End of the fiscal year, we did and an analysis of what other countries were doing. And i cant remember if it was zero or near zero dollars from any European Countries for lethal aid. Youve heard the president say we give them tanks and other countries give them pillows. That is right. As vocal at the europeans are about supporting ukraine, they are really, really stingy when it coming to lethal aid. They werent helping ukraine and to this day are not. And the president did not like that. Long answer, but im still going. Those were the driving factors. Did he also mention to me that the corruption that related to the dnc server . Absolutely. No question. But that is it. And that is why we held up the money. So the demand for an investigation into the democrats was part of the reason that he ordered to withhold funding to ukraine . The look back to what happened in 2016 certainly was part of the thing that he was worried about in corruption with that nation. And that is appropriate. To w
Erdogan to actually sit down. remember, he is expected to visit the white house. mick mulvaney was asked about that, he was asked if that is still on the table and at this point in time, that plan does not seem to have been changed. so that is part of the pressure pib point. but it would be a significant announcement if there was in fact a ceasefire. abby, i know that we all have very limited information thus far. but from what the president is telling us, hundreds of lives will be saved. clearly he is hinting that they have agreed on a ceasefire. does that seem like that is what is actually, mike pence and mike pompeo hitting the sagtage. let s take you there. one week ago turkish forces crossed in to syria. earlier this week, president trump took decisive action to call on turkish forces to stand down, end the violence, to agree to negotiations.
Blockbuster annual event that is his sagtage, his spotlight. he spoke to business leaders, said please help usury store normal political dialogue, help the new u.s. administration. i think it was a reference there to sanctions because of course here in moscow, the view is normal political dialogue can t resume while sanctions are in place. and mentioned as well there was reduction in trade between the u.s. and russia, he talked about a lot of economic opportunity. russia has been looking for any clues coming out of the trump administration for that suggested lifting of sanctions trump talked about on the campaign. and it has seen the opposite. they talked about rather than lifting sanctions, talked about strengthening them. it is a painful issue in russia and something as we saw top of the president s mind. clare sebastian in moscow.