in a book he wrote called from cold war to hot peace and since he was named to be the ambassador, state-run tv started denouncing him saying he had no business being an ambassador, that he was some kind of operative who was an expert in destabilizing governments and starting revolutions. and they denounced him as a really, really close friend of russian opposition leader alexei navalny. now, at this point he had met navalny precisely once. while ambassador mcfaul is a nice guy who makes fast friends, he s not that fast. as ambassador to russia, he not only continued to meet with russian opposition leaders, he continued to do so. as a sort of unbowed percentage for the u.s. government expression of free press and democracy in the united states
joining me now, michael mcfall, msnbc international affairs analyst, the awe thor of from cold war to hot peace the inside story of russia and america. i m glad to get your insights on these matters. with you being in helsinki, tell me what the expectations are ahead of this meeting. reporter: well, the expectations are very low on both sides. in russia, if you look at the russian media, all they want is a photo-op. they want it to be a happy meeting. like wise on president trump s side, they really haven t said there s any agenda. they are not trying to get anything done. they are trying to have a first formal meeting with vladimir putin. it s been said that the president overruled his advisers in making this a formal summit, the pomp and circumstance.
as long as putin is in power. we have a fundamental difference not just about this foreign policy or that foreign policy, it is about values. it is about democracy. he believes that the united states goes around the world supporting uprisings in syria, in libya and egypt and russia and ukraine. that is what he blames me of when ambassador, i was sent by obama to have a revolution against him and no amount of diplomacy and no nice meetings over a nice piece of cake will change that fundamental perception that he has of america. all right. mike mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to russia. everyone go buy his book. from cold war to hot peace. the white house said it is not embracing the words of two controversial patters but is picking them to participate in the embassy opening doing just that? that s confident. but it s not kayak confident. kayak searches hundreds of travel sites to help me plan
this afternoon a russian company indicted about special counsel robert mueller called the charges of election interference against it a, quote, sham and a quote, make-believe crime and to justify his investigation. this week marks one year since robert mueller was appointed special counsel. joining me now to talk about this and much more is michael mcfaul, the former u.s. ambassador to russia under president obama. he s out with a new book titled from cold war to hot peace , and ambassador thank you for joining us. do you think people affiliated with the trump campaign conspired with agents of the russian government to interfere with the 2016 election? well, conspired is a strong word. i don t know what that word means or definition what it means in a legal sense, but did they meet with russians to try to help their campaign, to
new today, the united nation top inspector resigning suddenly. this move comes days after the president announced the united states is pulling out of the iran deal with russian foreign minister call for the agreement to be upheld. all of this happening in the very same week vladimirpu putins sworn in for his fourth term. michael is also the author of a new book from cold war to hot peace and michael mcfall. i just love talking with great writers. i had one with john meacham and now one with you. my day is made. we keep bumping into each other. i don t want to be competing with mucheacham, that s a bad tg for me. we ll get to the book in a