alluded to, it plays into a bigger stage that includes north korea. there are carrot and stick opportunities out there for maybe a two-way street in that regard. again, he did talk about the polls over centuries, really, in central europe. he did talk about what he called destabilizing activities by the russians. he did talk about ukraine. he did not say the word out loud, crimea, which would be very, very important to the residents and ukraine. that aside, erol lewis, we are minutes away from president trump meeting with the russian leader, vladimir putin. we expect that meeting to begin very, very shortly. while we wait for that, erol, he s had a big meeting with the mexican president. their first meeting as president since president trump took office. at the very end of the meeting, president trump was asked, will
what is the meddling in the election, the meddling in the french election in germany, the intimidation of european allies all about? it s about dividing the west. and i think if putin s view of the world from everything that we can try to piece together is that the west used russia s weakness in the 90s after the fall of the berlin wall to humiliate the country, and he is bringing it back, and if he can do so by dividing the west or accelerating divisions that we have anyway, then he s got to win. and so he s walking into this meeting in a pretty powerful place. the president s got to decide whether to emerge with his usual, we got along great. our relationship is going to be fine. or whether he wants to convey a sense that you heard from steve before that he really pushed back and made it clear to putin
those compounds back. we should make sure we know at the end of this meeting whether or not that was discuss zed as well. frankly, i m hoping for a read out from somebody other than the russians of what goes on in the meeting. there s the four principles, the two leaders of the country and foreign ministers translators. unless they tell us what they are talking ability, we won t know what will be discussed. i think rex tillerson will brief reporters after the meeting. that is something we will anticipate. we will get an official investigation from the united states, the trump administration after. michael, you have been looking at this and many issues for decades now. what have we learned about what can be done, how the president can work with vladimir putin. what has been successful in terms of cooperation with the russian leader? well, as you know, president bush and president obama were severely disappointed in their relationship with putin. they didn t feel like, in the
president trump, in command of the room here. when i was watching this, it seemed to be, here s a guy who knows what he s doing and what image this sends to the world. by the way, he speaks fluent german. she, angela merkel, speaks russian because as an east german, they were forced to learn russian. she doesn t like to speak it because it reminds her essentially of russia and soviet imperialism. that s why they speak german. but you re right. he s completely comfortable in this world. he also is a man very well prepared. if you ever meet putin, what is striking is how well briefed he is, completely in command of the facts he is. you have a feeling he games out these meetings well in advance. trump on the other hand is an impresario. he improvises and freelances. that will be an interesting dynamic to see how those leaders with very different negotiating styles match up. we saw president trump during
smaller groups. nic robertson in hamburg. keep an eye on the streets and those protests. president trump ready to meet with russia s leader vladimir putin in just a few minutes, later this hour, cnn has new reporting about concern within the u.s. intelligence community about stepped up efforts of russian spying here in the united states. shimon reported this story along with evan perez. what have you learned? russian spies are ramping up their intelligence gathering efforts in the u.s. according to current and former u.s. intelligence officials who say they have noticed an increase since the election. the russians have not been slowed by retaliatory efforts after it meddled in the u.s. election according to the u.s. intelligence community. officials say they ve been replenishing their ranks since the u.s. expelled 35 russian diplomats suspected of spying last december. in some cases, russian spies have tried to gain employment at places with sensitive information. the fbi would n