poll showing that peopl

>>> and new details on that megyn kelly one-on-one exclusive interview with vladimir putin. what is he saying about whether the trump administration wanted to lift sanctions? those details next. >>> but we begin with live pictures of new york and washington, d.c. that is where demonstrators have gathered for the so-called march for truth. the demonstrations are being held in more than 130 cities here in the u.s. as well as around the world. they're a ramp-up of calls for an independent commission to investigate russia's meddling in the u.s. election and its ties to the trump campaign. now today's event coming on the heels of russian president vladimir putin once pushing back on allegations that russia meddled in the u.s. election. in fact here's what he told my colleague, megyn kelly, on the subject of sanctions during an economic forum in st. petersburg yesterday. >> there are reports today in the american press that the trump administration took active steps to ease sanctions on russia, almost immediately after trump took office. was this possibility ever discussed between

but vladimir putin is essentially condoning that activity when he calls it an act of patriotism, and it makes our challenge clear. >> do you say that trump and putin have everything to gain by down playing their relationship, explain that? >> absolutely they do. their relationship is long standing, i don't care what donald trump has said before the campaign. he bragged about his relationship with vladimir putin. there are all kinds of touch points there that continued in the campaign and after. obviously, at this point, vladimir putin engaged in an effort to under mine our democracy and to sway our election towards donald trump, donald trump seems to have some strange allegiance to vladimir putin putin, if there's one thing he is consistent about, that is it. we are learning the nature of the relationship. and by the end of this, we will get to the bottom of it. but they are both advantaged in downplaying the nature of that now, because look, there's a special council investigating a, you know, a broad range of his staffers. they are in hot water on both sides. >> i have to run, thank

vladimir putin facing questions from u.s. megyn kelly. slamming u.s. reports. >> in those reports there is no specific evidence, no facts, just assumptions and allegations and con can collusions based on allegations, nothing more. >> they say it is the forensics, the digital fingerprints, the encryption keys, the specific pieces of code, that all of them point to russia. >> what fingerprints? whose prints? who are you talking about? the reports can be invented. specialists can invent it. >> this ahead of her exclusive interview to come with vladimir putin to air on opportunity night on nbc. the artful dodger outside of that conference in st. petersburg. a top banker running away from kier simmons and his questions about jared kushner. >> i wanted to ask you about the meeting you had with jared kushner. >> we really want to hear, please just explain what happened in the meeting. >> and it's not easy being green, the president's decision to exit the paris climb deal sparking widespread outrage from ceos, foreign leaders, members of his own party, and thi

vladimir putin. what's your take?> well, i think what he's getting at, is this question of attribution with cyber attacks and right in that there's never a smoking gun. very difficult to say we have this i.p. address, we know it came from this house in kiev. right. but it's actually not impossible to figure out where cyber attacks are coming from. i spoke to somebody at the johns hop kips physics applied laboratory they're working on this problem for congress and there are signatures that people leave behind. there are habits that hackers get into. and so what megyn pointed out is right, taken in totality looking at a little bit of the isp address but also just the, you know, the signatures, the kind of code that's used, the way the code was compiled, all of these things together, sometimes it's even the dates on which the hacksere done, can point to a country. not absolutely, but reblyly. it's not impossible to figure this stuff out. >> is the takeaway, you can't get me? >> yeah. >> well the takeaway is every intelli

laura: vladimir putin is a former kgb operative.e understands the importance of television -- oliver: yes, everybody does. laura: are you concerned he's using you to send a message -- oliver: perhaps he is -- laura: that isn't really a true one? , butr: an elaborate ruse he knows i'm not going to change american policy, but what i would like to do is contribute to a consciousness of what he is saying. laura: you asked vladimir putin directly, did russia hack the u.s. election, and he told you it is all lies. do you accept that? oliver: he didn't put it that way but he thought it was a preposterous statement. laura: but do you believe him? oliver: absolutely. i absolutely believe it is all smoke and no fire there. laura: was there one moment that you feel is so revealing that you would like everyone to see it or one moment that stands out? oliver: laura, for me, if you were really open-minded, it is all revealing. from the get-go, it is what he talks, how he talks, his view of the world is something we need to hear. laura: oliver sto

you can watch the interview with vladimir putin tomorrow during the premiere of sunday night with megyn kelly. >>> let's get into this. molly hooper and jeremy is with the reporter of the new york times. what is your reaction to the putin remarks? not unexpected? what do you gather from the economic forum? >> vladimir putin is backtra backtracking from the statements earlier this week. maybe it could have been someone from russia. some russian patriot who wanted to help the cause as he put it. let's not forget who we're dealing with here. we're not dealing with the russian president, but skilled manipulator. former intelligence officer himself. a spy at one point. he is expert at trolling the united states. i think it is worth pointing out it is no accident that he is conducting an interview with a respected journalist who happens to be one of donald trump's least favorite reporters. i don't think that was a coincidence. >> molly, i hear your reaction in my ear. what was your overall take? >> come on. all i can say is vladimir putin telling us that the cia might be behind this. you know

vladimir putin disavowed it. that's also an important moment because it takes away the possibility for republicans in the senate to say this was anything other than a hostile foreign attack on the american electoral process. >> it does seem that the cover stories keep getting whisked away. "the washington post" came out and reveal that the house intelligence committee which spent a lot of time talking about unmaxing and devin nunes that. >> did it as well. last year the republican-controlled house intelligence committee asked u.s. spy agencies to reveal the names of individuals and organizations containing classified intelligence on russia's meddling in the 2016 election. same practice they accused obama of there. doesn't seem to be a lot of cover left. >> let's be honest. this unmasking thing is completely a partisan shield that republicans are trying to use to protect the president. we're talking about a fact pattern that is very concerning, and that i think robert mueller get to the bottom of. remember, we had

, because president trump has talked a lot about vladimir putin. >> vladimir putin is probably saying what has he done for me lately? >> we have seen embracing of other world leaders of the same way. he may consider sanctions. that point of hacking evidence came out, you know obama admission is recorded on the hacking of the jury election. it is becoming extremely impossible. that's when we saw the cooling off and no more of this rhetoric and the u.s. government is saying cresa saying crimea is part of ukraine and the public statement have shifted to be apart from vladimir putin. no, they're not friends and they spoken on the phone three times and they have not met in person yet. we might be able to have a relationship and that was pretty much the end of it. >> the russians know that politically it is not as if there is going to be a warming there any time soon. >> hillary clinton talks about the russia's investigation yesterday and i am wondering, you know, what did you think of what she said about the investigati investigation. coming up now, this point and time of the issue

if you believe that russian hackers are independent of vladimir putin, i've got a bridge in brooklyn to sell you. it is really strange the president of russia would even say that. i'm not sure what caused putin to say that, but it does contradict what donald trump has been saying. >> i'm also curious about what you believe should be done about jared kushner at this point. i mean mr. kushner has -- he has a security clearance. he reviews intelligence every day as we're learning from reporting. he has -- he is under scrutiny and investigation not just for meeting with kislyak, but now with the meeting with the russian banker gore kov. do you believe he should still have his security clearance? >> not at all. last month i joined representative don buyer. we sent a letter asking fothe security clearance to be spended because we got information from media reports that he falsified his first security clearance form. now we know that those falsifications were deliberate. these were meetings that were significant. one was with a back channel with russia that was being discussed. another was w

vladimir putin sakhir for four vladimir putin sakhirforfour hours answering questions. —— sat here. to portray him as the father of the nation. he was swamped by questions from russians. in a country like russia where it all decisions are made by one man, vladimir putin, they believe he is the only one who can fix the problems. what did they ask in? why are wages so low in russia? 1—woman who had her house burned down and asked him to buy her a new house. they also talked about us—russian relationships, allowing vladimir putin tojoke he relationships, allowing vladimir putin to joke he could give relationships, allowing vladimir putin tojoke he could give james comey political asylum. translation: when the chief of the special service as a conversation with the commander—in—chief and gives it through social media, what is the difference between the fbi director and mr snowden? isn't he a human right supporter at that time? we are also ready to provide political asylu m also ready to provide political asylum for him in russia. let him know about that. afterwards, i asked president pu

she had the opportunity to talk with russian president vladimir putin. essed him on several issues including whether had there was an agreement with the u.s. to ease economic sanctions. >> yeah, that's right. president putin denied, denied .denied again. he denied that the russian government was involved in hacking. he denied that the russians intervened in the u.s. elections and he denies there was any type of trump transition team in the idea of lifting sanctions. take a listen. >> that is just absurd what they're saying. i don't know where these people have come from that distribute this kind of information. my answer is no, no agreements whatever. we never even got down to that. >> and in the next hour, dara, we'll have more from st. petersburg looking in depth in that putin interview. meanwhile, president putin himself has left the conference here. you can see think of it, dara, as a kind of opening act if you like. we expect president putin to meet with president trump at the g-20 in july. that is going to be something. >> kier, we know megan is an

when they spoke publicly they didn't even name vladimir putin. if the president had been more prominent, we're talking six weeks before the american election, if the president had been more prominent in october or november last year, i can guarantee what people would have said. i'm skeptical of the intel because this suggests to me that the president of the united states is trying to make this campaign more about hillary clinton as the victim of russian attacks and favor donald trump. the white house had a difficult choice. talk about it and look like they're favoring hillary, or not talk about it and you see what they get now. they're too soft. >> we knew they were favoring hillary. >> this is using intel as a hammer against republicans. >> because the president was informed in july by the cia they had the evidence, super secret, that putin personally ordered this intervention, and it wasn't until, what, october 7 when that statement from the administration was put out basically saying, yes, high level officials in russia. they didn't name putin

some grand bargain with vladimir putin was always the plan. why are we talking around it? >> yeah, we're just seeing the payoff now, nicolle. putin is popular at home because he's getting his way. he put lavrov and kislyak into the oval office. >> they've been banned from the oval office of president obama, right? >> previous presidents. >> since 2015. >> that's right. look at what happened in brussels this past week. this is moscow's dream to see an american ally stand in front of -- and not invoke article 5. >> why isn't there any question anymore, why isn't there a debate in the country whether or not putin was involved in the outcome of -- >> we have is to break this down a little bit. as kelly noted, the white house publicly does not want to touch the issue of russia. keir portrayed it as putin stating i'd like better relationships with rush slsia bf you peel the pr layers back, russia and the trump team have very good relations. it's paying off for vladimir putin. >> i want to bang my head against the all every time e turn on the tv, see a republican in front of a cam

vladimir putin appointed sergey gorkov as the head of that bank. one russia expert told "the washington post" that the bank, quote, operates like putin's slush fund. that bank was sanctioned by the obama administration. under the obama sanctions, that bank could not do business with jared kushner or his family's real estate business. sanctions would have to be lifted in order to make it possible for sergey gorkov's bank to loan money to jared kushner or do any business with him or his family. but that's what the sanctioned bank insists that meeting was about. if it was about that, then obviously jared kushner would need those sanctions removed as quickly as possible. of course, the white house insists that the meeting was not about personal business at all. that it was simply a diplomatic meeting of some kind. former u.s. ambassador to russia michael mcfaul says that sergey gorkov has no diplomatic function in the russian government, has not been known to be used as any kind of back channel to vladimir putin. when sergey gorkov was the deputy head o

what do you make of the fact that's what vladimir putin pointed out? >> i think you should put your finger on it. that's what our country is based on. debate. the question is, can we get together and make progress? i think putin is the last one to talk about this. >> we have to be able to walk and chew gum. that's what the american public wants. they want to us keep working on the challenges and you can only do that if you work together and sit down together. otherwise nothing gets done. our challenge when we get back to washington is to find those places we can work together. that's what it is about. i think people look at you, really? in this day and age, you're big to work together? i think if we want to do anything, fix those roads or get taxes down, it will have to be together. >> congressman, i believe you have a town hall coming up. i have some video of a town hall in february. folks were pretty intense about russia and about health care. what do you think will happen at your next town hall meeting and will this idea of being the problem solvers

but vladimir putin is essentially condoning that activity when he calls it an act of patriotism. i said, i think it makes our challenge very clear. >> you say trump and putin both have everything to gain by downplaying their relationship. explain that. >> well, absolutely they do. they've -- their relationship is longstanding. i don't care what donald trump has said during the campaign. before the campaign, before it mattered, he bragged about his relationship with vladimir putin. there are all kinds of touch points there that have continued through the campaign and even after. but obviously at this point vladimir putin engaged in an effort to undermine our democracy and to sway our election towards donald trump. donald trump seems to have some strange allegiance to vladimir putin. if there's one thing he's consistent about, that's it. we're still learning what the nature of that relationship is. i think by the end of this we'll get to the bottom of it. but they're both advantaged in downplaying the nature of that. look, there's a special counsel investigating a broad range of tr

so there's lots of things that putin is enjoying about the current crisis. >> vladimir putin came to who works for him here in washington. russian ambassador who is at the center of investigations into trump's aides contacts with russians. putin said quote our ambassador met with someone. what's the ambassador supposed to do? he must do that. reports of secret deals before the inauguration are plane hysteria and quote how should we stop that? take a pill or something? we also reached out to hillary clinton's representatives for response to his comments about her campaign. they declined to comment. wolf? >> all right, brian todd, reporting. thanks very much. there's breaking news ahead. president trump weighing whether to envoc executive privilege to stop potentially damaging testimony by the fbi director he fired. i have preside have president trump's remarks made his case heard? that was it for me. that's why i'm quitting with nicorette. only nicorette mini has a patented fast dissolving formula. it starts to relieve sudden cravings fast. every great why needs a great how. every gre

vladimir putin is certainly taking pleasure in the chaos it's created. katy, what i learned from working in this sphere for four years with the fbi and the russian intelligence, the number one priority of any intelligence agency is not attribution. that is to say, your goal besides kind of completingour mission, is to make sure if it's compromised that there are no ways to trace it back to that host country. i think vladimir putin is pretty confident that when it comes to attribution, when it comes to a traditional, sort of legal standard of proof, we're not going to find that when it comes to this intelligence operation. i think he's really kind of poking his finger at us about that and taking great pleasure at our expense. >> he's obviously not going to admit to this, but is the biggest asset right now the president's lukewarm condemnation -- if you can even call it that -- toward russia for the hacking. >> right, and it's not just a lukewarm condensation. if you look at the pattern of deception to the pattern of being consistently not even lukewarm, b

vladimir putin's involvement in hacking the election. the struggle not only to punish vladimir putin for launching the attack, but problem wanted to protect the united states from anymore harm. one of the "washington post" reporters on the story described it to me a short time ago. >> obama wanted to avoid the worst case scenario, the russians intervened to try to actually affect the voting itself on election day, on or before election day. that was the priority. he didn't want to retaliate before the election for fear it would provoke putin to make things worse. they decided to go after the election. when they started having the debate over what to do, of course you have different institutions, state department, cia, the treasury department, they all wanted to protect their own equities in this. the result was a more watering down approach, which required susan rice in a key meeting to basically say, you know, put, you know, stop, you know, stop bickering among yourselves, let's settle on this package. that said, that package could be c

another step. >> katty kay, more evidence that there is something there between democrat and vladimir putin, that he would lurch and make putin a concern at the time that his national security adviser was reaching out, improperly talking to russia, lying about it to everybody. there's something there. we don't know what is there, but there's one example after another, not just of leaks, but things he's stupid enough to do in the light of day, like invite the u.s. ambassador and invite the foreign minister of russia to the oval office, give them classified information the day after he fired comey. and he bragged about killing that investigation. >> i've been very resistant to the idea that there's some big conspiracy theory here and donald trump was deliberately working with the russians to try to influence the election. but this news out of the state department raises the biggest question yet, was there -- in e change for the meetings we keep hearing about -- hearing more about them between jared kushner, jeff sessions, senior russians including kislyak and the banker. >> which, by the way,

justice correspondent jessica schneider has details. >> a new report reveals russian president vladimir putino defeat hillary clinton. and help elect donald trump as president. according it a bombshell report by the "washington post," the obama administration knew putin was directing cyberattacks during the 2016 campaign, three months before the election. intelligence obtained from deep inside the russian government was couriered by the c.i.a. to the white house in august and it detailed putin's direct involvement in the hacking. meant to disrupt and discredit the presidential race. >> when you go back, this was a moving picture. it's not like we had an immediate clear snapshot of what the russians were up to. at first we simply thought they were trying to do what they always do, pull information to use later down the road. then it looked like they were trying to basically interfere in the election, mostly by creating doubt about our institutions. >> former national security adviser to president obama, tony blinken defended the administration's strategy to keep the information quiet. >> as we

>>> coming up we all know about trump's dinner date with vladimir putin.uess who sat at the table? jill stein, i'm eager to klatt with her next. for the strength and energy to get back to doing... ...what you love. ensure. always be you. that goes beyond assuming beingredients are safe...ood to knowing they are. going beyond expectations... because our pets deserve it. beyond. natural pet food. there are the wildcats 'til we die weekenders. the watch me let if fly. this i gotta try weekenders. then we've got the bendy... ... spendy weekenders. the tranquility awaits. hanging with our mates weekenders and the it's been quite a day... ...so glad we got away weekenders. whatever kind of weekender you are, there's a hilton for you. book your weekend break direct at hilton.com and join the weekenders. will you be ready when the moment turns romantic? cialis for daily use treats ed and the urinary symptoms of bph. tell your doctor about your medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, or ade

the white house says it's still possible that the president will meet with russian president vladimir putin next month on the side lines of the g20 summit. this as we are learning more about putin's personal involvement in russia's interference in the u.s. election. the washington post revealing that the cia received intelligence last summer that capture putin's direct instructions to help elect trump and to damage or defeat hillary clinton's campaign. this hour, i'll discuss all the breaking news with senator richard blumenthal. he's a democrat on the judiciary and armed services committees. and our correspondents and specialists are also standing by. first, let's go to our cnn senior diplomatic correspondent michelle ka sin skip. michelle, as the president speaks out again about the russia investigation, this new washington post report is filled with very important new details. >> reporter: right, this reporting is extensive. it shows that the cia had information it had captured vladimir putin's specific orders on interfering in the u.s. election. you see the obama administration struggli

russia, under vladimir putin, it's not russia all the time, it's under vladimir putin has decided thatt is a threat, they seek to dismantle western unity between our allies in europe and us, that he's not afraid to annex territory in europe. that's something that we thought we got rid of after world war ii. that happened. and most audaciously, he violated our sovereignty in our presidential election. that's pretty threatening. if we can't choose our leaders independently and in a sovereign way, that's a pretty major threat to the sovereignty of the united states of america. so we need to take this threat seriously. we need to contain it. we need to deter it. first and foremost it starts by recognizing it as a threat, which sometimes when i listen to our president that he doesn't seem to recognize it as a threat. >> so on the heels of what you've just said, i have to ask you what went through your mind when you saw "the washington post" on the u.s. at least weighing the possibility of returning those compounds in new york and maryland to russia. there was a former diplomat on our air sa

vladimir putin dijo que algunas rusas pudieran haber pirateado correos durante la campaÑa. >> vladimira informaciÓn cibernÉtica de estados unidos. >> los hackeadores son libres, si son patriotas, contribuyendo de la manera que consideran correcta para luchar contra quienes dicen cosas malas sobre rusia. >> se burlÓ de las acusaciones de que estos piratas influyeran en el resultado de las elecciones de estados unidos. hillary clinton era la enemiga de los rusos por sus crÍticas como secretaria de estado en la campaÑa 2016. >> vladimir putin sabe que la evidencia va a salir a la luz mÁs tarde que temprano. lo mismo estÁ diciendo si esta persona son patriotas, lo mejor para rusia es el presidente trump. reportera: senadores demÓcratas pidieron al fbi que investiguen si el fiscal general sessions tuvo una reuniÓn que no ha reportado con el embajador en washington. si se determina que no ha sido veraz, debe renunciar. >> puede ser un lapso administrativo, yo no llegarÍa conclusiÓn de espionaje algo mayor. >> es muy grave porque significa que no sÓlo mintió la primera vez sino que mintiÓ la

all of the press reports yesterday actually said that vladimir putin admitted that the russians were ed in this hacking -- >> in a very putin-esque way -- >> and so today, he comes back out and sort of tries to deflect and come up with a different explanation for it. that's very trumpian. >> putin-esque and trumpian. go ahead. >> i think in the words of ed ball, confusion to the enemy. and i think what putin is doing is he is just adding more confusion. i think the left is adding to it in their own maybe innocent, maybe deliberative political way, but the reality is we could ignore russia, we could handle all these russian issues a little quieter, a little bit more orderly, except for the left keeps throwing the political flames on it, the political kerosene, if you will. i think putin is just enjoying it. i think he could go out there. the left has made him incredibly relevant. it started with the reset from hillary clinton. it started with her giving away 20% -- this goes back to the administration when they rushed in there, sold them 20% of our uranium and did the great reset. reme

it's turned into one of those annual traditions — the russian president, vladimir putin will be holdingomes just days after anti—government protests across the country. 0ur moscow correspondent, steve rosenberg, has more. for foeradimir putin, for vladimir putin, this annual call the president show is all about presenting himself as father of the nation and mr fix presenting himself as father of the nation and mrfix it. in the run—up to the live programme the leader has been inundated with questions and requests the cause in a country like russia where there is only one man making all the key decisions, many russians believe he is the only person who can solve their everyday problems. what kind of problems? if you look at the official programme website we can see some of the request that people have already been sending in from across russia. some in video form. this one, this is from a village where the people are asking vladimir putin to build them a new school. and if we go further down we can see another video request from another russian village. they complain about the quality of

vladimir putin said nothing today about the protests. ide at the kremlin to a group of children. this is how president putin would rather be seen. not as a corrupt leader but as father of the nation. and certainly not everyone today was in the mood to criticise the government. in moscow, this patriotic festival on the same street as the protest was celebrating russian military might. protests don't make life better, he says, not one revolution has ever brought anything good. up the road, this was no russian revolution but it was a display of defiance from those people, many of them young russians, who believe their country needs change. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. the pressure on president trump over alleged links between his campaign and russia just isn't going away. on tuesday, it's the turn of his attorney general jeff sessions to face lawmakers live on television. he's denied acting improperly. the white house press secretary, sean spicer, says the presidentjust wants to get the issue done with. the president has been clear, la

this is bascov lane, just steps away from the boyhood home of vladimir putin. what did they think about america? >> it's a good country. >> russia and u.s. should be big partners. >> what do you think president putin wants? >> right now his only goal is to stay in power. >> the best president we have ever had. >> reporter: and their thoughts on president trump? >> he is for a friendly relationship with russia. >> reporter: now mr. putin is facing a critical question. how will he deal with america's new commander in chief? a lot to talk about with president putin when i sit down with him for a one on one interview here in st. petersburg tomorrow. this will be the first time he's sat with an american journalist since the appointment of that special council to look into russian interference into our election. >> megyn, we look forward to that. you can see the exclusive interview on sunday night with megyn kelly this sunday on nbc. >>> the horrifying moments inside a casino resort in the philippines, a gunman believed to be acting alone, stole casino chips, shot a t

petersburg and home of vladimir putin. we asked people here what do they think of america? >> it's a good country. >> russia and u.s., they should be big partners. >> reporter: what do you think president putin wants? >> right now, his only goal is to stay in power. >> it is the best president we have ever had. >> reporter: and their thoughts on president trump. >> he is for a friendly relationship with russia. >> reporter: now mr. putin is facing a critical question, how will he deal with america's new commander in chief. a lot to talk about with president putin when i sit down with him for a one on one interview here in st. peter s burg tomorrow. this will be the first time he sat with an american journalist since the appointment of that special counsel to look into allegations of russian interference in our election. so van savannah? >> look forward to that. you can see the interview with president putin on the debut of sunday night with megyn kelly this sunday on 7:00 eastern, 6:00 central on nbc. >>> to the horrifying moments inside a popular casino resort in the philip

intelligence community's case, pointing not only at russia meddling in the election but at vladimir putin himself, detailing that intelligence sources had captured putin's own instructions, directing the hacking and misleading the campaign, plus its goals to defeat and hurt hillary clinton in the election and help donald trump. but the post interviews with former obama officials reveals the pain now from some of them that more was not done to punish russia. quoting one, it's the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend. i feel like we sort of choked. they say the administration was worried about appearing to try to influence the election themselves as well as provoking russia. one official explained, our primary interest in august, september and october was to prevent them from doing the max they could do. and after the election, some of the harsher options for punishing russia, like a massive cyber attack on them or sweeping sanctions, faced concerns and roadblocks from a number of corners. former deputy national adviser tony blinken today defended the obama administrat

meanwhile, in russia, today president vladimir putin offered a new explanation when faced with questions about his country's meddling in our country's election. while all of our intelligence agencies have found russia took part in our electoral process putin's equivocation is not all that far from donald trump's. in effect, he's saying a lot of people could have done it. putin's comments came during a forum and a one on one interview in st. petersburg with our own megyn kelly. >> there is no specific evidence, no facts. just assumptions, allegations, and conclusions based on the allegations. nothing more. >> what the experts say is that this couldn't have been faked. that it's not one factor that it's 100 factors that pope to russia. the forensics, the digital id, the encryption keys, the specific piece of code that all them -- all of them ints point to russia and none of them point to anyone other than russia. >> what finger prints or hoove prints or horn prints? what are they talking about. your girl that is 3-year-old can perpetrate such an attack. >> you had said for months that russ

vladimir putin, oliver stone. here it is. [video playing] russian]ing in >>.ng to them as partners. "our partners." he said that too much. charlie: he does not give up. oliver: he stays at the table. he will talk and try to make a peace. this is the issue of nuclear parity, which is very important. he is saying that basically with the american abrogation of the treaty in 2001 under george bush, the nuclear balance is auseting to change bec -- charlie: the russians will have to meet that with more offense of weapons. oliver: they are putting the abms into poland and romania, and the reason given was that there is protection against iran, which he strips that reasoning away. charlie: they were not aiming towards russia. they were aiming towards iran. oliver: in another section, how the abm can be converted into an offensive missile. would not know what was in the air if it was coming to them. they would not know if it was defensive or an offensive missile. we try to show in the maps how they are surrounded on the northeast end -- north, east, and west side. all

and like vladimir putin, the russian president, he was a former kgb spy.e was a former russia intelligence officer. he's an extremely difficult man to track him down but here in st. petersburg he was giving a lecture a few days ago and tried to get some access from him about what exactly it was that was being discussed. >> reporter: mr. gorkov, quick question, what did you really speak to jared kushner about in december? did you talk about sanctions? >> no comment. >> reporter: what was discussed? the white house says it was a diplomatic meeting, that kushner met you as part of the transition team. your bank says it was a business meeting. >> thank you so much. sorry. >> reporter: were you ya condui to the kremlin, mr. gorkov? there's a contradiction, of course, with the different accounts as to what exactly was discussed. the bank says that it was a business meeting that kushner attended as part of kushner properties and discussed the business between the bank and the companies and the white house had a very different take, saying it was a diplomatic meet

>> well, of course, we know that vladimir putin would always tell the truth and he would never want toything that might hurt the interest of the united states. i'm used to reading fairy tales to my grandchildren. i think maybe putin has grandchildren. that's a fairy tale and he knows it. >> all right. senator patrick leahy of vermont. thanks search for your time. appreciate it, sir, as always. >> good to be with you. >> vladimir putin comparing the evidence from u.s. intelligence agencies to something a 3-year-old girl could come up with. more of his take on russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election coming up. >>> welcome back. the world lead now. russian president vladimir putin is giving his two cents or two whatevers on practically every controversy he's ever wrap up here in the united states. for a second day in a row he's weighing in on inintelligence reports alleging that russia meddled in the u.s. elections. cnn's matthew chance joins me now live from st. petersburg, russia, where putin just spoke at an economic forum. he said russians might have been involved in u.s. p

intelligence community plays right into vladimir putin's intelligence operation.e need to clearly state that russia interfered in the election and then move ahead and hold them accountable for their actions. otherwise, vladimir putin thinks he can do what he wants when he wants at no cost. why wouldn't he launch another cyber attack? and at the same time, we're so distracts tracted with finger pointing and name calling that we have less time and attention to pay to the real issue of ongoing russian misbehavior around the world. we're distracted which means we're increasingly vulnerable. >> there's this new story from the "washington post," obama's secret struggle to punish russia for putin's election assault. how do all these new revelations move the russia story forward? >> thanks, alex. "the washington post" reporting really laid out very clearly what the administration knew, when they knew it and how they chose to respond. president obama's concerns about perceptions of political interference meant that politics entered the analysis security situation room. thi

the amendment would target the russian energy sector which is controlled by vladimir putin's cronies with sanctions on investment and russian petroleum and natural gas development as well as russian energy pipelines. we also need to put additional pressure on the ability of putin and his cronies to move markets and money they have looted from the russian state. so this amendment would demand owe he -- would mandate that the secretary of treasury establish a high-level task force within the department's financial crimes and enforcement network that would focus on tracing, mapping, and prosecuting illicit financial flows linked to russia if such flows interact with the united states' financial system. the task force would also work with liaison officers in key united states embassies, especially in europe to work with local authorities to uncover and prosecute the networks responsible for the illicit russian financial flows. finally, recognizing that russia seeks to undermine not just american democracy but western democracy altogether, this amendment would provide support to the state

what i think is remarkable about what vladimir putin had to say is just how often vladimir putin ando be, you know, talking from the same set of talking points. you've had donald trump for over a year question the utility of nato, try to undermine nato. you had him come out and question whether russia really was behind the hack. and then of course he famously said it could have been a 400 pound man somewhere. and now vladimir putin is saying it could have been someone in the u.s. he insinuated that it could have been megyn kelly's 3-year-old kid. you know, how often they seem to have the exact same message really is striking, given that they ought to have diametrically opposed interests. >> let me mention this. washington, obviously, we've been talking about the fact that it's on the edge of its seat waiting for thursday's testimony from former fbi director james comey. what do you think we can expect him to reveal about the investigation into those possible ties between russia and the trump campaign? >> well, i think he's unlikely to say much about the underlying investigation, abou

according to one observer, vladimir putin effectively runs the veb as his private slush fund, using it bail out oligarchs and fund pet projects. the bank pumped millions of dollars into ukraine at a time when putin was seeking to move the ukrainian government closer to russia. putin appointed gorkov to lead the bank, and gorkov is a graduate of fsb academy. that's the russian school for spies. last year, the man seen in this sketch, who has been posing as a veb employee in new york, pleaded guilty to spying against the united states. in other words, he was working for the bank as cover. yet jared kushner meets with gorkov anyway and then did not disclose that meeting on his security clearance forms under penalty of perjury. as atlantic counsel fellow anders os len told foreign policy, veb does not do any ordinary banking business. therefore, it is so remarkable that jared kushner met with the head of veb. joining me now, yahoo! news finance anchor bianna golodryga and elias grohl. elias, let me start with you. you wrote a really good piece about this bank. this bank is sort of a kind o

meetings or little getaways, member always save more at holidayinn.com charles: russian president vladimir putinlusion claims today calling them quote hysteria. putin also slugging off comments between diplomats and members of trump's campaign. the most recent being a secret meeting between jeff sessions and russian's ambassador to the u.s. sergey kislack. joining me now to discuss kiersten, anderson is back, tom is back as well joined by gina as well. gina, i have to tell you something. vladimir putin was on fire and the crowd loved him. >> earlier was, and you don't usually see that level of passion out of him, charles. usually he's a little bit more subdued. this struck a nerve with him, he's tired of it. he probably has things that russia would rather be handling oh, i don't know, terror than this ridiculous conspiracy theory. and it's funny because, charles, it's like they have gotten their hysteria, their conspiracy theories all confused now. they say on the one hand, this was supposed to all be happening during the campaign; right? but then the accusations are all in december well after t