syrian president bashar al assad. but as for putin, he said that while this relationship is at an all-time low, he still has hopes that things will improve. the question is, after 83 days in office right now, who deserves the blame for this relationship being at the all-time low? his administration has so far not been able to turn that relationship around. >>nd peter, let's note that a lot of journists and historians are going to quarrel th the president's depiction that in the modern era of the u.s./russian relationship is right now, today, at an all-time low. >> reporter: yeah,hyperbole. something we witnessed over the course of much of this time. not surprising he said it's never been worse than it has now. which would tee it up for improveme improvements. in the past he talked about the relationship he had to vladimir putin. today once again, he said i don't know him. so there's a lot to parse out of what he said today, but i think