yes, he did interfere with the presidential campaign, and he wanted trump to beat clinton. you remember, part of that question was did you instruct any of your officials to do that. he said yes he did, he said he wanted better ties with russia and so why not. all he had to do is show up for it to be a success. having a platform one-on-one with the president of the united states. it was never going to go wrong for him. but i don t even think the kremlin thought it was going to go this well. but what about mh-17, it s the anniversary today, this side of the atlantic, four-year anniversary, 498 people were shot out of the sky, an international investigation says the russian army was responsible for that.
victory. they ve faced isolation from much of the international community, particularly from the united states over their various acts of maligned activity around the world over the past couple years. but i don t think anyone really expected that they were going to get such a comprehensive pass by the president of the united states. i think that s how it would be interpreted on the russian side, that all of those misdeeds, the annexation of crimea, the shootdown of mh-17, the backing of bashar al assad, the poisoning on the streets of britain, none of that matters now. there s a line been drawn underneath it, and president trump just wants to speak with his russian counterpart about denuclearization, about various other issues, trade, and things like that. that would be music to the kremlin s ears. it s really amazing, shocking i should say. matthew, thank you. jeff zeleny, we ll get back to you. let s get more insight right now and analysis.
anticipate? what are your feelings of the outcome of the meeting with president putin? what worries a lot of europeans is the track record of trump. he makes friends from putin or someone else. they are all friends. while the true friend, europeans and canadians are subject to vicious attacks or whatever it is all the time. the theory is what will happen in helsinki at worst is trump will show and putin will get away with substance. that substance is of concern to europeans. we had violations of fundamen l fundamental. we had shooting down of mh-17. these are series issues on the table. these are serious issues on
despite the fact that he hadn t changed any of his behavior, he hadn t even apologized for his behavior for his maligned behavior from syria to the shooting down of the mh-17 and the novichok poisonings. he didn t have to change any of that behavior. more than that, he got a pass for it. he got a pass for all of the activity from the united states president. that is absolutely extraordinary. i think it s something that even vladimir putin flying back to moscow this evening and all the oligarchs in russia and all the other politicians in that country will be celebrating and chuckling and, again, toasting president trump this evening. i want to also go to cnn s nic robertson for your perspective. nic, you talked about the last time the first time these two
moment because i think it s very clear that donald trump, even private citizen donald trump, would not have been in moscow without russian authorities knowing about that. it s clearly nobody prominent in america goes to moscow without them knowing. of course. and most importantly, vladimir putin never tells the truth. he s a bald-faced liar. he lies at every opportunity. remember, he said there were no russian troops in crimea and then they were. he said there was no russian rocket that shot down mh-17. he said there was no cheating in the sochi olympics. and so you can t believe a word that comes out of vladimir putin s mouth. it s not even worth analyzing his lies because he s such a consistent and continuous liar. bill, good to talk to you. bill browder is the author of red notice, true story of high finance, murder and one man s fight for justice. up next, the role of the economy of russia played in today s trump/putin summit.