points announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good evening, everyone president biden setting the stage for his face-to-face with russia s vladimir putin later this week, warning tonight the u.s. will respond if russia does not change its behavior the president with a stronger hand to play going into that meeting after cementing the fractured american bond with nato, meeting with fellow nato ministers in brussels today president biden declaring the military alliance and its core foundation of mutual defense are rock solid. as he works to nurture a relationship derided by president trump when he was in office. the president along with the rest of the world getting what may prove to be a preview of the summit. as we hear more today from president putin in an nbc news exclusive interview. but let s begin in brussels now with nbc s peter alexander. reporter: tonight less than 48 hours ahead of that high-stakes summit with russian president vladimir putin pres
putin. we will respond if russia continues its harmful activities. we will not fail to defend the trans-atlantic alliance or stand up for democratic values. it s in our mutual interests and the interests of the world to cooperate and see if we can do that. and the areas where we don t agree, make it clear where the red lines are. i have met with him. he s bright, he s tough, and i found that he is, as they say, when i used to play ball, a worthy adversary. every world leader here as a member of nato that spoke today, and most of them mentioned it, thanked me for meeting with putin now. one issue the white house says definitely will be on the table at their summit, the reason ransomware attacks in the u.s. which authorities say originated from russian hacking groups, biden said the u.s. will respond in kind if russia refuses to cooperate on the cybersecurity front. in his exclusive interview, nbc news foreign correspondent keir simmons put this question directly to putin.
make you clear the red lines are. i have met with him. it is bright, he is tough, and i found that he is a week when we used to play ball, a worthy adversary. every world leader here is a member of nato that spoke today and most of mentioned, thanked me for meeting with putin now. one issue the white house says definitely will be on the table at their summit, the recent ransomware attacks, which authorities say originated from russian-based hacking routes. but insisted that the u.s. will respond in kind, if russia refuses to cooperate on cybersecurity. in his exclusive interview, and d.c. news carrie symonds put this question directly to putin. mister president, are you waging a war against america in the cyber? there is evidence, where is proof? it is becoming farcical. we know it well. we have been accused of all kinds of things. election interference, cyberattacks, so on, so forth. not once, not one time, did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or proof.
criminal charges involving classified documents found at his home. but it is his latest indictment on the capitol attack that may lead to new court restrictions on the former president. in a court filing last night, special counsel jack smith seeks to stop defense lawyers from sharing copies of evidence with trump that is deemed sensitive. smith said he feared what the er psident would make public. writing, if trump, quoting now, were to begin suing public posting details or for example grand jury transcripts ined in discovery here, it could have a harmful, chilling effect on witnesses, or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case. end quote. and smith flagged trump s online post from yesterday, as an example, it says, if you go after me, i m coming after you. a trump spokesperson said the comment was the definition of political speech. and it had nothing to do with the case. trump in alabama yesterday, kept up his condemnation of the prosecutions again