putin. we have seen, early september, the release of 35 ukrainian prisoners who should have never been held including sailors that attack onnapped in an ukrainian vessels last november. in exchange, russia got 35 people returned to their country, including someone reportedly connected to a shootdown of the malaysian airliner. argue,ensky, i would probably feels he has to make the best of a situation if he senses that western countries are not there to back him up and support him. but he has also discovered that that can prove problematic on the home front, where we saw protests this last weekend with turning out on the streets that he was making too many concessions to mr. putin. there was an agreement struck, tentative agreement, at, at least on october 1 to provide a framework on event you'll elections in the regions. in which they would also receive special status if those elections were held according to ukrainian electoral standards. the interpretation of this agreement has already been

. >>> good evening, all roads lead to putin. that is what house speaker nancy pelosi famously said about president trump. tonight there's breaking news on what could be yet another road. "the washington post" tonight reporting on conversations the president had with vladimir putin and hungarian prime minister. the post headline, putin and hungary's orban helped sour trurp on ukraine, according to the report, the conversations reinforced president trump's perception of corruption in ukraine. the post reports neither orb a, n nor putin encouraged the president to see ukraine adds a source of dirt on joe biden nor did they describe kiev as complic complicit. the post reports that their disparaging descriptions did reinforce the president's perceptions of ukraine to the dismay of some of his advisers. quote, over time you just see a wearing down of defenses a former white house official said describing the struggle to contest the influence of giuliani, putin and orban. pause to consider the inl pl implications. the leader of the cou

putin. we have seen early september, the release of 35 ukrainian prisoners from -- including 24 sailors, who were kidnapped in an attack on ukrainian vessels in the crush strait last november, in exchange, russia got 35 people returned to their country, including someone reportedly connected to the shootdown of the malaysian airliner. mr. zelensky, i would argue, probably feels like he has to make the best of the situation. if he senses that western countries are not there to back him up to support him. but he's also discovered that that can prove problematic on the home front. we saw protests this past weekend with ukrainians turning out in the streets worried that he, zelensky, was making too many concessions to mr. putin. there was an agreement struck, a tentative agreement at least, on october 1st, to provide for a framework on eventual elections in those regions. in which they would also receive a special status if those elections were held according to ukrainian electoral standards and

we also we also made a historic agreement with mr putin. about syrian refugees. we are not going to allow any agenda separatist agenda in syria. instead 23rd of october we have given 120 hours and we have gave a condition that they were going to move. 32 kilometers they going to we throw. we are going to have a 10 meter 10 kilometer deep area and russian security will operate in that area in member and all the y.p. g. members will be removed with their arms. against leak of the terrorists. all the countries will take the necessary precautions and there will be a common mccann as them to track them. turkey and russia as they've done always are going to work together for a political solution for syria. my dear friends putting and the agreements we made together hopefully will bring. peace. any area that is peaceful and tranquil. hopefully this memorandum of understanding is going to bring fortune for everyone in the region as a neighbor of syria and as friends of syrian people. we want peace and civility in syria and we are going to work with all our strength in or

. >>> and putin's power play. as american troops withdraw from syria, vladimir putin expands his influence and strikes a deal with push u.s. alied kurdish forces away from the border. i'm wolf blitzer and you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> we're following multiple breaking stories including key testimony in the impeachment inquiry by the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine. cnn just ambassador to the euro union told him president trump wanted ukraine's president to publicly announce investigations that could help mr. trump politically in exchange for u.s. military aid. also breaking, the anonymous senior trump administration official who wrote an explosive "new york times" op-ed about the president has written a new book about mr. trump called "a warning." we'll talk about the breaking news. much more with congressman will hurd of the intelligence committee. he heard today's impeachment inquiry testimony. and our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. first, let's go st

there is new reporting in "the washington post" on conversations with putin, as well as viktor orbon and the president. in them, the two foreign leaders sought to reinforce the president's notion of ukraine as a dysfunctional, corrupt state, a country that russia has invaded. this was happening as his tv lawyer, rudy giuliani, was pushing conspiracy theories about ukraine to the president and with hundreds of millions of dollars in american military aid on the line. i spoke about this and more with democratic congressman and house intelligence committee member jim himes. congressman, what do you make of "the washington post" reporting the idea that vladimir putin might have helped color president trump's view of ukraine? it does seem another example of something that at this point is shocking but i guess not surprisi surprising. >> yeah, i read that story and i guess i'm not surprised. i didn't happen to be in that particular moment of the temperature. i'm not at all surprised if that is true. if vladimir putin has every interest in causing our president to believe that ukraine, appa

we'll ask him about the trump roads that lead to putin. including donald trump's abandonment of the kurds and how that serve s vladimir putin. a point that was made strongly today by some republican senators. speaker pelosi stood up to donald trump and said "all roads with you lead to putin." after an incoherent rantly dr b donald trump which she described to reporters this way. >> go ahead. >> on the part of the president was a meltdown. sad to say. >> what we have to be melting down about, there's the bipartisan resolution that passed the house of representatives today with 129 republican votes condemning donald trump's abandonment of the kurds. and there's a new devastating impeachment poll for donald trump. donald trump is the only president in history who wakes up every day bracing for new devastating re-election polling and at the same time new devastating impeachment polling. the most dangerous number of all for donald trump is going up. in a new gallup poll, 52% of americans say that donald trump should be impeached by the house of

>> lead to putin. >> what do you think? that's the answer, right there. >> i think you have some explicit and implicit reasons for it. >> did you read the entire letter today? >> i did. what letter? you mean the testimony? >> the opening statement. >> oh, yeah. yeah. >> i hope everyone reads it because there's really, again, for me, this is like the transcript, me speaking, don lemon, it's like the transcript, there's no two ways about it. what is described here is explicit of what the president wanted and what mr. taylor experienced. he wrote it down. implicitly, he wrote down everything, everything. took copious notes. and it all came out today. it's a pretty explosive letter. >> now, the republicans will say can't trust this guy, i think it's a weak argument. he took all these notes, why? because he was nervous that he was part of something wrong and he didn't like it. >> maybe he's a professional. >> this level of meticulousness, i think mr. taylor knew this day was going to come some day, that he would be held to accou

enter vladimir putin. russia's president is trying to erase the memory of his country's humiliation. to restore its power, its influence. but modern russia isn't reinventing the soviet union, its methods are different. these people in the kremlin do understand that idea of restoration of the former superpower is impossible. but they have other ideas, and their idea is to be a blackmailer, to be a producer of mischief, to be the grand spoiler in the world, to be the nightmare for the neighbours and for the outside countries. so this is the new idea of superpower and empire. it is an idea that russia has put into practice close to home. in 2014, masked soldiers in unmarked uniforms seized control of a ukrainian peninsula, crimea. they acquired the nickname of the little green men. but they were russian special forces sent in by president putin after ukraine's pro—western revolution. at a referendum, voters backed joining russia. but the poll wasn't internationally recognised. it had taken moscow less than

and later on a monday by jimmy putin he's also expected to take part. in the inaugural meeting of the russian society economic council. as you can see that being escorted there with the flags with a cohort of horses. we have no idea how long it takes actually to get to the palace will indeed what. we've just lost a collection you can see live pictures there. of president putin arriving in saudi arabia and we will of course go back to that as we get more pictures now on to another story russia's defense ministry has refuted claims that it is jets delivered strikes on a number of hospitals in syria and the accusations were published in the new york times on sunday and we're joined by my colleague don of course to discuss this further don let's look at the allegations that were in the new york times can you explain what they were well the article basically accuses the russian air force of having bombed hospitals in syria to crush opposition to the government now what evidence does the new york times have well for one they say they have unpublished radio re

of the field and give thanks danged in brianna there's a lot of me a putin sticks to bolster russia's times when saudi arabia. video obtained by abruptly agency shows the syrian army and to recal has attacked car province in northeast syria in the a kurdish officials that struck an agreement with damascus to deploy government troops to the area. but i was cool touch the rebels between police and protesters are both alone i have to have the jailing of 9 cops along separatist leaders both additional charges. of child gender clinic in the u.k. is sued over the alleged use of underwater search the experimental treatment we hear from a psycho analyst who would bet. some tea apparently it's a boy. this is he who pushed it was used to be introduced. to. for a while now continue your watching on c.n.n. international with me with. the russian president has been in the saudi capital riyadh this monday on his 1st visit to the gulf states in over a decade but amid putin held talks with king film on the crown prince signing off a raft of cooperation agreements it was that. just have a look at this

but there is no way he got an optimal deal with putin, because putin saw that at this moment, this critical moment for zelensky, the united states was pulling away. >> senator murphy of connecticut, thank you for your time this evening. i really appreciate it. >> thanks, rachel. >>> we'll be right back. stay with us. wow! that's ensure max protein, with high protein and 1 gram sugar. it's a sit-up, banana! bend at the waist! i'm tryin'! keep it up. you'll get there. whoa-hoa-hoa! 30 grams of protein, and one gram of sugar. ensure max protein. i need all the breaks as athat i can get.or, at liberty butchemel... cut. liberty mu... line? cut. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. cut. liberty m... am i allowed to riff? what if i come out of the water? liberty biberty... cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ >> vo: my car is more than four wheels.y? it's my after-work decompression zone. so when my windshield broke... >> w

you're seeing president putin laugh about it here. rye not laugh? this has accomplished a lot of what you wanted. putting aside even who you wanted to be elected and the intelligence community has concluded they wanted president trump to be elected. they wanted to disrupt our democracy. they wanted to disrupt our system. they wanted us to cause doubt in our institutions and our leadership and here we are, at each other's throat as a country. and that's almost exactly what vladimir putin would have wanted. >> so, elizabeth, we're looking at two leaders, disparate, though they might be, interlocked with interest? >> that's right. how much they're sympatico with each other. putin was joking, so was donald trump, about a major attack on our democratic system in 2016. let's not forget that. the other thing we need to remember is that when putin met with trump in germany in 2017, they were alone, only with a translator, with an interpreter and trump took the interpreter's notes from that conversation. they haven't been seen since. it's very interesting th

matt, putin is all over this. when nancy pelosi says all roads lead to putin, that's not just a political statement. literally, if you look at all of these issues, vladimir putin is the winner in each case. >> that's right. and even with your very lengthy list you just went through, you left out one from just yesterday. it got lost in mick mulvaney's press conference because of everything else he did but he mentioned the fact that they may invite vladimir putin to join the g-7. >> i mentioned that at the end. >> that's right. he was kicked out because of the invasion and subsequent ann annexation of the crimean peninsula. people have always asked why is it the president seeks such favor with vladimir putin, why is it he constantly makes excuses for him. it was one of the questions we hoped would be answered by the mueller report, it really wasn't. i think it's a couple of things, one, he has admiration for strong men who can run their governments the way they want to without interference from political opposition

putin. russian and turkish troops will take joint control over a vast swath of formerly kurdish-held territory in southern syria in a move that cements the rapid russian influence in syria at the expense of its u.s. and kurdish former allies. >> nicolle, the key thing, goes with what frank mentioned and what we've seen all along, whether it's domestic policy on simple things like guns, the environment, wall, immigration, all the way to international policy, donald trump is the most influenced by the last person he talked to. he can't be trusted. that's the issue. so whether or not putin got to him, orban got to him, erdogan got to him, whoever gets in his ear last seems to be the opinion he goes forward with. makes it difficult for troops on the ground, national security agencies to know what to do because you can't trust this guy. here's the other dangerous thing with this report, these two souring him on ukraine. we also have to remember plenty of times this president has attempted to have

well i think the fact that it is between putin and following this mammoth discussion they really are the 2 powers in this region is now north a lot of diplomatic momentum behind this deal succeeding is a very comprehensive and detailed memorandum of understanding and dressing many issues all across this region so there really is an interest in both of these 2 men making this deal succeed because it's not only about resolving the the current military operation that turkey had launched there is also about finding a long term solution to syria this constitutional committee of bringing together all the parties to finally hammer out an agreement that will finally bring an end to this syrian civil war turkey is a key partner in that given it is the main supporter of the rebels and putin is a key backer of damascus are these 2 putin know they have to work together so this deal making it succeed is part of an wide up process but for the kurds this is the 2nd agreement that has been hammered out between the powers of the world without the kurds being at the table last week you had the america

but there is no way he got an optimal deal with putin because putin saw that at this moment, this critical moment for zelensky, the united states was pulling away. >> senator chris murphy of connecticut, thank you for your time this evening. i really appreciate it. >> thanks, rachel. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ you name it. the ford f-150 will tow up to 13,200 pounds of it. ♪ >>> programming notes, programming notes, plural. first thing i'm very excited to tell you about is that former democratic presidential nominee, former secretary of state, former senator, former first lady hillary clinton is going to be here tomorrow, here live in studio for the interview. i am very much looking forward to this conversation. it is always interesting to talk with secretary clinton. at this moment there is almost nobody i would rather speak with since the house opened impeachment proceedings into president trump over what he has done with ukraine to try to enlist them basically in helping his re-election effort against the democrats in 2020. hillary clinton has been pretty outspo

this was not some lighthearted moment with putin. putin is no prankster. that's not his reputation. what we were watching was the response of a trained veteran kgb officer to a question that made him very uncomfortable. he chose to respond with humor in part because of his discomfort with it but also, brian, because if he chose to do an outright denial -- no, russia has no intention of interfering with the 2020 election -- he wouldn't leave open the possibility that he might. and that is to sow further doubt and discord in the outcome of the 2020 election. he'll never come out and say, we won't do it because he wants us to think that he might and that he has if we don't like the outcome of the 2020 election. >> carol leonnig, the president travels to florida to an event, a medicare event at the massive senior complex called the villages. i'm tempted to ask what could go wrong, but certainly he has every ability to give us a new lead story by tomorrow night. >> i'm sure it will start tomorrow sometime after 6:30 a.m. with a tweet. i hope it doesn't involve the word "b.s.," but i imag

when putin wakes up every morning, it's like christmas. it's the gift that keeps on giving since 2016 when he influenced the elections to get trump elected. that's not just here in the united states. he's been doing it in great britain where you have the brexit thing. this has been a wonderful period. he has to sit back and go, wow, i've got to do more of this, because the past 3 1/2 years has been really, really good. if he keeps it up, it's going to be continuing to look good for him over the next coming years. >> putin has never been more popular, juliette, putin was parroting president trump's unproven claims. listen. >> translator: they began with this impeachment proceeding and they always recall nixon. nixon's team was wiretapping. this was a completely different situation. trump was wiretapped, some anonymous special service staffer leaked this information and based on what we know from the call, there was nothing wrong there. trump asked his colleague to investigate possible corruption schemes of previous administrations. >> wow.

so turkey's present one is due to meet his russian counterpart vladimir putin in the black sea resort of sochi later today and a lot hinges on that meeting russia is syria's main military backer and its troops are in the region that turkey has vowed to take or to help sort this out let's cross over to foreign policy expert mcalpin friesen he joins us from jerusalem good morning to you germany's defense minister has proposed an internationally controlled security zone in syria along the border with turkey is that something that russian turkey would welcome. i think russia and turkey have to 1st decide who has the bigger dream coming true and who's in a spot that they didn't expect to be in and since they're in the new position there's a lot of detail to be working out the behind closed doors meeting is fascinating and to be in that meeting would be an amazing opportunity much like the phone call between era one and president trump which seems to have whatever the content was which is not known has turned the entire region on its head but now putin clearly is the strong man of the regio

turkish president rate chip air to one needed a favor from russian president putin. turkey a nato partner found itself asking its old bold russia for permission to intervene militarily in northern syria. the images make plain the new balance of power in the region blatta mir putin's russia is now the dominant peacekeeper in syria the agreement between putin and gives a boost to syrian president bashar assad through him putin can secure his position in the region and return assad's getting nearly one 3rd of his territory back while the station's troops along the turkish border in the north. after withdrawing its forces the united states has virtually no part left to play is the u.s. fading to a regional power while russia returns as a. world power. was looked out already let's just talk a little bit more about vladimir putin the report suggests that he's the know the dominant player in the region i think that's what you said earlier if he is the dominant player in the region is that a good thing or about think it's a terrible thing of course i mean for one thing he do

we all know putin is a big fan of trump and trump is a big fan of putin. get themd to readmitted to the g7 just a couple months ago. the connection between the two of them to me seems to be deutsche bank. i don't have any proof but putin is one of the richest men in the world. they say he is worth $200 billion. i don't if that's true or not but that's what i've heard. i don't see how we could make that kind of money being the president of a country that has an economy no bigger than california. i think there's something crooked going on there. and trump on the other hand, over here on the side of the ocean, he is wealthy, too, and i really believe there's some connection between them and deutsche bank and maybe some money laundering going on. like i say i can't prove it but that's just a feeling i've always had because they are such big fans of each of the everything trump does in some way or another and if it's russia. >> guest: john, first of all i love hot springs, and i served with your former member of congress mike ross. we're both elected in 2000. h

that's what putin is doing. the notion that putin may have teamed up with the hungarian leader to present a common theme and narrative is particularly disturbing from a counterintelligence perspective. a leader who only hears what he wants to hear is no longer a leader, andrea. he becomes a follower of anyone clever enough to feed him the narrative they want to feed him. >> and here is another example, right from that cabinet meeting yesterday with the president, proving your point about how he relates to totalitarian leaders. this is president trump about north korea. >> north korea, i like kim, he likes me, we get along. i respect him, he respects me. we could end up in a war. president obama told me that. he said the biggest problem, i don't know how to solve it. i said, did you ever call him? no. actually he tried 11 times. but the man on the other side, the gentleman on the other side, did not take his call. >> the gentleman on the other side. first of all, according to ben rhodes, susan rice, the deputy na

putin. and he is playing a different game. he and other, i think, foreign leaders try to manipulate the president through a vary of different ways by feeding him information and flattering him as we saw in the transcript of the phone call, by doing other things to appease him to make him do their bidding in some way, shape or form and i think in this -- this may be an instance where he is just fallen for it and accepted what they've told him for whatever reason and that is influenced u.s. policy so they're having an outside influence on u.s. national security and foreign policy than they should have. >> and the report said neither of the leaders, neither putin nor hungary specifically encouraged the damaging information about candidate joe biden nor did they describe explicit in in a election conspiracy but trying to do was try to weaken u.s./ukraine relations. >> and they don't have to say anything like that explicitly because president trump can be nudged in these situations as jim was saying. right now you have the ukrainia

she's a critic of vladimir putin. she's someone who is known not to agree with president trump on russia. what do you think she might be able to add to the committee's understanding? >> she could add a tremendous amount, lawrence. everybody who works in the national security committee wonders why she was working there in the first place. she's not the person you would expect to go along where trump makes himself the junior partner to vladimir putin. she's been at the nexus of the contacts she had. she may not have been in the room but had access to call transcripts and keep in mind this ukraine story is intertwined with the russia story in part because russia invaded ukraine but also remember, it's not just that trump was asking ukraine to investigate the biden family, he was also asking ukraine to investigate this kind of crazy right wing conspiracy theory that russia did not intervene in the 2016 election, that it was actual and so fiona hill would know a lot about what donald trump said to vladimir conspiracy wheth

decided to abandon it and russia says that now it's not going to putin said that russia is not going to stand aside idly and watch the u.s. while it works on developing its own intermediate range missiles and russia will be working on its own projects to. the pentagon has said it's going to place its newly tested missile in asia they are currently negotiating with japan and south korea it's clear. the number one target is but we're not happy about that is it can reach russian territory we will work on creating such intermediate range missiles to now that the americans have them stated that we're not going to deploy such missiles globally in places where the americans don't have any. reply to that statement strangely only silence i think the us deliberately doesn't reply and their allies cannot say anything without them because in this sense their sovereignty is severely limited so maybe they do have an opinion on the matter but they just don't voice it was all of that concerns us is staying with the us putin also shared his thoughts on nato drills of course the us recently announced

has new leverage. >> putin comes out of this very well. whatever happens with trump in this impeachment inquiry, putin is coming out great in part because trump cut the legs out from this new ukrainian president. russia did invade ukraine, they took crimea for themselves, they're opening the eastern part of the country. it's amazing it hasn't been front page news in this country, but it is absolutely an effort to resolve the russian invasion of ukraine on putin's terms. the only reason ukraine is in a position to have to do that is because trump has cut this guy's legs out from under him. we're focused on the call because that's what trump is going to be impeached for, him admitting on the south lawn today, yes, i asked them to go after biden for me. but the thing that trump did out in the open with reporters after that call is he said, yeah, i think zelensky is going to do a deal with putin, then he can come here to the white house. he's making ukraine capitulate to russia. russia with ukraine, you're getting back to the soviet union. >>

not putin at least. i mean, one of my colleagues today said, andrea, at some point in the way the pattern of trump, i didn't do that. yeah, i did. at some point, he's going to say of course i worked with the russians. because you know what? putin and i are going to bring peace. like we're probably not six months away from that. >> to the point about the politics is i ended the endless wars and, yes, that is a very -- >> he just created an endless war. >> exactly. >> well, no because isis -- no. no. absolutely. >> do these things ever work out that way? >> no. >> he said yesterday we're getting out of the middle east. we are out of the middle east. how is that possible? this is the united states of america. >> i got the prime minister of israel on line one. >> well, that's where he's landing right now. >> it's almost like he doesn't understand the united states after world war ii, we created the world order. we were the ones designing the rules. >> and he thinks we were suckers all the way along the line

it is certainly a pitch putin makes. there is very few alternatives to putin now with the united states visibly retreating. host: how does iran have a role in this? guest: the iranians support the syrian president and are fighting with the russians to help him assert as much control as possible, but the russians are using that to build up their military infrastructure in light syria for a couple reasons. they intend to use syria to threaten the state of israel, creating the potential that israel will have to fight on two fronts -- fronts. iran has a wider objective to build a hegemonic and security project across the middle east. they seek to link up there infrastructure in syria with iraq for access that can extend iranian power throughout the region, to threaten israel and compete with the united states. host: explain the religious tribal factions within all of this. guest: the complication with the religious aspect is the jihadist movement which includes isis, a fundamentalist extreme form of sunni islam, the reason w

policy would indicate, putin is not somebody who typically u.s. president's advisers want him seeking information from. we don't know that it played any role in terms of seeking the probe. there's no indication that biden came up in those conversations, but could it have added to the weight in the president's mind against having a meeting that some aides wanted him to have, others did not? sure, certainly. >> and by the way, part of why we don't know what happened in these meetings, at least the may one with prime minister orban of hungary is because there were no note takers. >> this has been an issue repeatedly with this white house where the president has tried to keep note takers out of certain meetings, and they did it because of leaks early on about these foreign leader interactions, but it's going to limit the availability of the information. >> and the other character involved in these meetings is john bolton, the former national security adviser. just ten days before a key meeting on ukraine president trump met over the objections of his

>>caller: i want to ask about the connection of putin and donald trump they are fans of each other but the connection between the two i don't have proof but putin is one of the richest men in the world and he's worth $2 billion i don't see how he can make that kind of money being the president of a country that has a - - an economy no bigger than california i think there's something crooked going on ehere trump on this side of the ocean i really believe there is a connection with deutsche bank and maybe some money-laundering for go i cannot prove it but that's a feeling i've always had because they're such big plans. >> first of all i love hot springs and i serve there with your former member of congress in 2000 he was a good member of congress on your question one of the concerns that every american should have is the policies of the trump administration and the behavior of the trump administration wittingly empowered vladimir putin so in 2016 donald trump won the electoral college vote hillary clinton won the popular vote but vladimir putin won the election now take a look at what's

julia, at a panel that putin gave his thoughts. parenting president trump's unproven claim. listen. >> translator: they began with this impeachment proceeding and they always recall nixon. nixon's team was wire tapping, listening to their rivals, but this is a completely different situation. some anonymous service staffer leaked the information. trump asked his colleague to investigate. >> wow. first of all, julia, that is shocking, right? first of all, the president was not wire tapped. putin is helping to spread the president's conspiracy theories. what must our allies be thinking at this audience. one is clearly trump which is i am going to parrot what you're saying either because i own you or because you owe me. this is the question of why they have such a relationship. the second is ukraine. putin is mimicking what trump said that it wasn't a quid pro quo. ukraine clearly saw it that way and third is our allies. we talk about our enemies all the time. if i'm the prime minister of an ally nation right now and i'm looking at wha

northern syria that's what turkish president rajapaksa to juan and his brush and counterpart vladimir putin have been discussing their meeting comes as turkey presents to resume a military offensive against kurdish forces in syria. also coming up the end failing of a new emperor and snaggle he to formally ascends the chrysanthemum throw the world's oldest hereditary monarchy to. canada prime minister wins a 2nd term justin trudeau as liberal party comes out ahead but just barely and he'll now have to form a minority government. i'm sumi so much going to thank you for joining us we start with a meeting that could decide the fate of serious kurds turkish president. has been holding talks with russian president vladimir putin in the black sea resort of sochi topping their agenda is the future of northern syria after the withdrawal of u.s. troops from the area turkey launched an offensive to clear it of kurdish militias and carve out a so-called safe zone the kurds who were backed by the u.s. then turn to the army of syrian president bashar al assad and his main ally russia for help everyone an

, president putin would look good, hallie. so we made news on a number of front. i don't know if you remember, back at the g-20 in germany you and i both tried to get a question to president putin a few years ago. i think i managed to get about 30 questions to him. so you've got a bit of catching up to do. >> you're varsity, i know where i stand. thank you, great work out there in moscow. i appreciate i. thank you, that's really interesting stuff. i want to bring in our national security and diplomatic experts. served as ambassador to russia under president bush and john mclaughlin also served in the bush 43 administration as cia acting director. also on set, former white house senior director for national security and economic policy in the obama administration, and was also a former state department senior adviser. we have brought you on because you are all experts in your fields here. and what we're talking about, ambassador, i want to start with you. voi vladimir putin defending president trump in his whistle-blower compla

. >> what is putin's end game here? is it simply to keep a foothold in the middle east so he has a role, too? or is there something more he wants out of this? >> reporter: there is a lot more he's getting out of this. small conflicts matter a great deal in world history. what happened here is the united states' credibility was on the line. for the last five years, u.s. troops have been working with kurdish allies here in northern syria. they came here with the mission to fight isis and they did. they defeated the caliphate. they locked up tens of thousands of isis supporters and made this bond with the kurdish people. it was the best ally they had in the entire middle east. russia hated this. russia did not like that the united states had such a powerful presence here, was never a large presence. these were special, elite u.s. troops in very small numbers who were working with the curds against isis. russia hated it. turkey hated it. the syrian government hated it. with the u.s. presence the kurds were able to carve out

well putin have divided up his territory which is around 450 kilometers long and 30 kilometer so deep turkey will consolidate its military territorial gains in its operation around 120 kilometers but the rest of the territory will now fall under the control of the syrian regime forces and russian forces who will now guarantee the security of turkey's border with these patrols between turkey and russia that will follow the removal of the syrian kurdish forces but going for the security of this region will now in his throat matter has been agreed between putin and. then we'll have to look to damascus for future security arrangements and this will take it some point to open up negotiate a diplomatic relations which syria which it cut at the start the civil war so this is a very important success for putin as he's been working hard to bring russia bring turkey and syria together during it does raise the question what about the kurds and the syrians are they on board with this. well there's been no official reaction from the syrian kurdish militia. but it does seem that under this deal tha

putin increasingly working together because there is a realisation that they have to work together to bring an end to this syrian civil war which is in all of their interests now this deal is another part of this process that was a potential flashpoint of turkish forces could ultimately get into a shooting war with the syrian regime forces further instability in syria but that deal this present deal does seem to have ended that threat it is part of a process of restoring stability to this area the fact that they now that the kurds are now beholden to withdraw from the from the border will be a key part of turkey's objectives in this operation and we will now see turkey russian forces on the ground in forcing a buffer zone as part of that process again bringing the 2 countries closer together but beyond that this cooperation is also working towards bringing an end to the civil war this is part of a long process and this agreement on the lines that these 2 countries have to work together to bring an end to the war and this process is seen as an important step in that process the preside

we've got one of these pro-putin oligarchs who financed paul manafort's pro-putin work in ukraine. he's now hired these pro-trump lawyers. they, in turn, hired new help. they hired at least one of these guys who were supposedly helping with the dmytro firtash criminal case, whose activities were reportedly being financed by firtash. supposedly arranging meetings for rudy giuliani all over ukraine as giuliani pushed this scheme to invent this plotline of allegations to use against the democrats and try to exonerate russia, what, to try to spring paul manafort, too? everybody involved here looks like they're potentially in criminal trouble. dmytro firtash, oligarch guy, facing extradition to this country to face charges in a huge corruption case. rudy giuliani, the president's lawyer, is a person of interest in at least two federal investigations. giuliani's guys who apparently were also firtash's guys, they were arraigned in federal court today. one of them was represented by paul manafort's lawyer. that was igor. the other one, lev, pulled the world's most amazing rabbit out of the

well it's only 3 hours now until the deadline of the cease fire expires and both president putin and president are the one are still in talks here in the residency of president putin put him in sort cheat we had expected them to come out and give a statement about what the result of these talks are hours ago already but we are approaching this that line now pretty rapidly raising speculation if that might be the moment that they're going to announce something president putin of course is now considered a major. power broker i have to say in syria after the united states has pulled out and that's of course the reason the president travels to starchy today president putin has a very big trees plan in mind that's what we you have been hearing from several government officials in the past couple of days he's thinking about the going back to this diana agreement which is dated back to 98 basically he wants to make a deal between ankara and the massacres which will be very challenging but based on that agreement from 1908 the syrians should make sure that the kurdish fighters at the peak a