with and strengthen with as it was fending off russian-backed separatists in the east. >> according to your reporting, the efforts by putin and orban were actually anticipated by national security officials. i mean how did it go from, you know, folks in the trump white house, the national security team, you know, being concerned that putin and orban were going to be whispering in the president's ear about this to the point where they actually -- that actually happened? >> that's right. there was a very contentious decision over whether or not to invite viktor orban to washington to have a meeting with president trump. this is something that gives a lot of credibility to leaders and a lot of u.s. officials saw the hungarian prime minister as someone who was part of a sort of right-wing populist movement in europe that is sort of antithetical to some western values, not helpful towards the fight to support ukraine against russia, that's for sure. and they opposed that position,