some joke about, you know all the gossip about where he had been. i have to tell you, u.s. officials think that he had a really bad head cold or the flu. they say that s the information they have. there was no indication he had left russia at any point during this ten-day period. but look putin s movements obviously fairly secret not exactly publicly acknowledged. so still a lot of concern. what was he up to is there a possibility something else was going on here. were there political strains inside the kremlin that we don t know about, perhaps over the situation in ukraine, perhaps over that murder of his opponent boris nemtsov. is there something else going on. right now what the u.s. is acknowledging, they think he was sick but they do not really know if there might have been something else in play here. he is also announcing as you know new military exercises setting off alarm bells by bringing up the issue of nuclear readiness. what s going on here?
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you going to make when there s no deal and the chinese, russians and iranians say they will go ahead with the program. i will read you the quote. if iran has the ability to enrich uranium to whatever level, it s not just saudi arabia that s going to ask for that. the whole world will be open will be an open door to go that route without any inhibition. that s a pretty ominous statement. that is. i think this is a fait accompli. the iranians have a huge scientific military establishment. we are trying to contain it. we will see where we are in the 20 years. the answer is already written. iran will be nuclear. let s hope not. phil thanks very much. fran thanks to you as well. paul cruickshank, as usual. up next police deny shocking allegations they beat the man arrested for shooting two officers during the ferguson demonstrations. right at the top of the hour vladimir putin resurfaces and makes startling claims about the dangerous risk he was willing to take to seize part of
our top story, after lying low for ten days vladimir putin has surfaced but so has an ominous comment from the russian leader. in a television interview he reveals that he was ready to put russia s nuclear forces on alert over last year s crisis in crimea and today, a key part of russia s military is on full combat alert a year after he watched these war games, putin once again orders a massive military exercise this time in a very dangerous part of the world. senator angus king of the intelligence and armed services committees. he s standing by along with our correspondents and analysts. let s start with our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. putin clearly re-emerged today but what do we know about where he was, what are we saying about his ten-day absence? reporter: from the russian point of view he was just working, perhaps working at home. when vladimir putin came out today in st. petersburg he made
now. the country s northern fleet ordered into war games on the same day president putin made his first public appearance after not being seen for more than a week. and now he is revealing how close the conflict in cryimea came to a nuclear war. we re covering that with our correspondents and the state department spokeswoman. barbara starr has more. what are you picking up? reporter: maybe putin did have a head cold for the last ten days. but that s not stopping the questions about what is really going on behind kremlin walls. putin reappeared for the first time in ten days making light of his absence saying it would be boring without gossip. gossip that captured world attention not seen since cold war days when ousted soviet leaders suddenly failed to appear. did this russian leader have the