the most gorgeous women are in russia. welcome to russia. nasdarovje. ♪ >> zamir: i'm trying to be kind of sober. uned we stand. >> chef: i prepared today special for you: "russian tapas." >> zamir: russian tapas. >> chef: specially for vodka drinking. with the small pancakes, like blinis. >> anthony: nice. >> zamir and anthony: nice. >> chef: and uh, astrakhan caviar. looks like winter. salted cucumber with honey. and this is baltic sprats, smoked one with beet root. and this one is a muksun, this is a white -- whitefish. >> zamir: ooh! white fish from -- >> chef: whitefish frozen with malden salt and a little bit of pepper. and you can eat it raw. >> anthony: thank you, chef. >> chef: yeah. >> anthony: i'm hitting the caviar and the bellini. >> zair: oy, yoy, yoy. >> anthony: mmm. >> zamir: maybe some more vodka. thank you. and your smile makes it like -- feel like it's water. [ anthony burps ] >> zamir: what do you think? what is the perception of mr. putin these days? after 14 years, he's in power, just think about, his personal -- >>

us russia is not the tension. it is the occupation and the territory. the u.n.country's in reject this attempt, and still we are at front for a restoring international law. unfortunately from my point of view, there is compromise -- a compromise, but not enough of a position of international community -- community by means. means leavematic russia open to another attack on the eastern part of ukraine. the main problem -- which means should be used to restore international order, territorial integrity? are -- maybe it is good. it was one of the reasons we have lost 10,000 in the region, and the ukrainian people are asking us what we should do, what we plan to do? that is why i also want to ask the international community will we need to do additionally to stop russia from this occupation of crimea. jill: we had an interview with a defense analyst recently from iscow said the basis of this advocating for russians in ukraine. how do you respond to that claim? once again, i wanted to bring attention to the situation,

and that's kind of russia. they keep moving in on crimea, on maldova, et cetera, whatever, without being checked and when they are checked, and when one is going through a period of getting along with them, which i was lucky enough to write after the berlin wall fell, they can be cordial, reasonable folks to work with. they're a complicated country, and we need to be firm with them. we need to be fair. but we always need to keep an eye pealed for kbg connections, oligarchs that can really distort our dealings with them whether that's been distorted in the case of manafort here, i have absolutely no idea. as i said, it seems to me some of these press releases are a bit early in the process before anybody has really looked into the facts. >> thank you, all. wish we had more time. thank you so much, everyone. >>> when we come right back, donald trump's war of words against isis, can he stay on message or will his own past statements come back to haunt him? clean food. words you don't often hear. words we at panera

i think that hillary clinton said she's going to talk tough to russia. but that sort of went out the window with her e-mail scandal. and on the flip side, we have trump who seems to have surrendered already to russia. and the rnc went along with it. this is very concerning. i don't see really one is better than the other at this point. >> to silicon valley. rich, when she was secretary of state, she had this plan of working with the russians. this is kind of in the crony capitalism sphere, where she wanted the russians and she as secretary of state to encourage u.s. businesses to go russia and create a little silicon valley outside of moscow. it was called skulvoko. i may have that a little bit wrong. it turned out -- and she got cisco, for example, to put in $1 billion over a ten-year period. this wasn't chump change. turns out the russians used that facility to develop military hardware, and in some cases to steal our secrets. here's what the army foreign military study says. "the skolkovo foundation been involved in defense-related activities since de

want to keep russia in the war, and to to save the monarchy. without that they would probably leave the war. many people believe the moniker would be destroyed if rasputin continued his dark influence. so somehow british agents were involved in this plot. what really happened was they went into the house, they shot him once but it didn't kill him, he ran outside and someone from behind and fired at him and brought him down with the second shot it was not fatal. and this is interesting, at this point someone got up with a huge magnum and put it right against rasputin support head, point blank and blew him away. like that. it was not this romantic sort of gothic story the way you see in hollywood movies, it was more like a cold-blooded execution. >> here's the famous picture of rasputin on the screen. what affected this have on him and what exact year was he killed. >> guest: december sixteenth. he he actually they found the body underneath the ice in the river. they threw him under the ice and took a while to find him. and then what's interestin

it was a chaotic time in russia. the presidential elections were about to take place and the bombing of chechnya in response to the supposed that terrorist acts was being escalated as was the invasion of the country itself. but doubts remained and they were raised by at that time the still relatively free russian media, but in the fast-moving flow of quite dramatic events, the subject managed to get buried in there were not the forces in russian society which is not like american society, replete with ngos, independent press and people with a democratic tradition and a readiness to challenge authorities proved itself not to be capable of raising the issue on a sustained basis. there were motions in the state duma to investigate the strange events that those motions were voted down with the help of the monolithic support of the pro putin united party as it was then called, an independent commission was formed to investigate the offense and its members began to be murdered one by one. the first person to die was sergei

they want to show that conditions that our bad in the west does spend a lot of time defending russia anymore so they do achieve success when they expose in their view the social problems in the united states as well and they do that and they get an audience for that because that is for those democratic societies for the criticism of the status quo would ever that happens to be the real issues with the u.s. could be doing to have a greater influence on the public that is in a state controlled russian television and with gun-control issues those are peripheral as far as russia is concerned there is talk of gun-control it has very tight control so it doesn't prevent anybody from getting them but the argument to make them more freely available with those legal challenge comes up on the fact russia has an extremely high murder rate to fall people were murdered in russia were tallied it would be the highest in the world it is a culture of which arguments are settled by force, not by agreement but what impressions russians of the united states that does are freely available and so few peopl

that i what russia wants. >> russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e e-mails that are missing. >> he may not be the kremlin's man, but he might prove a useful distraction from what the kremlin does. >> matthew chance joins us now from st. petersburg with more on how russians view trump. is trump being played by russia as some suggest, and if he is, what does this say about how they feel about hillary clinton? >> reporter: i think there's little evidence that i have seen that russia is actively trying to play donald trump or is active ll lly supporting him ov hillary clinton. but certainly, the view from inside the kremlin from people i have spoken to close to that situation indicate that, yeah, he's the one who has the most thick views, it seems on a range of issues, towards nato expansion, the situation in crimea. so in that sense, yes, he reflects some of the views that the kremlin itselves a pouss. but there's also a snens which he's seen as unreliable and unpredictable. even though the russians are saying they might like the idea, the plit kl system being

one positive for russia, one not so positive for russia. is positive is that deepening its involvement with the middle east. with a huge player. that is not in our interest. downside is that russia does want to have a relationship with the suni gulf states. this is going to be noticed in and alli and cairo, those other places, right? their big enemy in their mind is iran. for putin to be doing this, will be made -- making it more difficult for putin -- it will endanger your relationship with erin -- arab counties? mike: here's the point i would make -- a lot people see putin as this chess player, a great strategic center. no, he is not. it is much more of a long-term interest of the united states to have a strong relationship with the arab states. --se are not the narratives the air state narrative, they are very different in terms of their relationship and the potential of their relationship. am asking how you see relationship with iran and measure -- and i'm using this any carefully -- equivalency in a relationship to the arab states? the

how do we know it was russia? guest: well, we can't be 100% certain, first of all, that it was russia. the evidence that we have so far points strongly in that direction. the u.s. government, certainly the administration has been careful because they don't want to politicize the domestic side of this to the extent they have avoid it, but hints have been dropped pretty strong that will the evidence persuasive that the hackers who did this, they may have been private actors, but that they were acting at the direction of the russian state. that kind of plugs into a history that we know about of hacking by the russian state, where a lot of the cyberattacks we see against high-profile, political other targets, sometimes what seems to be hackivism, but may have an ulterior motive as well, is also state-linked. it's very commonly coming from russian territory, if you can trace the servers back and sometimes chain sandeeze other ajor state actors. host: what does russia have to gain? guest: the mode of question is very, v

, installed a russia friendly viktor yanukovych, and this pro-russia pro-putin dictator in ukraine as his top political advisor in ukraine an american, experienced american political pro who kept an office in kiev, moved to kev part-time, this american political guru who basically orchestrated yanukovych's rise to power as putin's guy as president in ukraine. popular uprisings in ukraine ultimately threw yanukovych out. after that he went scurrying back to russia and thanked putin for rescuing him after he was thrown out of power in his own country. after that, that american political advisor kept working with viktor yanukovych's old party in ukraine to re-brand themselves and gave them a new name to help get them back in power. if you care about ukraine politics and russia busting out of its western borders and taking over parts of neighboring countries and whether there is a nato and russia war because they will push into some russian countries on the western border and treaty bound to defend them, if you care about this stuff, it has always been this juicy interesting creepy americ

that is russia, iran, u.s. partnership. >> i'm in today's offense did not mean we would stop those discussions. thank you for trying to clarify. don't want to jump ahead to far. we will continue to have those conversations. we believe it is the best way of creating a coordination cell with russia that we talked about before. we believe that is the best mechanism to get back on track in syria. we don't know all the details about today's events. forink we are still looking clarification on that. this just a one event? is it happening in the past? is toner: the reason why they acknowledge it was happening today. the department of defense has acknowledged they did give us notification. >> first of all do you have any reason to believe this is going to be one event or part of a future problem that may go on? second, do you have the luxury to tell russia you cannot cooperate with iranians to bomb whatever targets you want to bomb? mr. toner: of course not. that is a very frank answer. we can only pursue dialogue and

one positive for russia, one not so positive for russia. the positive thing is it is deepening its involvement in the middle east. >> rose: with a huge player. >> with a huge player, right. that's not in our interest. the downside is that russia does want to have a relationship with the sunni gulf states. this will-- is going to get noticed in ree ad and abu dhabi and-- . >> rose: the emirates. >> and cairo. and all of those other places, right. >> rose: right. >> an their big enemy, right, their big enemy in their mind is iran. and for putin to be doing this is going to make it more difficult for put toin make inroads. >> rose: you are saying it is short sighted to be sealding up to iran because, because it will endanger your relationships relh with arab countries. >> yeah. and here's the point i would make, charlie. is that a lot of people see putin as this great chess player, right, this great strategic thinker. no, he's not the tack tition, right. so he's doing this, he's doing this iran thing for two reasons. one is that the tactical m

what seems to be missing is a willingness to push back against russia when russia violates the norms in international society. charlie: you think he has a rose-colored vision of -- richard: there seems to be a benign view of let a widespread acceptance of what russia has and the middle east in the case of syria. what is hard for me is that the focus on russia. think about it. russia is a country of one hundred 43 million. it has a one-dimensional economy that has shrunk 10% over the last couple years. it is not a great power. it is exercising more it -- more influence than recently. richard: putin is looking for foreign policy to compensate richard: putin is looking for foreign policy to compensate what they don't have. he is good at exploiting opportunities. there was a new york times piece of office two. what you saw was speaker after speaker that he is no comprehension of american values. you saw democrats take on the american exceptionalism argument that have been frequently expressed by republicans. richard: i still left but i am a george herbert walker bush republican. a realis

transform russia, simply denouncing communism has not been not enough. expectations 20-yes ago, when a lot of people, hundreds of thousands, millions, believed that w collapse of the communist regime, russia would inevitably become a free, democratic state. a prosperous state with equal opportunities for everybody. and to the contrary these expectations, russia today is a corrupt state run by it's putin's dictatorship on the political side and for the majority of russians it ended up with great, great disappointment." coming up, we take a look at the fall out of the cold war, years after theollapse of the soviet union. a double agent still spying for russia inside the u.s. e "throu the decades." "throu the decades." i know you! [laughs] welcome! hi! we're your neighbors. we live across the street. thanks for this. i see you've got time warner cable like the rest of the hood. genius. yeah, they offer tons of free hd channels. and you can record six shows at the same time. and with the super fast internet, entertainment nirvana! wow. nirvana. switch to tim

and russia's dangerous actions. at her core, she is a pragmatist trying to work with russia when and where we can. as i was trying to explain with the isis fight, she probably would have a more robust response, whether in the crimea peninsula in the ukraine, her response in syria would be slightly different. one thing i am besides especially the summer, i talk about this being a big issue. things i the biggest would talk about besides this summer about being a big issue would be russia. many analysts trace that back to moscow and russia and we have seen what happened right in advance of the democratic convention this summer, i think one of the biggest issues globally is going to be cyber security and clearly, evidence demonstrates the trail to a lot of problems we see here at home and in the world with cyber sick cybersecurity come from russia and a little bit from china as well. she has learned from the experience of sitting across the table from russian negotiators to negotiate a nuclear arms agreement that led to

. >> eastward -- stories from russia. a giant country facing giant challenges. from the black sea over the ural mountains to st. petersburg. we take you on a journey to sinking cities, ancient cultures -- to a nation full of contradictions. what are the dreams, fears and hopes of the russian people? join us for "eastward -- stories from russia." michelle: that's it for today. thank you for watching. we hope you enjoyed today's program and look forward to our upcoming series. don't forget that you can watch any of those reports again on our website. in the meantime it's goodbye from all of us on the "focus on europe" team. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] . >>> hello there, and welcome to nhk "newsline." it is tuesday, august 30th, 9:00 a.m. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. people in japan are making preparations for the approaching typhoon. it will be the fourth storm system to hit the country in less than two weeks. i

russia controls four islands that japan claims. the japanese government maintains the islands are an inherit part of japan's territory, it says they were illegally occupied after world war ii. #. >>> investors have been waiting for the latest u.s. inflation data saying it is a big factor for the federal reserve when it decides to raise its key interest rates. now they learn that con excuse meer prices were unchanged in july. the consumer index was flat from the believous month. the figure is in lightning with market expectations. meanwhile the core consumer price index for july excluding food and energy was up 2.2% from one year ago. the index remained above the 2% level for the ninth month in a row. cars continued to get cheaper but medical care is on the rise. now wall street ended lower after that data came out. all three major indexes were down, one stay after hitting all-time highs. speculation about an early rate hike in the u.s. weighed on markets. the dow jones industrial average finished nearly half a percent lower, the na

you lived in russia. you reported for condition on russia and its relationship with the rest of the world for many years. what do you make of this story about paul manafort's dealing in ukraine? >> well, i mean, i think objectively you can say that he was hired, it appears, to do a makeover for the party of regions. the party of regions is important because that, of course, was the party that yanukovych was in. it was known as kind of this party that was aligned with oligarchs and kind of criminal elements that had a very bad reputation. and also mr. yanukovych, himself, was very let's call him rough around the edges and needed some sanding off. so apparently the job was to create a better candidate, somebody who'd come across more smoothly, who would talk about economics. and would say the right things to the people in the eastern and the southern parts of ukraine which are kind of more russian-speaking areas. so that doesn't surprise me. i mean, we know that. i think the difficulty here is that they hav

they forced him to stay and russia and use the fact he was in russia to depict him as somehow of a nefarious russian agent. they have done the same to wikileakaks, especially s since wikileaks' disclosure seven damaging to the e democratic p y and the clininton campaign. it is amazing that wikileaks last disclosure resulted in the resignation of the top five officials of the democratic national committee, including the dnc chair debbie wasserman schultz. wikileaks has become an enemy of the democratic party and they seem to have one tactic with her adversaries and enemies, which is to accuse them of being russian enemies. -- russian agents. that is being used against wikileaks now as well. a very disturbing strategy that is not justice disturbing in an of itself, but will have consequences and the likelihood that hillary clinton will win because when you constantly inflame the public by telling them that russia is this enemy, has agents operating in the u.s. , that is going to have lots of long-term implications and terms of how the u.s. government treats russia, how the american media and p

russia has moved surface to air missiles onto crimea. the s400 can shoot down a plane 400 kilometers away. at the end of last week, the russian navy held drills to deal with saboteurs in crimea. and more russian wargames began today in the eastern mediterranean. recent tension could be aimed at influencing the failed peace talks over ukraine's war against russian-backed separatists to the east. crimea's administrative border ukrainian lives. ratcheting up the tension here destabilizes the country. after russia's annexation of crimea more than two years ago, ukraine and its allies like britain have learned to expect the unexpected. moscow's strategy is rarely crystal-clear. tom burridge, bbc news, southern ukraine. katty: a tense border between ukraine and crimea. quick look at other news around the world. president obama has declared the u.s. state of louisiana a disaster area after unprecedented flooding caused by torrential rain. the move makes federal-aid available in the worst affected districts. at least six people have died and eme

russia. why would he have done that. >> rose: one example that's donald trump being donald trump. in other words, donald trump, this guy says certain things so he responded to it by intuition, by instinct, all that kind of stuff without putting it in an international conflict context. you see what i mean. >> yes, yes. you're making my point. >> rose: he spends his time on tweets, he spends his time watching television as all -- doesn't mean he doesn't get the job done on the campaign trail. he obviously won the nomination. >> you're making my point. you're absolutely making my point that his personality, right, gets him to react in these ways that are inconsistent with american interests. >> rose: and because, but to react i would argue, i'm now argue the other side. i don't use the term devil's advocate but to react that way, does not make him, it makes him, it doesn't make him a tool of the russian federation. it doesn't make him an unwitnessing agent because he -- unwitting agent because h

talk about russia. hillary clinton's views on russia, donald trump, even take it to all manafort, who "the new york times" has been running pieces exposing ties to the russian-fridley former head of ukraine. story came out yesterday in "the new york times" that had a couple of scoops in it, one sort of links trump's campaign manager paul manafort to pro-kremlin forces who supported the regime and ukraine. there were details about dealings that manafort had with the figure who is sort of one of the earliest russian oligarchs, a much feared figure during the 191990's and d throughout the 2000's. these us stories are interesting. it was interesting that trump chose to keep his remarks about working with russia in his speech yesterday after the pseudo-bombshell report in "the ew york times." i think a different campaign might hahave edited d those rems the spopotlighte away from russia for a day or two. but he has been out in the open and talking about how he was to continue working with russia. incidentall

chris: in russia mosquito bites you. this year's tastiest girl was nine-year-old irina ilyukhina, who got 43 bites on her legs while picking berries in the woods. suck it, phelps! comedians what are other russian festivals to name. >> burning man of chernobyl. chris: points. [cheers and applause] >> chris: points. >> gets glowing reviews. chris: well done. get it. still burning. he maeve. >> -- nobody is really happy and it's called youk rai ukraine ony parade. >> chris: very well done >> chris: next, michael of maryland. one of the most impressive feats of this olympiad happened last week when american hero and muscular ear model michael phelps broke an olympic record held for 2168 years. with his 13th individual gold medal, he beat leonidas of rhodes' record set in 152 bc. story is on an ancient box of wheaties. they made a rule they couldn't appear any longer on a box with their dick out. >> there it is. [laughing] >> chris: hard to see it. it must be the winter olympics. [laughing] so comedians, in honor of this reco

russia, at times, though, russia is deeply involved in the middle east. one of the things we have to recognize is how do we work if a smart way, in an effective way, to be able to operate and to deal with this problem of radical islamism? we have to stop kidding ourselves. most of your audience has seen some of the actions from the russians just recently flying out of iran as an example and conducting operations into syria. so there's a problem, russia is part of this problem. we have to figure out ways that we're going to have to deal with them in some cases to be able to solve this rapidly expanding problem of radical islamism, as well as what's happening in the middle east and what's happening here in the homeland. so again, good discussions. you know, going in my expectations were that i would walk away knowing that we have a problem and that problem is not getting any better. >> general flynn, much on the plate for the next president, whoever he or she may be. thank you for your service to this country and making time for us today. >> thank you, shan

can work with russia. does this strengthen voices in the administration saying we cannot negotiate with moscow at the moment? vali: no, we can always negotiate, but we can always change the terms of the negotiation and if we are able to find a leverage over russia. we cannot keep going to the table with the same head and try -- with the same hand and try to get a different result from the last time. it is not going to work. we have to change the game plan on russians and the iranians. either that or we have to come to an agreement that assad is going to stay and we are only interested in fighting isis. that is a different conversation. katty: thank you for coming in. the guantanamo bay detention facility have been released to the united arab emirates, marking the largest single transferred detainees. some republicans, including donald trump, were critical saying that it will harm national security. all adams has more. it is the largest release of prisoners so far from the controversial detention center in

russia, at times, though, russia is deeply involved in the middle east. one of the things we have to recognize is how do we work if a smart way, in an effective way, to be able to operate and to deal with this problem of radical islamism? we have to stop kidding ourselves. most of your audience has seen some of the actions from the russians just recently flying out of iran as an example and conducting operations into syria. so there's a problem, russia is part of this problem. we have to figure out ways that we're going to have to deal with them in some cases to be able to solve this rapidly expanding problem of radical islamism, as well as what's happening in the middle east and what's happening here in the homeland. so again, good discussions. you know, going in my expectations were that i would walk away knowing that we have a problem and that problem is not getting any better. >> general flynn, much on the plate for the next president, whoever he or she may be. thank you for your service to this country and making time for us today. >> thank you, shan

we are going to take you from new york to london and cover stories out of brazil and russia in the next hour. here is what we are watching. of alarity on the timing briggs it. bloomberg is reporting prime minister theresa may's team leaning for the first part of 2017 to trigger the start of talks over the referendum. >> that news of the brexit timing sending the pound lower after trading higher on positive you go data. the latest moves in the currency as well as numbers on inflation, jobs, retail sales, and today's public finances. stock market revolution, getting want even before his startsrs exchange trading today. we look at how the new exchange is provoking responses from competitors. >> let's have a look where we are trading right now. just under 30 minutes to the close. we're seeing the stoxx 600 lower. i want to show you the bigger picture of the stoxx 600 post brexit high in red and come off a bit from that. the rally we saw yesterday, the first time in five days, actually. that was pretty short-lived. stocks falling today. i want to have a look and see on the industry groups ho

so donald trump calling for common ground with russia. those comments though coming as vladmir putin and moscow reassert themselves against ukraine and launch new strikes against isis from an interesting base of operations. ♪ you can run an errand. (music playing) ♪ push it real good... (announcer vo) or you can take a joyride. bye bye, errands, we sing out loud here. siriusxm. road happy. would suffice for jordan's bachelor party. i don't need a sword, i'm a firemaid. ding dong! i'm going to give this place a killer review. i don't know, i just always thought maybe my bachelor party would be a little less g-rated. wench! ahhh! ahhh hahaha... oooh! party time! party boy! ok, ok. mm hm, party time. hmm, mmm, mmm... (announcer vo) you can sit in traffic. or you can crack up. (man on radio) but if it isn't refreshing... (announcer vo) sorry traffic, we laugh 'til it hurts. siriusxm. road happy. ♪ >> i also believe that we could find common ground with russia in the fight against isis. wouldn't that be a good thing? wouldn't that be a g

russia says it deployed an air defense system to crimea. the territory was annexed from ukraine two years ago. comes after russia accused ukraine of mounting an incursion into crimea. for more on what this escalation could mean, i spoke a brief time ago with a former state department official, now at the mccain institute. why is this flaring up now? >> the russians claim the ukrainians are trying to launch an incursion and stage terrorist acts in crimea. the ukrainians have denied this. let's remember that a little over two years ago russia a nnexed crimea from ukraine. they invaded it rather stealthily, annexed it and moved further into eastern ukraine after the success in crimea. this is recognized by the international community as ukrainian territory. but it is currently occupied by russia. rajini: things are escalating. could this be the brink of war? >> tensions are certainly heightened, no doubt about it. we have seen military movements. it could be a normal rotation of forces by the russians in crimea, but the ukrainians have upped r

russia launch airstrikes against targets in syria. the iranian government announced on monday russia won't be using iranian airbases for operations again in the future. it comes after widespread condemnation from the international community and within iran, as well. ghasemi says translated "..russia has neither a base in iran nor has it been stationed in iran. it was a temporary job, a mutual understanding with iran's permission." questions about the shifting alliances on the sidelines of syria's five year long civil war. russia could now turn to turkey, who announced today it's stepping up support for moderate opposition groups in syria, hoping to clear the isis threat from the border area. cavusoglu says translated "..we can provide support to all forces fighting against isis, especially to moderate opposition forces. indeed, we have always supported those fighting towards the east of the country which is obama administration says it wants to keep engaging with all parties to the conflict, including russia, saying consensus is the o

because of that, he speculates it could be russia. in addition to that, we had analysts tell us as well, the countries and nation states that have this ability to do this level of hack and have the motivation to publicize it, kind of narrows down the list to russia and china. one analyst told me, the money is on russia but there's no hard evidence yet. if you look at motivation, look at the past track record, with russia being linked to some of the recent hacks we have seen that have been directly involved in the u.s., that's what people are speculating it could be russia. but we still have a direct link yet. but at the same time, we have seen, we have seen russia being blamed for a lot of recent hacks, and there has been tension, hearing from high-level u.s. security officials who made a lot of public statements recently about russia, and there is tension with how putin is dealing with a lot of foreign-policy issues. so we see that, and any time i talked to any senior security officials, they always say on the record, russia is among

firstly, let's look at russia's role in syria. a new call on russia and the u.s. to get a cease-fire deal for syria. how likely do you think that is at this point? i doubt very much that any of the parts concerned would actually follow to the letter the calls for a cease-fire. unfortunately, the conflict has gone very far. if one of the signs backs off -- side iscks off, every afraid of backing up first. they would have to do that together. let's hope this whole with john kerry will lead to a common decision about a cease-fire. catherine: in terms of ukraine, the people see vladimir putin as very much reviving tensions currently in crimea. would you agree with that, and what might his strategy be? >> i do not agree that he is reviving. he has a consistent strategy, which is conquering a zone of defense, a buffer zone around entrances of the main ukrainian and russian rivers, particularly the don river. that was the whole strategic point of annexing crimea, which from putin and all of russia's point of view was being threatened by the change of regime in the ukrain

you know, russia like us has nuclear weapons, folks. it would be really nice if we got along with russia. charles: all of a sudden it's all about russia. richard, you and i talk about this all the time. we all have seen interview,b what role do you think we should be playing with respect to russia. bad guy, good guy. where do you think we should be here? >> i dealt with the russians a long time at the u.n. they respond to tough pressure. they respond to leadership, and they respond to money. they can be convinced by having some sort of economic deal. i'm sceptical of the russians. i think their motive are the not pure. they always try to involve themselves in every election. it should be no surprise to hillary clinton or anyone else. i have been uncomfortable with how hillary clinton has consistently unde underestimatee russians. they have taken advantage of her and run over her. you can look at the russian reset, you look at the iran deal and you look at the syria policy, and the current crisis that we are talking about in ukraine. the

why is he lashing out at russia now? richard: the background is americans have in trying to bring together a deal with the russians in recent weeks to try and work together against one of the extremist groups that is active in the syrian civil war, one called the out must right front. the secretary of state and his russian counterpart ostensibly came up with the outlines of such a deal last month, but since that time, what we just heard about in a report, the syrian regime, which is supported by the russians, has intensified this siege on the very important city of aleppo, with more than 200,000 civilians reportedly stuck in one district of aleppo. i think what you have here now is frustration about that, saying on the one hand, how can we work together with russians against this one enemy while the russians are making the situation even worse on the ground for this group of civilians tackle having said all of that, it is really nothing new for obama to criticize the russians on their policies. the american line has alwa

plus -- a fall out between iran and russia. how the shifting alliances could tensions between russia and iran heating up today as moscow announces it'll no longer use iranian bases to launch airstrikes on syria. this comes after widespread condemnation around the world -- and political pressure from iran russia launch airstrikes against targets in syria. the iranian government announced on monday russia won't be using iranian airbases for operations again in the future. it comes after widespread condemnation from the international community and within iran, as well. ghasemi says translated "..russia has neither a base in iran nor has it been stationed in iran. it was a temporary job, a mutual understanding with iran's permission." questions about the shifting alliances on the sidelines of syria's five year long civil war. russia could now turn to turkey, who announced today it's stepping up support for moderate opposition groups in syria, hoping to clear the isis threat from the border area. cavusoglu says translated "..we can

relationship is with russia right now. i should also mention russia is finger in hacking scandal at the democratic committee, and what should voters think these candidates and that country. i think the obama administration is deeply frustrated. it hoped it would be able to find in russia a partner to sdofrl the nightmare war in syria. that hasn't happened. the u.s. continues in effect to leave the exit ramp open for vladimir putin to adopt more sensible policies. i think there is deep concern about russian hacking and meddling in the u.s. election intelligence operation that was characteristic of the cold war. it's strange and worrying to people now. generally, i hear from foreign leaders concern that in the u.s. election that the candidate donald trump says differentenings about russia than we've heard for years, and differentenings aboutinatea and nuclear deterrent. they try not to make comments to intervene in our election, but i pick up in aspen and vrn leaders as they watch what's happening. >> john: do they think oox

that's important also in looking at russia. and i think also as the report very clearly reflects and i think andrew's overview suggested, what are the challenges after looking at russian military development today is there is this steady contrast. i would tell you a story about how incredibly good russian capabilities are, about how quiet the subs are, the cruise missiles. i could tell you that story. i could tell you a story about how incompetent and backwards they are, how aufg they've got -- the most modern things they have were in development for two decades and they only have a handful of them. so what's the truth here. my take tends to be -- and i think this is true of the russian forces as a whole, you've got an improving system with pockets of real competence and spots of excellence. and that submarines are definitely one of the pockets of competence but they're small pockets. moreover i think it's important to remember that the navy is not the priority for the russian federation. we can talk about naval priorities. but