heart of a real issue here before this tiny coastal enclaf joined the nato alliance, russia tried to exert influence, even some say stage a coup in october 2016. russia lost out and joined nato all the same but still there s a real delicacy over this particular issue. foreign minister saying that they are trying to laugh this off and still feel article five applies and still feel safe but also accepting this may well have been music to russia s ears. i m matthew chance in moscow, one of the few places outside the white house where that helsinki meeting has been so highly praised. the russian foreign minister called the talks magnificent. better than super. president putin has been slightly more restrained saying that useful agreements were made. the kremlin is also grounded on critics of president trump, accusing them of sacrificing ties with russia for political gain. concerns are growing here that a
president defend his american counterpart. translator: we see that there are forces in the united states that are prepared to casually sacrifice russia, u.s. relations, to sacrifice them for their ambitions in the course of an internal political battle. reporter: internal political battle, consistently has the kremlin, russian officials, foreign ministry, always characterized the idea that there was collusion between the trump campaign and the russians or even the idea there was any kind of hacking by russia of the u.s. presidential political system, and they stuck to that line time and again. remember just to characterize how well this meeting went from a russian point of view, sergei lavrov, russian foreign minister, normally restrained in his remarks, called the talks magnificent, better than super. and that s worryingly high praise coming from a kremlin