next hour. joining us, twhat s your sense, molly? in foreign affairs, is russia taking a more aggressive, more comfortable stance because of this u.s. administration s embrace of russia? are they being a little bit more forward? i think what we see from russia right now is actually very interesting, because they re pushing forward so clearly, partially to test the trump administration, partially to show they re in control of this relationship. they don t want it to be a friendly reconciliation oriented dynamic. at home it s certainly important for them to project they have this great power status, this advancing status over the trump administration. so you see them toeing the line. this is exactly the same behavior the russians exhibited all through the obama administration. essentially you have putin, who is not that much of a risk taker, he is when he thinks
that tweet you see there. but next week, the russian investigation will hit very close to home. son-in-law jared kushner will be interviewed by both the senate and the house intelligence committees next week. and his son don junior and former campaign manager manafort will be interviewed by the senate judiciary staff. we don t know when but we do know they won t testify publicly yet. this as two former intelligence chiefs just last night blasted the president over his handling of the russia investigation so far, at the ideas conference in aspen. i sometimes wonder whether what he s about is making russia great again. i think russia is an existential threat to this country. if he s fired by mr. trump or attempted to be fired by mr. trump, i really hope our members congress, our elected representatives, will stand up and say enough is enough. it s one thing for officials
should withdraw its forces from syria, saying they are illegitimately there, because they don t have the support of president assad. take a listen to that. after the country has been liberated, the presence of the foreign troops, foreign bases, on the soil of syria would be only legitimate with the consent of the syrians themselves. reporter: to be clear, the only forces that are allowed to intervene in syria would be only those sanctioned by president assad, suggesting only russia and hezbollah. strictly speaking, yes. reporter: lavrov saying america is right to be in syria as long as the fight against isis continues but not after that. clearly america s allies would not agree with that, richard. keir, thank you so much, nbc s keir simmons with that exclusive interview. we ll have more of that in the
there are great rewards, but primarily as moving into the open space left for him as there has been a change in the strategic assessment of the united states over where its interests lie. this is russia saying, no, this is ours, the middle east is ours. it s a new dynamic for sure. molly, that part, i think you re alluding to the part in this excerpt from the interview where he alludes to iran, russia, and the terrorist group hezbollah, having the sole, if you will, right to intervene in the syrian civil war after this current situation or current time frame. absolutely. this is something i ve written about a lot as have others, this idea that we can work with russia against terrorism anywhere, but specifically in syria, is completely nuts. i mean, the russian ground forces in their war in syria, for the most part it s iranian medical-ish shahs, hezbollah, hamas, other recruited terrorist
eccentric leader kim jong un. we do not believe in regime change anywhere. i hear they enthusiastic voices in the united states, including some parts of this administration, that the patience has been over, and they must do something because the threat is growing and growing, the intercontinental ballistic missile was launched. but a month ago, i think, a month and a half, maybe, secretary mattis, answering the question, bluntly stated that the use of force against north korean regime would be a disaster, humanitarian disaster in the region. reporter: tough words too for washington from sergei lavrov on syria, where there is a piece deal, of course, that was agreed by the u.s. and russia that does appear to be holding for now, at least. but sergei lavrov suggesting that at some stage, america