russia-trump. i want to hone in on the kushner thing because there s in discrepancy, as evan reported, as to what the russian bank says the meeting was about and what the trump administration is saying, or at least what spicer is saying this meeting was about. and by the way, today when the reporter asked that question, he got very defensive. like he went from zero to 100 very quickly, spicer did. i ll tell you, a white house official, when the first meeting was disclosed, i believe that was last month, the white house official told me that spicer did not know about the meetings at the time, and this speaks to a broader problem within the administration. and the explanation for why spicer didn t know was that jared kushner did not think that this was anything out of the ordinary. the official said to me that he was meeting with 100 people throughout the time of the transition. the russian ambassador was one of them. i think the banking official was another. and to him it didn t sti
apparently it has something like a $20 billion debt. so they were clearly looking to establish a relationship with the new administration, maybe to get out from under those sanctions. we hear that it was just an inconsequential discussion. but even establishing a relationship obviously had some kind of ulterior motive on the russian side. why would someone ask a u.s. official to meet with a russian bank? is that common? well, it s not totally common but it s not out of the question for an ambassador who s supposed to be representing his country s economic interests as well as political interests to seek a meeting with a high-level visitor. but when we talk about banks and russia, this is i want you to explain to our viewer, this isn t like going to citibank or bank of america here in the united states or your local bank. there s a different relationship with some banks in russia and the russian government. yeah. this is not a retail bank. they call it a development bank. it s
this half hour. another major story we are following, an episode out of the cold war. the fbi cracked an alleged russian spy ring and one man is under arrest. two other men who were his alleged handlers have diplomatic immunity and are no longer here. brian ross has the story. reporter: it was a fitting day for the latest chapter of the cold war to unfold. a russian banker working in this new york city office building arrested in the middle of a snowstorm as a spy. in a federal indictment, prosecutors said the fbi was on to evgeny buryakov for two years as he worked for today s version of the kgb, spying on american businessmen, using code words like tickets, umbrella and hat to schedule meetings with his two handlers who were also charged. the fbi is very good at this. i would not want to run up against the fbi in an operation like this. reporter: the stuff of fiction. like the tv show the americans about a soviet spy couple living
not released back into the community at large when he got sprung from federal prison on friday, the federal prison system released him to immigration and customs authorities because as part of his plea deal, he agreed he would immediately agree that they would deport him back to russia. after serving his prison sentence. this guy who was just sprung from prison, yes, evgeny buryakov. evgeny buryakov. when the fbi busted the spy ring that he was part of a couple years ago in 2015, there were three alleged spies who were named in the criminal indictment, the indictment was brought by preet bharara s office in the southern district of new york. funny how his name keeps coming up. but evgeny buryakov was one of the three people named in this ring. he s the one they caught. they arrested him january 2015 at a supermarket in river dale,