2007 when putin got to meet the whole family. >> for vladimir putin's arrival, the bushes worked some dad diplomacy. the 83-year-old former president served as official greeter when the russian leader touched down by inviting putin to the place where the first family gets out to play, advisors suggestion this rare personal trust could encourage more trust. at the seaside compound, they will settle in for what is informally dubbed the lobster summit. the welcome at the seaside home quickly turned to full-throttle diplomacy. a quick trip cutting the wavers with all that security. advisors say bringing putin into the family circle is meant to develop a deeper trust. >> the lobster summit. in all, vladimir putin visited president bush in the united states five times. his last visit to the white house was in 2005 and bush's evaluation of putin as straightforward and trustworthy has not aged so well. even texas barbecue and a boat ride with mom and dad could not make putin into an ally. whatever your opinion of the bush administration and how it handled vladimir putin, at least we knew what

sanctions on president vladimir putin's allies. the kremlin accusing the trump administration of trying to achieve world dominance as it takes a tougher line against moscow for its election meddling and other hostile actions. let's bring back our analyst. how much are these new sanctions going to anger putin? >> i don't think putin is happy. if i were vladimir putin, i don't want to be advising the russian president, but i'd spend less time with these false statements about the united states and do a little damage control. the truth is what's really going to hurt vladimir putin is if european countries follow suit and take similar actions to what we did today. these oligarchs' assets are primarily in europe. for these sanctions to really bite, the united states should try to lead an international coalition likes we did on iran that would freeze assets in places like cypress and greece and the ability to invest in the british real estate, for example. if i were putin, i'd be calling counterparts in europe rather than issues these ri

>> ratings. >> it is popular to offer political cover to vladimir putin? >> it's political audience. >> i can tell you when it happened, march of 2016, when it became clear that donald trump was going to be the nominee of the party and suddenly some of us who maintained our consistent opposition to trump's candidacy found ourselves being invited less and less often to the point of being never invited onto the network. now, whose decision -- >> that was your experience? >> that was my experience. whose decision was i don't know. it would be foolish to consider the possibility that a network owner who treasures his proximity to power, his proximity to the candidate and now his proximity to the president might be averse to having someone like ralph peters with impeccable conservative credentials attacking him for the right, precisely on this hypersensitive issue of russia because, of course, on this subject peters is absolutely right. >> i have to just say also, it's a business decision, right? if your audience is aligned with trump because of rote extreme pa

vladimir putin thought they were coming for him. that must have been a terrifying moment when he thought they were coming into the kgb's office. they're frantically burning papers. they cabled back to moscow. and moscow was silent. he himself goes outside and confronts the angry crowd. he has nothing really to tell them. he's bluffing. and he convinces them not to storm the building and to go away. vladimir putin returns to russia in tumult, the soviet union collapsing, ends up working for a very charismatic first post-soviet mayor of st. petersburg. so vladimir putin, you know, went in just a couple years' time from a nobody in st. petersburg to having a series of the most important jobs in russia. for someone like a former lieutenant colonel to rise to be the president of russia was a shocking event in russian post-soviet society. he was pretty ruthless in following the kgb playbook throughout his very unlikely rise in politics and also obviously since he's been the president of russia. had you told me or i think most people, russ

that is a fundamental part of this message, the white house is specifically saying to vladimir putin, we are going to target your inner circle u nless going to target your inner circle unless russia changes its behaviour. at the same time, many observers are saying that while on the one hand you have this very tough action, these tough state rents and indeed as we have seen, sanctions coming from the white house, president trump himself is much more careful with his words. for example he has not spoken particularly harshly about that you put in, he had a phone call with him and congratulated him on being elected president. —— vladimir putin. those indicate that president trump wants to continue a relationship with vladimir putin, but that is going to be difficult when you look at the action america is taking that is specifically sending a message to mock —— roscoe. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: police in new york charge martial arts fighter conor mcgregor with assault and criminal mischief. 55 years of hatred and rage have come toppling down with the statues. this f

2007 when putin got to meet the whole family. >> for vladimir putin's arrival, the bushes worked some dad diplomacy. the 83-year-old former president served as official greeter when the russian leader touched down by inviting putin to the place where the first family gets out to play, advisors suggestion this rare personal trust could encourage more trust. at the seaside compound, they will settle in for what is dubbed the lobster summit. they welcomed the seaside home turned to full throttle diplomacy. a quick trip cutting the wavers with all that security. advisors say bringing putin into the family circle is meant to develop a deeper trust. >> the lobster summit. in all, vladimir putin visited president bush in the united states five times. his last visit to the white house was in 2005 and bush's evaluation of putin as straightforward and trustworthy has not aged so well. even texas barbecue and a boat ride with mom and dad could not make putin into an ally. whatever your opinion of the bush administration and how it handled vladimir putin, at least we knew what they were doing. th

does this show that vladimir putin has a clear mandate to continue on? you for the question and thank you for hosting this discussion this morning. today, discuss russia things are not always what they seem to be. the technology, the numbers, we talk about vladimir putin and his coming presidential term. thing that is not quite what it seems is the election. this in awice put mediaion, but most of the does not use the quotation when they described the election polls at will talk about turnout and results and, more astonishingly, most world presidentncluding the of this country, they picked up the phones and said congratulations messages. hasspectacles of procedure more to do with the democratic emkin villagesot did. i think that the organizations a mainhe oce, of election watchdog, they are known for their consciousness and the report that came out the morning after the so-called presidential election, it was scathing and the head of the , choice without competition is not real choice. he continued and said that fundamental freedoms are restricted and th

he called to congratulate vladimir putin on the election even though vladimir putin would not allow his main point in the country to run for president, even though there was video of what looked like ballot stuff going on by russian campaign workers or it. i think it is stoug. but also to do it around the time when vladimir putin also probably issued the order for a nerve agent to be used against a former spy for russia, to invite him to the united states or sit for a meeting is completely irresponsible. >> as you know, the president is often congratulated various international strong men for their elections. we've got a few of them on the screen. the egyptian president, vladimir putin, turkey. >> i want to make one quick point. when you think about human rights around the world and the respect or the disrespect for human rights, the fact you have the leader of the most powerful nation on earth embracing somebody like vladimir putin or duterte in the philippines who is engaging in these extra judicial killings, to me it sends a message to the world and to dictatorial leaders that the un

he's very close to vladimir putin. he was standing right behind vladimir putin when i accosted him at that event, the apex summit in vietnam. it's interesting to see what u.s. treasury has to say about him. some astonishing words they're using to describe him, accused of threatening the lives of business rivals, illegally wire tapping a government official, taking part in extortion and racketeering. he is alleged to have ordered murder of a businessman and has links to organized crime. so this is not a figure who is particularly savory and not somebody who should be necessarily messed with. which is why, of course, he was so reluctant to answer the questions, legitimate questions i was putting to him last year. >> absolutely. now the question, given all of the connections he has to vladimir putin, how do you think vladimir putin is going to react to these sanctions? >> it's difficult to say, isn't it? undoubtedly this list of sanctions that the u.s. treasury department has put out is targeted at those individuals who a

weeks ago, donald trump invited vladimir putin to the white house. when our presidents spoke on the phone it was trump who proprosed holding the first meeting in washington, in the white house, an aide to putin said. diplomatic visits to the white house are not granted to those behaving badly like poisoning people around the world, jailing candidates, or interfering with the election of the president of the united states. and because president putin has been behaving badly for a while now, including invading neighboring countries, it will be vladimir putin's first visit to the white house since 2005 and in the 13 years since his last visit, vladimir putin's behavior has become worse and worse and worse. and in those 13 years, wikileaks founder julian assange has developed fondness for vladimir putin's regime. and according to u.s. intelligence has served as a conduit for information. and special prosecutor robert mueller is looking into roger stone's claim that he met julian assange. in an e-mail dated august 4, 2016, mr. stone wrote, i dined with ju

he blames vladimir putin, no longer his prime. assad will pay for this outrage. syria and russia are denying the chemical attack even took place. and iran. they are saying nothing to do with us. denying it? small children can't pretend to foam at the mouth. it happened or it didn't. they are looking scientifically at it and it think it wasn'tjust looking scientifically at it and it think it wasn't just chlorine gas which can smell, they think it was sarin gas, which is worse. we have been here, 2013, 1400 dead in eastern ghouta. another horrible chemical gas. we saw the pictures in the front covers, the little boy who was the front covers, the little boy who wa s cove re d the front covers, the little boy who was covered in blood on every front page and dust. and allen, found on the beach, the three—year—old. picked up on a beach. every other month, horrible pictures, still nothing happens. you get the impression with donald trump, he makes political capital. grandstanding. last year when he ordered the missile strikes on the areas which had been responsible

russia,t's get to getting reports that vladimir putin is coming down hard on u.s. criticism from russia, the move aimed that giving president trump a second chance to improve relations after u.s. sanctions. joining us is greg. is this wishful thinking? the relationship has deteriorated to a huge extent in recent weeks, hasn't it? >> yes, it is quite a deep freeze, a level we have not seen in decades. the signals we are getting from the kremlin are at the very least they do not want to have to raise the conflict further. parliament brought forward a bill to retaliate against the u.s. sanctions with a sweeping restriction on trade with the u.s. and the orders from the kremlin came third to put the stop on that. that is on the shelf for the moment. the rhetoric has been toned down. the russians have been encouraged by messages out of washington, despite conflicting signs publicly over the threat of new sanctions, it emerged today that the u.s. would be assured the foreign ministry back to the russian embassy in washington after nikki haley's comments about possible ne

we haven't heard him directly challenging vladimir putin. the critics are still pointing to that as a cause for concern. in terms of collusion specifically, that's just not going to be put to rest until this investigation concludes. we don't know where that's going and the people looking closely are still waiting to see what mueller finds. >>chris: i want to turn to a different subject and that's the surprise announcement that president trump is eager to pull all u.s. troops backing up syrian rebels, wants to pull them out of syria and also he has decided to freeze $200 million in u.s. recovery aid for people in that country. it was mr. trump this week. >> we are going to be coming out of the real thing. going to get back to our country where we belong and where we want to be. >>chris: i want to pick up on what senator graham said. he said that the president, if he follows through on this is making exactly the same mistake barack obama made in iraq which was to pull out forces before the battle is won. is he right? >> he is like it why do yo

unleashes saying sions on some of the richest men in russian president vladimir putin's inner circle oligarchy with money and influence a vote today to discover their assets frozen in response to what washington calls a breeze in pattern of malign activity including meddling in the twenty six u.s. election also coming up showdown at the gaza border israeli troops again fire at palestinian protesters killing at least seven people and injuring hundreds more. also catalonia separatist leader walks free from a german jail judges refusing to extradite karla's puts them all on rebellion charges and releasing him on. i bring golf it's good to have you with us add another blow to the already bad relationship between russia and the west the u.s. has struck at russian president vladimir putin's inner circle imposing the trump administration's toughest sanctions yet on seven of the richest. washington saying that the move is in response to what he calls russia's line activity around the world including its intervention in the twenty sixteen u.s. election. one of the most striking editions to am

an aide to vladimir putin says president trump invited the russian leader to meet at the white house. cnn's kaitlan collins is at the white house for us. we know this is all unfolding as we speak. what can you tell us at this point? >> reporter: well, we just got a statement from the press secretary sarah sanders after multiple inquiries were made about this potential meeting and i'm going to read it to you in full. she said that as the president himself confirmed on march 20th, after his last call with president putin, the two discussed a bilateral meeting in the not too distant future at a number of potential venues including the white house. she adds we have nothing further to add at this time. so two things there, she is saying they did discuss that meeting, the same time when president trump said after that march 20th phone call they could be meeting soon. she said a venue has not been selected yet. she said they have not spoken since that call. no further developments have been made on this. that was the very contentious phone call in the headlines for days. president trump cong

there is talk of a summit between vladimir putin and donald trump at the white house. a kremlin aide today told russian media that president trump made the invitation to president putin during their phone conversation in march. it was in that same call that trump congratulated the russian strongman for his reelection victory, even though trump's staff specifically advised him not to do so. >> i had a call with president putin and congratulated him on the victory, his electoral victory. the call had to do also with the fact that we will probably get together in the not too distant future. >> in his statement this morning, press secretary sarah huckabee sanders tried to downplay this revelation, saying that a white house meeting was always on the table. quote, as the president himself confirmed on march 20th, the two had discussed a bilateral meeting in the not too distant future in a number of potential venues, including the white house. when asked about it last month, sanders specifically declined to say the meeting would be held at the white house. >> sarah, let me st

he hasn't condemned vladimir putin on that topic. he hasn't condemned russia or putin specifically for moscow's interference in the last election as well. he said it's better to get along than it is not to get along. he said everybody agrees with that other than stupid people. so that's one of the topics obviously that will be the focus of the attention. i expect you'll hear the president focusing on how he thinks, he believes he deserves the credit for nato being reinforced in recent months, saying that all countries must give their due to support nations like those that will be up in front of us on this day. it's possible this is our first opportunity to press some questions the president hasn't faced yet about stormy daniels, about the idea that he requests or perhaps had conversations about pardons for paul manafort and michael flynn, that those conversations occurred between john dowd, his former legal counsel, outside the white house, and attorneys for those two men. we'll press him on that i suspect as well. but, again, only o

the daily telegraph highlights trump's claims that vladimir putin was partly responsible. the guardian claims it has a leaked home office document which alleges government cuts to the police may have encouraged violent offenders. the times has the same picture as the guardian illustrating the syria story, it also has story claiming the nhs is wasting £40 million a year on a useless injection for back pain. the daily mail says the open university is a victim of the changes to tuition fees and claims educationalists and some senior conservatives are calling for it to be subsidised. and the i takes a look at the home secretary's multi—million pound plan to reduce youth crime. so, syria dominating the front pages there. your paper has chosen to use this photograph of this baby having to receive oxygen after that attack in douma, seek is the headline. most of them will die, the targeting of anything that is known to have life. is important to choose carefully the pictures you use, but there are so many traumatised children that we are seeing. there are much worse pictures th

the spokesman for vladimir putin. he said if that is how it is written, at least this part is not true. president putin could not say such things and did not say it to donald trump. taking into account they never communicated before trump became president. i must add that this is a boast that vladimir putin has made in the broader sense of things when he actually suggested that the whole golden shower thing as the comey book has described it when he dismissed that as a non-event and could not happen. he did at that time say make that boast about russia. >> oh, yes. thanks, sam. >> ear muffs. >>> the historic hotline with north korea and south korea so the two leaders can speak ahead of the summit on april 27th. the u.s. drops the demand of the troop withdrawal in south korea which calls a condition. we have paula hancocks with the details. good morning, paula. live from seoul. >> reporter: hello, dave. we are being told this is the first time ever that there has been a hotline between the leaders of north and south ko

on tv was something vladimir putin said to him. it just resonates how many things that donald trump said that are untrue. >> you sent the department scurrying for that tape of vladimir putin. we're going to be joined by pete williams, who has now read the full set of comey memos. pete your highlights from what you've been able to study in the memos. >> sure. remember we've heard this three times at least, once in comey's written statement before he testified after he was fired, when he testified and again in the book, and i guess you could say in his interrviews. in his dinner, he said he has serious concerns about michael flynn's judgment. and the president says that theresa may was the first to collate him, and flynn said no. and according to memo the president pointed his fingers at his head and said the guy has serious judgment issues. then in the meeting on february 8th at the white house, he said the chief of staff reince priebus asked, do you have a fisa order on mike flynn, and then comey paused and answered, but didn't say

putin. 0ne isn't a holden to vladimir putin. one thing he has been consistent on is with vladimir putin. he has a new national security adviser coming in saying we need to get tough with the iranian‘, meaning occasionally you need to criticise vladimir putin and russia and plus it is good for your political future in the russia and plus it is good for your politicalfuture in the united states because everyone this easy as being in his pocket. when he agrees to withdraw from syria, he is giving vladimir putin something of great value. he hasn‘t been able to stop the sanctions because the will of congress is that the sanctions be strong, he hasn‘t been able to do several other things, but this can do to him. in the broader logic of trump trying to do vladimir putin‘s bidding to him, which looks to be pa rt bidding to him, which looks to be part of what drives him, this is something he can offer v putin, withdrawing from syria. with doing this he would be saying that we will give you a foothold in the middle east, you are a

and how gratifying must it be for vladimir putin to watch this news conference and to see the president not once, not twice, but four or four times insult and degrade the nato alliance itself, portraying our allies as a bunch of deadbeats. it's got to be gratifying to vladimir putin to see an american president so hostile to the most successful security organization in the history of the world. >> p.j., how are those baltic leaders who were standing there going to react behind the scenes? you have the latvian president, the lithuanian president, and the estonian president. how are they coming away from this, i'm going to call it a quad lat again for lack of a better word. >> i think they were honest in saying anything that strengths the alliance economically is a good thing for them. they are focused on the alliance and its traditional mission of defending europe against a resurgent or revisionist russia. i was intrigued that president trump alluded to statements of 1940 and 1998, which dealt with the independence of the baltic states. he didn't mention, as steve was just pointing out,

says putin's cuts of the oligarchs deals are legendary. >> vladimir putin i believe to be the richest man in the word, i believe he is worth $200 billion, that money held all over the world in banks in america and all over. the purpose of putin's wra regi has been to commit terrible crimes to get the money. >> reporter: cnn can't verify his assertions. putin tries to hide his wealth. >> he owns i think two soviet cesear era cars, a 34r59 in sais petersburg. there is a lot of cash flying under the table and private jets being flown all over europe and the u.s. that is lard is hard to keep tr. >> reporter: oligarchs by mansions in florida, london, apartments in new york, yachts, even sports teams. in 2008, one bought a mansion in palm beach from donald trump for $95 million. oligarchs buy up these properties to park their money outside russia and protect it. >> the great benefit of moving your money into the west with anonymous shell cooperations usually, you have high value assets, houses, yacht, plift ri jets, whatever it is, in countries that will defend your legal rights to keep the

each don't hear him criticise russia or vladimir putin. never taking don't hear him criticise russia or vladimir putin. nevertaking him don't hear him criticise russia or vladimir putin. never taking him to task but the aggressive behaviour. vladimir putin was chairing a meeting of the russian security council when details of those affected by the sanctions were released. the list included individuals inside the room.|j released. the list included individuals inside the room. i don't mean now learn from your reporters that i have been included in the us list. it appears as though they have just made it. i am list. it appears as though they have just made it. lam in list. it appears as though they have just made it. i am in other lists as well. that means i exist. we are active. we are internationally active. these sanctions were used by america to deliberately target vladimir putin's inner circle. after days of tit—for—tat expulsions and diplomatic disputes, the kremlin will once again be considering its response. chris buckler, bbc ne

and vladimir putin has brought that back. i don't see why we should be making excuses for what he is doing. illinois,ellevue, deborah is waiting on the line for democrats. that morning. caller: -- good morning. caller: good morning and i like the guest you have on today. russia will never change. they have been this way for a very long time. nothing we can do to change that. so, we might as well get over that. the thing i wanted to clarify though regarding a run -- -- iran --we keep saying especially on the right that we gave them all of this money. clarify. the money we gave them belonged to them and we released it after they came along with the deal that we wanted. we havemes kirchick, gotten this question quite a bit. james: i'm not an expert on this. i believe the money was held in bank accounts. it had ties to the sanctions being lifted. once the sanctions were lifted, yes, this was money -- we were not just writing a check to iran. it was held in abeyance because they were in violation of various sanctions and we just -

about relations between president trump and vladimir putin? guest: we have not seen them have an official meeting at. from the conversations and various events on the sidelines, i do not know what president trump does not seem to want to say anything negative about putin or about russian policy. his administration has taken quite a hawkish stance vis-À-vis russia. but why he has been silent and not very vocal, it is hard to say. host: we're talking about u.s.-russia relations pretty can give us a call in a moment or send us a tweet, @cspanwj. act imposingcaataa regulations on iran, russia, north korea, pointing to sectors . congress must review ending or changing these regulations. this is in play now. sa legislation is the most expensive, the strongest signal to russia to the kremlin that there will be consequences for its actions. so far, the trump administration has not used all the authorities that caatsa gives us. it almostes impossible for the president to unit not early remove sanctions to russia. so obama era sanctions that were put o

on tv was something vladimir putin said to him. it just resonates how many things that donald trump said that are untrue. >> you sent the department scurrying for that tape of vladimir putin. we're going to be joined by pete williams, who has now read the full set of comey memos. pete your highlights from what you've been able to study in the memos. >> sure. remember we've heard this three times at least, once in comey's written statement before he testified after he was fired, when he testified and again in the book, and i guess you could say in his interviews. in his dinner, he said he has serious concerns about michael flynn's judgment. and the president says that theresa may was the first to collate him, and flynn said no. and according to memo the president pointed his fingers at his head and said the guy has serious judgment issues. then in the meeting on february 8th at the white house, he said the chief of staff reince priebus asked, do you have a fisa order on mike flynn, and then comey paused and answered, but didn't say

so this is something that would upset vladimir putin. having said that, something would benefit vladimir putin, news the president was thinking about, or what like the leave syria, rather handle the later. that's something vladimir putin desperately wants. that's why he is meeting with them. it looks like the president is willing to leave sooner than a lot of his generals are willing to do so. >> let's talk about what is unfolding as we get this new information. we're learning that the president is more than a witness. he is the subject of the investigation. >> it could signal that the justice department will follow the guidelines under which a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime. some are interpreting it that he will sit down and testify under oath. what they could want is to sit down with the president to learn more with the circumstances under which michael flynn and james comey fired as well as about the white house crafting that very misleading statement about the trump tower meeting in june of 2016 and they have had a

it is sergei lavrov saying we love to send vladimir putin over at some state. it would look great for the russians to suddenly have the president pop up in the white house right now at a time when the united states and allies have been close at times to some open conflict over syria. >> absolutely. sam kiley, thank you for that. >>> ten minutes past the hour. wells fargo facing $1 billion in fines for selling unnecessary products to consumers. the penalty could be announced today. the financial protection bureau says this is punishment for forcing 575,000 customers to buy car insurance they did not need and charging unfair fees. this is another blow to the wells fargo reputation. still trying to recover from the sales scandal two years ago. the bank opened 3.5 million accounts without customers' knowledge. this prompted unprecedented action in february. it barred wells fargo from growing bigger than it is now until it cleans up its act. this is the toughest action yet by the trump administration against a wall street bank. it is note worthy for a cfpb under mic

it shows how powerful vladimir putin and his troops are here. millions have been left homeless refugees as a result of this with no end in sight. thank you very much. more breaking news coming up, including hue judge's new ruling affects stormy daniels' lawsuit against president trump. , little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, ... with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. tell your doctor if these occur. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. other sid

trump who suggested he spoke to russian president vladimir putin. the president said the hooker thing is nonsense, but that putin had told him we have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world. comey, addressing the salacious claim last night. >> he told you that he'd had a personal conversation with president putin about hookers? >> yes. >> did you believe him or did you think he was speaking hyperbolically. >> he didn't seem to be speaking hyperbolically. >> do we otherwise know that the president had had personal conversations with vladimir putin at that point? >> i can't recall. i think there was public reporting that he had spoken to vladimir putin as sort of a welcome, congratulations on taking office thing at that point. i'm not suggesting they talked about how beautiful the hookers were in russia, but i do know there was at least one publicly reported conversation. >> reporter: president trump has repeatedly denied having a relationship with putin before taking office, but comments over the years raised questions about their ties. >> i

sanctions targeting president vladimir putin's inner circle his son in law and a friend are among thirty eight people and businesses targeted at the u.s. says the measures are in response to moscow's hostile actions the market on later karla's courage to manas calling for a dialogue with the spanish government after its release on bail in german a huge demand has been detained on an international arrest warrant but a german court refused to extradite him back to spain to face a charge of rebellion because that is not a crime in germany urged on as wanted by madrid for his role in a succession referendum to split catalonia from spain. at least fourteen people have died when a truck collided with a bus carrying a canadian youth ice hockey team broncos were traveling between towns in saskatchewan for again twenty eight people were on that bus at the time. those are the headlines the news continues keep it here on al-jazeera counting the cost is next. you stand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world. al-jazeera.

. >> at least in my experience he won't criticize vladimir putin even in private, even in a meeting with three people in the oval office he is arguing that he gave aoonswer when he said essentially we are the same kind of killers that putin's thugs are. and that struck me. >> so this is from a different interview with usa today. jim comey is making the point that the president of the united states donald trump has a built in resistance to saying anything negative about vladimir putin even if that winds up meaning he will put the united states on even footing with russia when it comes to being killers. >> i will not finish you it is so ridiculous. the graphics that cost you tons of money and that -- comey is basing that on a meeting he had last february. this man has been in the presence of the president of the united states less than five times, a handful of times. he had three or four engagements with the president, two alone very briefly in a span of six weeks and we had a book over that is supposed to be compelling about what the president thinks about russia and putin. he expelled 60

it would be appropriate to have future meetings with vladimir putin. barack obama met with putin even when we were at great disagreement over the war in ukraine, for example. to invite vladimir putin to the white house or raise the possibility of a meeting at the white house would be such a disconnect with putin's meddling in our election. it would be such a slap to our allies in the united kingdom where he launched a vicious attack on the streets of london. so, again, i think you see the president for a variety of reasons. i think he admires vladimir putin, respects that he does whatever he wants. isn't constrained by laws and wants to have a closer relationship despite the effects on america's elections and rule of law. >> and that piece of propaganda, that photo of him with the president in the white house. matt miller, thank you so much. >> thank you. >>> here is a big question, did he quit or was he fired? why that question is so important and how much influence the president can have over that department until his replacement is named. plus, live

there is one through line clear as day he wants to talk to vladimir putin, he want to befriend vladimir putin. there are a lot of people telling him to slow down and back off, and he doesn't. viewers may think that pretty string about that. >> and we're going to get you a new microphone for your lapel. >> let's take a turn into the mueller matter. what's the chance in some sort of sentencing statement we're going to learn more about kind of a status check where they are on the timeline? >> i think that that's pretty unlikely. what we'll see tomorrow is the first real sentencing in this investigation. it's van der zwann. we know he doesn't have a cooperation agreement with mueller. everything has to be on writing in the guilty play plae. gaty pleas maintain this routine language that say i'm not relying on anything other than what is in this document. we do know he has turned over some key pieces of evidence to mueller. he's turned over tapes of conversation, he's turned over e-mails. we've heard that mueller's team did not have that before. his value is that even without cooperation, he

trump, who suggested he spoke to russian president vladimir putin. the president said the hookers thing is nonsense but that putin told him we have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world. comey addressing the salacious claim last night. >> he told you that he had had a personal conversation with president putin about hookers? >> yes. >> did you believe him, or did you new he was speing hyperbolical? >> didn't seem to be speaking hyperbolically. >> do we know if the president had had conversations with president putin at that point? >> i can't recall. i think there have public reporting that he had spoken as a welcome, congratulations on taking office at that point. i'm not suggesting they talked about how beautiful the hookers were in russia. i know there was at least one publicly recorded conversation. >> reporter: president trump repeatedly denied having a relationship with putin before taking office. but comments over the years raised questions about their ties. >> i spoke directly and indirectly with president putin, who could not have b

put sanctions on vladimir putin allies. we are live with that next. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ shery: this is bloomberg markets: balance of power. i am shery ahn. david: i am david westin. >> the european union says facebook has pulled up to 2.7 million people in the 20 nation bloc may have been affected by the data privacy crisis. and eu spokesperson says facebook confirmed that number in a letter. >> it is already clear that this will need further follow-up discussions from facebook on the changes. on the new european data protection rules and broader questions on the democratic process. >> the eu commissioner and facebook coo sheryl sandberg plan to speed by phone next week about how to strengthen data protection. in the u.k., the poison former russian spy is no longer in critical condition. doctors say he is responding well to treatment and improving rapidly. the british government has accused moscow of being behind me nervous and poisoning on him and his daughter. former south african president jacob zuma was in court to face corruption charges.

vladimir putin. so-called oligarchs and 12 companies. 17 of the officials, a weapons trading company and a bank. they said quote - the malign activity worldwide to request that the president has said he wants to have a good relationship with russia but that will depend on some of the actions by the russians. however, at the same time the president will be tough until that change takes place and will continue working forward and what we can to have the meeting and a meeting with vladimir putin at some point. >> will the measures -- we have a retired station chief and moscow. good to see. he spent years in moscow. you are the station chief for the cia is a pretty things these measures really will work and be enough as sarah sanders says to alter vladimir putin and his behavior? >> i think some of the measures vladimir putin -- i'm not sure this will deter him from ejection but it was a major effort on our part to hit him hard. the well-being, it was in my view, the right policy move. i think the admini

we have never heard him criticise russia or vladimir putin 01’ criticise russia or vladimir putin or take them to task for their aggressive behaviour. vladimir putin was chairing a meeting of russian security forces. the list included people in the room. i only now learn from you reporters i have been included in the united states list. well, i am in other lists as well. that means i exist. and we are active. we are internationally activity. these sanctions were used by america to deliberately target vladimir putin's inner circle. after days of tit—for—tat expulsions and diplomatic disputes, the kremlin will once again be considering its response. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. police in canada have confirmed that 1a people were killed when a lorry and a bus carrying a junior ice hockey team collided on friday evening. the humboldt broncos were travelling on a highway in the province of saskatchewan. police said 28 people were on the bus, 1a of whom were killed, including the driver. the other 1a aboard the bus have been taken to hospital. three are in critical condition. t

putin in a bid to mediate. bananas. if we want to have a peaceful solution in syria we need to talk to russia russia is going to be a factor if we want to bring peace to this situation the german government sees itself as playing the role of intermediary between the western allies and russia foreign minister of us used harsh tones against russia at first now he's calling for a diplomatic offensive posts for our goal is to make sure that germany is becoming a perceptible part of the peace process in syria but we also would like to discuss the same questions as we did today in other conflicts such as in ukraine where developers foreign audiences are. you know you know of. germany wants to make sure that the tensions between the united states and russia don't escalate further using diplomacy to diffuse the conflict over syria but experts are skeptical. the russian turkish and iranian presidents have met several times including just last week in ankara and they have made clear that americans and europeans no longer

new reports now say that phone call was to none other than vladimir putin who may have been the first leader to reach out after the naurtion. we' inauguration. i want to break down they say it was vladimir putin who made that phone call that the president got a little bit annoyed about in this conversation with mike flynn, right? >> that's right, hallie. a lot of what's in these memos has been made public in comey's congressional testimony and his book. but there are some juicy nuggets and that's one of them. according to comey, trump expressed serious reservations about flynn's judgment. national security adviser mike flynn. that stems from the fact that he failed to alert trump that a certain world leader wildly reported to be vladimir putin, had called him to congratulate him on his election. and because of that failure to tell trump, it was six days before trump would be able to call putin back and respond and trump thought that was wildly inappropriate. the fbi at this time was investigating mike flynn and comey writes in nis memo that he kept the poker face and tried not to reac

what does vladimir putin risk. he's extraordinarily popular in his country. >> it's important to point out the russian foreign ministry said they will not conduct diplomacy via twitter. but i think they have forgotten what their russian embassy does in the united states. it trolls the united states and makes trouble. i think vladimir putin sees the world in a cold war light. when the cold war ended americans looked toward the middle east and regional conflicts around the world. vladimir putin and his cronies have looked at the united states' chief adversary. charles: what happens, president trump extend the olive branch. tammy: for years with obama putin was able to expand. he got a footprint in the middle east. he likes that. that's one of the reasons his approval is high at home. he needs that approval. because the economy is bad. trump is ruining all that with his actions. it's in putin's interests to try to be better at it and not have this get worse. >> what i see first of all is vladimir putin is all in on ba

or perhaps also the interests of vladimir putin? certainly, the two sides appear to be moving ever closer together and adopting similar positions on things like family values, human rights, and even foreign policy. and the relationship brings substantial benefits for the church, such as, it seems, the transfer of the famous st. isaac's cathedral in st. petersburg back into the hands of the church. but as our reporter shows, there is resistance. >> st. isaac's cathedral is famous, but it's also controversial. officially, it isn't a church. it's a state-run museum. but that could change soon. st. petersburg's local administration plans to transfer control of the building to the russian orthodox church, a decision that has made many people angry. sabina pechatkina and irina sheinman have been protesting against the measure for over a year. they're preparing to take to the streets of their home town again. irina's poster reads "the constitution separates church and state." the two women feel the orthodox church has stopped respecting th

putin to cultivate a relationship with vladimir putin. >> you are describing an almost being on this quest to meet vladimir putin. >> he was obsessed with getting a meeting with putin. he hoped putin was going to come to the universe -- miss universe pageant, and he was told that putin would be calling. the one day come he's only there two days and one night. and the afternoon of the patch itself he's asking everybody around him, is putin coming? have we heard from putin yet? he was pretty much obsessively focused on meeting with putin. why? this is one of the big mysteries that pervades throughout the book, clearly there's an element of autocrat, psychologically picky like the way putin writes his country. he would aspire to run our country the way putin writes his country, but also in order to get that business deal, to get the trump tower and moscow built -- >> which was not his first attempt. he had been there before. >> right. but he knew that getting the green light from the top would be the one way to ensure the project could go forward. >> and you know that if you're out ther

of a question about the time vladimir putin is. he's come back to power after being out of power for a couple of years and pulling things behind -- >> been president for several years. >> but he's backfilling power and in chechnya human rights abuses and journalists and dissidents are being murdered in this regime and he's passed a law basically making it illegal to talk about gay rights. this is a few months before the annexation of crimea in the intervention in ukraine and all trump cares about bottom up is whether he will be his friend and whether he can do this business deal. there's an after story to this ms. universe pageant. >> it's an entertaining introduction to the world of donald trump in the world of bottom airplane and how they interacted but -- >> one thing people don't appreciate when they're looking for motive behind the whole trump russia story is that trump signed a deal for a letter of intent signed in the trump organization and the group -- >> is it fair to say that he's gone to actually seeing a development hap

never taken the criticise vladimir putin. never ta ken the russians criticise vladimir putin. never taken the russians to task for their aggressive behaviour. vladimir putin was chairing a meeting of russia's security council when details of those affected by the sanctions were released. the list included individuals inside the room. translation: i only now learn from your report is that i have been included in the us list. it appears they have just made it. well, included in the us list. it appears they havejust made it. well, i included in the us list. it appears they have just made it. well, i am on other lists as well, that means i exist, and we are at it, we are internationally active. —— we are active. the sanctions were used by american who deliberately target president putin's in a circle. after days of tit—for—tat expulsions and diplomatic disputes, the kremlin will once again be considering its response. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. south africa's former presidentjacob zuma has appeared in court, facing corruption charges li