i'm sure that when putin was told cut it out, unquote, i'm sure vladimir putin stopped all cyber activity. the fact is they are hacking every single day in other areas of our military and all kinds of different aspects of american life that they are able to penetrate. and we have no strategy, nor do we have any policy towards that and it's very disturbing. >> just to underline what you said, you're calling for a select committee, joint house and senate to investigate what exactly happened with the russian hack. you're being critical of president obama's posture towards russia. but president-elect trump seems to have a friendly postu. re towards russia, one that must upset you given the fact you've long been suspicious of president putin. when he called you to discuss general mattis, did you raise your concerns about russia to him? >> no, because it was a brief conversation and he mentioned that he was -- that general mattis was going to be his nominee. there was not a conversation. look, jake, what's happening here when we see the seizure of these ships and see the cyber attacks, when we

putin. i always knew he was very smart." >> what putin and trump expect from each other is certain kind of decency, certain kind of frankness, and no hypocrisy and political correctness. steve: by not expelling diplomats today, the kremlin was sending a new year's gift to the new man in the white house. russia wants to mend ties with trump's america and come in from the cold. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. kasia: lots of different reactions, as you would expect. laura bicker is our correspondent in the washington bureau. donald trump praising vladimir putin, but john mccain, republican senator and former presidential candidate, describes this alleged attack as an act of war. where are we? laura: donald trump might find himself increasingly isolated if he continues on this road of praising vladimir putin. what a stark contrast between the president and president-elect. 24 hours ago, barack obama was slamming russia with sanctions, saying all americans should be alarmed by its actions. tod

was president putin behind it? washington suspects he was. and last week, i got a chance to ask him myself. mr president, your country has been accused of state—sponsored hacking with the aim of influencing the result of the us presidential election. president 0bama revealed that he told you personally to "cut it out". so, what did you tell him, in response? the kremlin leader refused to tell me. dismissing all the talk of hacking as sour grapes from the democratic party. "the losing side always tries to pass the buck", he said. but president 0bama had decided there was enough evidence to merit retaliation. as well as expelling diplomats, he ordered russian government compounds in new york and maryland to be shut down. us officials believe they were being used for intelligence. washington has announced sanctions against individuals, too. including these russian nationals, wanted by the fbi for cybercrimes. but today, president putin said he would work to restore relations with america under donald trump. what putin and trump expect from eac

i don't think it was obama felt that much antagonism towards putin, but putin does feel slighted. is very sensitive to that end i think there was even a point when relations began to a bad where the obama administration decided they would ignore russia and that seemed to even irritate them more work they don't want to be ignored and they believe they are a world power and they at the center of a .-dot-- international dialogue. host: in your book you talk about dimitri, but you also talked about black pr. guest: it's a great phrase. it's really-- when people talk about fake news or post truth politics, this is part of what we're talking about and they say black pr is essentially dirt, defamation, it's the way that they attack opponents, on tv. particularly, the liberal opposition, democrats in russia are eviscerated on tv on a rig the basis. the united states, in particular, right now is take a beating russian television and it's essentially the use of information, sometimes very real information to discredit people and it's an old soviet tactic as well, but it is something that ha

putin. i always knew he was very smart." but as the president-elect determines his next move responding further to russia and the new u.s. sanctions, his advisers are calling out the obama administration for what they see as politics at play. >> we've been talking about this for a while. i think that, you know, all we heard all through the election was russia, russia, russia. whenever it came to anything donald trump said or did, it seemed. and now, you know, since the election it's this fever pitch of accusations and insinuations. >> reporter: trump transition officials are speculating the administration sanctions against russia are a distraction to undermine his win and tie his hands on russia before he becomes president. >>ly te li will tell you even t sympathetic to president obama on most issues are saying that part of the reason he did this today was to, quote, box in president-elect trump. that would be very unfortunate if that were the -- if politics were the motivating factor here. >> reporter: since the sanctions w

a very nice letter from vladimir putin. his thoughts are so correct. i hope both sides are able to live up to these thoughts, and we do not have to travel an alter knit path. quote/unquote. to me, not having to travel an alternate path was new language from donald trump in regards to vladimir putin. it was an implicit all that albeit thanking him for the gracious letter and that if things don't go well, there's an "or else"? >> yes, an to that. in some ways that makes sense. dealing with an adversary, in russia's case, a frenemy. sometimes you have a carrot but thieve stick in the background. a comment to nuclear weapons. no subtlety on those. my first reaction, this is from the guy who stopped taking intelligence briefings. no president in u.s. history, democratic or republican, has invited a nuclear arms race, whether with russia, china, whoever it might be. no one has ever done. when you do that, it up sets your allies, undermines the nonproliferation regime and if implemented would actually increase the risk of nuclear war. >> donald trump has take

putin. i always knew he was smart. mr. trump doesn't need briefings daily because they often contain the same thing back to back but he says he gets them when he needs them based on guidance from his staff. so it sounds like someone on his staff told him he needs to be briefed about election interference. there will be a lot more details about who will be briefing mr. trump over the weekend or the first part of next week. >> thank you. today's reaction from president-elect trump and president putin suggests there's no shortage of affection between the two men but their friendly back and forth comes at the same time some of mr. trump's advisers are recommending a cynical approach in dealing with russia. >> this has all of the earmarks of a ploy. i mean the way this was set up, russian foreign minister sergey lavrov is reported publicly to propose to putin that russia expel 35 diplomats. they report the recommendation of the foreign minister and then vladimir putin says no, with no, we won't do that. w

but it's a power move on putin's part. i mean, i'm intrigued though to see whether trump feels that having been kind of given something -- given a present really, given a welcome present by putin, what his next move will be. he'd been extremely critical of obama for the last several days and then issued this odd statement last night that barely mentioned the whole predicate set of events that the hacking, the expulsions and so forth. said it's time to move on. >> yeah. rick, i'm curious within the republican party, what the reaction is to that. donald trump said this twice now. we should get on with our lives he said in a statement. he said he will meet with intelligence officials to talk about what they're finding here. but he said it's time that we get on to other things. try to square with that if you could, you have john mccain and lindsey graham who do not have the let's move on attitude when it comes to russia and you have mitch mcconnell who have deference historically. how will they interact with trump on that? >>

president putin issuing a statement which included an invite to the children of american diplomats in russia to christmas and new years shows at the kremlin and then came this tweet from the kremlin's twitter account reiterating that festive sentiment that has left a lot of people scratching their heads. it's apparently from putin who "offers his new year greetings to president obama and his family, also to president-elect donald trump." let's go live now to moscow and cnn international correspondent matthew chance. matthew, how unexpected was this lack of retaliation from russia when the conventional wisdom was that there would be tit for tat? >> it was completely unexpected and we were all anticipating that there was going to be a tit for tat response. we thought there was going to be 35 american diplomats expelled just like the russian diplomats expelled from the united states. the russian foreign minister appeared looking very solemn on russian state television saying "i am recommending to the kremlin these 35 american diplomats are expect pelled sa for tat response and putin stoo

putin. i always knew he was very smart. >> look, i mean, the russians -- i thought they might overretaliate and get the u.s. ambassador out of moscow. i think what they're doing is simple. they think they can manipulate trump. they will play this game until there comes a push back point which they have not seen under president obama. why didn't he show a serious message? i find it amusing that -- the foreign ministry statement, that's russian humor. nothing else. that's a sign of profanity to president obama. they were tweeting out a photo of a duck. >> lame duck. >> the russians do -- any western diplomats or journalists, they do far worse, far more inhuman things going into their apartment and leaving gifts of every -- >> special packages. >> exactly. and read between the lines. >> it was interesting because the statement from president putin went on to a say, any diplomatic kids in moscow, we invite you to the new year's eve party at the kremlin. what is this ? >> if president obama were in his first t

but look, putin is ascendant. a little while ago, obama called russia a regional power and now a military power and we have seen over the last few years president putin really moving center stage again after a period of geostrategic decline in russia since the end of the cold war. do you feel you're losing the battle? what can you build upon in terms of creating a more open, accountable, transparent, democratic russia that is closer to the west and its values? aren't you engaged in a losing battle? >> this is the difference between the picture on the wall and the room in which you actually live. i think most russians would say that they would like to see better roads, better health care, better education in their country than we have now. rather than some kind of achievements in donbassa and syria. most regrettably, putin is asking the russian people to pay for this picture on the wall at a time when they really -- in a very real way don't have enough money for food and clothing. >> but he's very popular. >> your

obama versus putin. president obama takes vladamir putin to task in his final news conference of the year over russian interference in the u.s. election. mr. obama all but confirms putin was personally responsible. how will the u.s. retaliate? >>> strong consensus. cia director john brennan says the fbi is on the same page when it comes to russian election cyber attacks and vows the two organizations will work together on the review ordered by president obama. but do they agree on russia's motivation? >>> trump's tight rope. president obama walks a fine line in his news conference when it comes to the president-elect, saying he's offered suggestions that donald trump has listened to in his cordial conversations. but he also notes trump's continuing denial of russia's election hacking. will the war of words continue? >>> and carolina coup? an extraordinary move by north carolina's republican controlled statehouse to drastically curtail the power of the incoming democratic governor. is it a constitutional

not much happens in russia without vladimir putin. our goal continues to be to send a clear message to russia -- we can do stuff to you. >> public shaming does not work with president vladimir putin. i'm thinking specifically of aleppo and of syria and all the carnage there, much of it at the hands of russian firepower. >>> they were supposed to be brought to safety. instead, they're running for their lives once again. a convoy meant to take these east aleppo residents out of the besieged areas under fire. [ shots ] >> we're going to build safe zones. we're not having them come over. we're going to build safe zones in syria. >> good morning, everybody. welcome to saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. i'm christi paul. we're grateful for your company. >> i'm victor blackwell. good morning to you. the election is over, but president-elect donald trump is getting his supporters together for one last big rally, a stadium rally, just before christmas. >> yeah, the final stop of trump's thank you tour heads to mobile, alabama, today, this after tru

signed vladamir putin. the u.s. shut down two russian government owned compounds, one in new york where law enforcement was seen outside. and another in maryland, a 45-acre property purchased by the soviet government in 1972. today, vehicles were seen returning to the russian embassy in washington. the russians working at the compounds were spying on the u.s. >> what these individuals were doing is basically collecting intelligence. they're intelligence officers operating here and using these compounds, one in new york, one in maryland, for intelligence collection purposes. >> reporter: russia, however, refutes that the estates were being used for espionage. >> i think it's quite scandalous they chose to go after our own kids. they know those two facilities which they mentioned, they're vacation facilities or our kids. and this is christmastime. >> reporter: four of the russians sanctioned by the u.s. are part of the russian military intelligence unit, known as the gru. >> it's assigning blame to russia's military i

putin is not vengeful. there are a lot of people in the government who we re lot of people in the government who were opposed to him and openly criticised him and they are still in the government. in the same way instead of expelling 35 american diplomats and shutting down their diplomatic facilities in russia, as the american side did with the russian embassy in washington, dc, putin just russian embassy in washington, dc, putinjust said, i'm quoting, we're not going to expel anyone. i congratulate president obama and his family on the new year, and i invite the children of american diplomats to eight orthodox christmas celebration in the kremlin. it was a nice answer they didn't expect. celebration in the kremlin. it was a nice answer they didn't expectm celebration in the kremlin. it was a nice answer they didn't expect. is a very nice but in one swipe he has com pletely very nice but in one swipe he has completely undermined president obama. he's outgoing. but he's com pletely obama. he's outgoing. but

he will criticize vladimir putin if vladimir putin deserves to be criticized. give him a little bit of time. he's picking his cabinet. he wants to digest the information, and i understand the answer will be pleasing to the american public. >> thank you for coming by. >>> a break for us when we come back. good news when it comes to the u.s. economy. this is the "the 11th hour." esurance does insurance a smarter way, which saves money. like bundling home and auto coverage, which reduces red tape, which saves money. when they save, you save. that's home and auto insurance for the modern world. esurance, an allstate company. click or call. youthat's why you drink ensure. sidelined. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for the strength and energy to get back to doing... ...what you love. ensure. always be you. >>> lest we forget the season, the tree outside of the stock exchange, and tonight there are continuing signs, as we mentioned, of a strengthening economy for just the second time in a decade, the fed announced an interest rate hike to the tun

implicating vladimir putin in the hack of the e-mails. >> not much happened without vladimir putin. >> president obama said it's clear russia hacked. >> the only explanation of the results which was organized from him and lady clinton. >> deputy chairman of the russian senate's foreign affairs committee and close to the kremlin. >> you reject it? >> absolutely. it's american fairytales and fiction. very convenient explanation because in such kind of perceptions russia is a threat. kremlin is evil, all bad boys they are in main task is to make some bad things for america. >> russian media which is dominated by putin's regime and spews propaganda offered a different explanation. it was an inside job, a leak from clinton's own staff or the dnc itself and there's a sneering, mocking tone in much of the coverage here. >> there you go. that's how you prove it was the russians. >> many russians are skeptical of the state media here but even seasoned independent analysts think this scandal is more american hysteria than actual fact. >> so wild allegations. of course we don't believe them. wha

that means vladimir putin. since then, confidence has increased and we have been learning of the case. the cyber weapons that were used in the attack. the most sophisticated which would require vladimir putin to okay the use of the tools. that in addition to other intelligence and human sources leading to that conclusion today that vladimir putin ordered this attack on the u.s. democratic system. the word they are using is it continued unabated since the election on party institutions and party organizations, including but not limited to the democrats. we understand another attempted phishing attack. where you click on a link and allows malware to get on the computer. it was a failed attack on the decli clinton campaign since the first attack. they interrupted with the u.s. system whether or not they wanted donald trump to win. it was successful here and western democracies in europe and eastern europe. >> jim, thank you. the white house taking a more aggressive stance against donald trump on the russian electi

>> i agree with vladimir putin with this one and vladimir putin. this kind of moral equivalent that they did it because we had to. there had to be a response, i applaud the obama administration for response and i am happy for our diplomats that they don't have to leave moscow. do you see president putin's refusal to engage of an admission that russia did cross the leine. i would not go that far and although it is interesting. i have not seen everything. i am very struck by the fact that there are senior russian government officials are not going on the record to refute the case that the obama administration published yesterday. that's striking and unusual. i think he's waiting and obviously, he thinks he had concession to win from president-elect trump and he does not want to jeopardize that so he's waiting for the next administration to come and test that proposition. >> were the sanctions, did they go far enough? >> lets remember there were no different sanctions and one was in response to the interference of the president ial election ad with re

putin, i always knew he was very smart." now putin overnight said he will not expel u.s. diplomats in russia in response to these sanctions saying in a statement that he will look forward to working with the administration when they take over in january. of course this echoes similar things donald trump said throughout the campaign, he wants to work to improve relations with russia. that was a campaign promise he made. but certainly fred being put on the spot now with this conclusion from the u.s. intelligence agency that they engaged in the hacking during the election which is why there's so much pressure on donald trump right now to say more about what he thinks exactly about these sanctions besides this tweet we have only heard a short two-line sentence statement from donald trump that came in the form of a statement last night where he said it's time to move on, he says he will sit down with the intelligence community next week to hear what evidence that they have. fred? >> what more do we know about that intel briefing next week? how it may differ from the other inte

donald trump praising vladamir putin saying he always knew putin was "very smart." but what's behind putin's decision to put off retaliation for election related sanctions? . ooh boy. but, you've got hum. so you can set this. and if she drives like this, you can tell her to drive more like this. because you'll get this. you can even set boundaries for so if she should be here, but instead goes here, here, or here. you'll know. so don't worry, mom. because you put this, in here. hum by verizon. the technology designed to make your car smarter, safer and more connected. put some smarts in your car. ♪ ♪ see ya next year. this season, start a new tradition. experience the power of infiniti now, with leases starting at $319 a month. infiniti. empower the drive. anything with a screen is a tv. stream 130 live channels. plus 40,000 on demand tv shows and movies, all on the go. you can even download from your x1 dvr and watch it offline. only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. download the xfinity tv app today. >>> happening now, breaking news. very smart.

putin, which didn't work before. >> you think putin senses weakness? >> absolutely. and obama, i believe, had responsibilities to actually prevent this from happening. and unfortunately, while collecting this data, he was too soft. and too indecisive. and that's, you know, convinced putin that he could do whatever. and now, you know, we're all expecting, you know, rex tillerson to be announced as secretary of state. and you know, that will be putin's number one pick. >> because of their prior relationship? >> absolutely. you know, this is the man who has close ties directly with vladimir putin and putin's right-hand man. so put tillerson as the american top global diplomat means that, you know, trump will probably walk away from the traditional alliances and put putin in head of relations with all countries that have been working with american for decades. >> do you think donald trump, in his public statements about russia, do you think he's been sending encouraging signs to -- >> he kept rejecting, you know, any fact of russian interference throughout

putting the blame on putin. president obama is pointing the finger at the highest levels of the russian government for interfering with the u.s. election campaign. >> so why would russia want donald trump to be president? well, here's what one cybercrime expert told cnn. >> this is the first genuinely unconditionally pro russian president. has been a struggle. i considered all my options with my doctor, who recommended once-daily toujeo®. now i'm on the path to better blood sugar control. toujeo® is a long-acting insulin from the makers of lantus®. it releases slowly, providing consistent insulin levels for a full 24 hours, proven full 24-hour blood sugar control, and significant a1c reduction. and along with toujeo®, i'm eating better and moving more. toujeo® is a long-acting, man-made insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. it contains 3 times as much insulin in 1 milliliter as standard insulin. don't use toujeo® to treat diabetic ketoacidosis, during episodes of low blood sugar

and that is putin. to me, just on the basis of that very circumstantial evidence it's clear that something of this magnitude had to go to the very top. >> republican senator lindsey graham tells cnn he now plans to introduce crippling new economic sanctions aimed at putin himself. >> we're going to hit you and hit you hard. i am going to introduce sanctions that will be bipartisan that names putin as an individual, his inner circle, for not only hacking into our political systems but trying to destabilize democracy throughout the world. >> yet trump supporter and former congressman jack kingston was in moscow this week where he told businesses that trump could reconsider existing sanctions imposed on russia for its invasion of ukraine. >> sanctions, not something that the administration is going to lead with at all. the sanctions have been in place a while now. the administration could take a look and say, are the results what we were looking for? >> today the u.s. secretary of defense, ash carter descr

vladimir putin this summer in china. then it's naming and shaming in public which was done a month before the election. then you have economic sanctions. the obama administration has tried that for months for the russian action in ukraine. if that doesn't work you can raise it by attacking back really doing the same thing they did to us, right? that could be releasing embarrassing information, say the financial holdings of vladimir putin or going after critical infrastructure in russia. quote/unquote turning the lights off in moscow. this is a concern the obama administration expressed in public. that could lead to similar retaliation from russia. we know russia and other countries have access to our critical infrastructure. is that a path you want to go down? retaliation brings risk. >> since the election do u.s. officials think u.s. cyber hacking activity has continued? >> absolutely. the word they are using is it's continued unabated since the election on party institutions, party organizations including but not limit

this is not against putin. putin will not lose any popularity because of this scandal, he probably might gain a few notches. it is trump who is now ina few notches. it is trump who is now in a difficult situation, what does he do? does he brush aside the intelligence community and say, look guys, i don't like it? he is in a pickle that putin isjust watching. good to see you, thank you ray much. —— very much. a ceasefire agreed by the syrian government and opposition forces appears to be largely holding across the country on its first day. fighting is said to have stopped in much of the country, but there have been reports of some clashes. a number of rebel organisations are excluded from the truce, including the group so—called islamic state. 0ur correspondent lina sinjab spoke to us a little earlier from beirut and said the ceasefire appeared to be holding, but with a few local exceptions. it is holding nationwide but there are reports of isolated sporadic shooting, especially in the suburbs of damascus,

he will criticize vladimir putin if vladimir putin deserves to be criticized. give him a little bit of time. he's picking his cabinet. he wants to digest the information, and i understand the answer will be pleasing to the american public. >> thank you for coming by. >>> a break for us when we come back. good news when it comes to the u.s. economy. this is the "the 11th hour." . sometimes when brushing my gums bleed. no big deal. but my hygienist said, it is a big deal. go pro with crest pro health gum protection. it helps prevent gum bleeding by targeting harmful bacteria on your gums. left untreated, these symptoms could lead to more serious problems including tooth loss. gum crisis averted. zero really can be a hero.ds) get zero down, zero deposit, zero due at signing, and zero first month's payment on select volkswagen models. right now at the volkswagen sign then drive event. >>> lest we forget the season, the tree outside of the stock exchange, and tonight there are continuing signs, as we mentioned, of a strengthening economy for just the second time in

trump saying good move by putin. the russian embassy retweeted donald trump's tweet complimenting vladimir putin. what is going on behind the scenes? >> hey, steve. >> there is a lot of twitter diplomacy when they broke yesterday. they trolled the obama administration on twitter, posting the photo of a duck. there has been an interesting back and forth where first the comments that we saw were critical of the obama administration. very divicive and the foreign ministry spokes woman went on to accuse the obama administration, calling them a bunch of foreign policy losers. they said it's sad that the obama administration would try to restore the cooperation going out on this kind of note, russian agony. the boss came out and president putin came out with a statement surprising everyone. switching gears and trying to domestically the way it has been played in the media. he is portrayed as taking the high road and not the back and forth. he stuck the knife in the obama administration's chest, twisting it and throwing in

i think president putin cannot be altogether satisfied with his economy. he can't be altogether satisfied that ukraine is in fact in a situation in which either side can feel secure about the future relationship. syria, there is a ceasefire, but we don't know how long that will hold. so there are opportunities out there that i think might well be open and exploit it in this particular set of circumstances, but who knows? president trump, at least, president—elect trump has made something of a fish are wanting to surprise us all, and i specked a little bit of president putin picked that up to date in terms of his handling of the question of sanctions and retaliation. so the door is open a crack or two, and can it be developed or exploited? very much and uncertainty, but nevertheless something that could be very useful, because us and russian relations in their present state are not good for either russia or the united states. we also have republican senatorjohn mccain saying that when russia hacked democratic party e—mails, as it is claimed, this was an

heaping praise on vladimir putin. this goes against normal protocol during this transition phase, where it goes from one president to the next president elect. it'll be interesting to see how donald trump finds himself over the next few weeks, because his own party, senior leaders in his own party, believe president 0bama's actions are correct, that he's done the right thing. there will be a hearing in congress next week, led by senator john mccain, senior republican, who says he wants to listen to all of the intelligence. what does donald trump do? does he dismissed the intelligence as he has in the past, and find himself at odds with his own agency? 0r and find himself at odds with his own agency? or does he risk continuing with the sanctions and have a frosty rather than fresh start with vladimir putin? at odds with his own party. senatorjohn mccain said in a tv interview in kiev, when you attack a country, it's an act of war. the us must make russia pay the price. what pressure will donald trump be under from the

i think this is about putin have be instincts about russia -- did i say putin? i meant trump. having a body of statements about about putin. we talked last night about lindsey graham, marco rubio, who are not really in sync with donald trump's musings about putin. so i think they will use the questioning of rex tillerson to sort of probe how he as secretary of state will approach putin's russia. will he ask for an accounting of the allegations about hacking? will he try to get list boss, donald trump, whole be president trump i guess in 36 days. closer to their view about putin and russia and about where this country should stand in terms of being more adversarial or at left tougher. >> eugene, i'm looking at your latest column. trump is assembling an antigovernment. did russia help him get here? very provocative. what do you think is going on? >> look, the backdrop is, that our intelligence community put out a statement on october 7th, before the election, it's pressing confidence that russia was through its hacking and other cyber measures trying to, at the very least, reduc

vladimir putin. last i checked there is not a lot of debate this happened at the highest levels of the russian government. >> continue to say it is not like any intelligence officials would go rogue. detailing how he faces down russian president vladimir putin over the hacking of the presidential election. president obama saying he told president putin cut it out. >> i thought the most effective way to ensure that didn't happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out and there were going to be some serious consequences if he did. and in fact we did not see further tampering of the election process. >> michelle kosinski begins coverage live from the white house on this breaking story. the president of the united states blaming vladimir putin for the russian hack. there was no question about that. >> that's right and what we've been hearing from his administration. of course it has the added weight coming directly from president obama. this entire hour and a half long press conference wa

putin congratulating trump in his annual new year's statement, and trump tweeting putin was a quote, very smart man for not retaliating against the u.s. for imposing sweeping sanctions on russia for the election hack. which included expelling about three dozen russian diplomats. so these are new pictures now from dulles international airport outside of washington, d.c. a plane which we believe will be carrying the expelled russian officials back to moscow. the officials have to leave by noon sunday. our team is covering this story from all angles. we begin with cnn's polo sandov sandoval. a spokesman for the utility company in vermont calling this an attempt to infiltrate utility systems. >> we would be dealing with a much different outcome had the power grid that's run by this utility grid been compromised. which we're told according to the company, burlington, electric did not happen. here's what we understand did happen yesterday. that utility company was told by the u.s. government, by the department of homeland security to take a closer look at their network security. they didn'

putin. is it -- is it credible that anything of this nature could have happened without him knowing? >> i'll say this, it is very credible at this point in time. without him knowing, i doubt it. >> making it really very clear. now, in moscow, we've got richard engel. richard, from all of your reporting, fascinating over the last few days, they're celebrating donald trump's election in moscow. >> oh, they are absolutely celebrating this. if you remember just before the elections, this country was putting itself on war footing. people in russia were being told they needed to brace for a potential conflict. many in this country, the official estimates by the kremlin, i'm told, were predicting hillary clinton was going to win and this country was preparing for a serious confrontation. that may have been hyperbole but that was the mood in this country. now there's an atmosphere of celebration. people here think they could have a new start with trump, that it's going to be an era of business, that

we were called putin apologists. it moved on to even accuse henry kissinger of that and then of course when trump come along, this was a great blessing to these people who are essentially neil mccarthyites. we have his allegation that the russians deliberately -- i think there is more accident and miscalculation in history that mr. roth seems to think -- to liberally on the orders of putin hacked into the democratic national committee and not only in order to -- and here the narrative gets puzzling. the original intention was simply to throw american castracy into chaos, disrepute on the american political system. and they realize they could throw the election to trump. now we have "the new york times," that used to be a newspaper we thought would protect us from these kinds of allegations, saying in an editorial that they did this, the russians did this because trump is surrounded by kremlin these. this is an extremely serious and reckless allegation that our new president is surrender by kremlin lackikies. they don

and take a very harsh view towards putin. so, since we're upon another holiday weekend, advisers say not to expect anything in particular. they've given us what is known as a lid in the journalism politics business, meaning, no news events are expected, but we've already seen, that clearly does not apply to the president-elect's tweets. so if he wishes to weigh in further, he can. he's also tweeted later tonight about criticism of how this whole story has been covered, on our network and cnn's. sort of poking the media about how we have handled this. so, what comes next? beyond that big meeting -- >> let me ask you about that. >> go ahead, ayman. >> let me ask you about that particular tweet. i i find it very interesting when he says both cnn and nbc news are being played for such fools. what specifically is he referring to in terms of how either one of these news organizations are covering it. are we too much -- i mean, what is he saying in terms of how we're covering, in terms of what's coming up out of that camp? >> well,

putin's surprise move. the russian president reacts to new u.s. sanctions saying he won't expel american diplomats just hours after the united states kicked out 35 of his. >> there will be consequences for aggressive activities from the russian government. >> the u.s. closing down two russian compounds in the u.s. but russia could still retaliate. wait and see. >>> president-elect trump says he'll review the details with intelligence officials, then adds, the country should move on. is president obama boxing him in? >> that would be very unfortunate if that were -- if politics were the motivating factor here. >> holiday havoc. a massive nor'easter blanketing new england with snow, as much as two felt expected as cities around the world prepare for new year's celebrations. new york city adding thousands of police officers, and the countdown begins to 2017. >>> but we begin today with yet another surprising twist in the diplomatic war between the u.s. and russia. just an hour ago, vladimir pu

putin became president. to 2008, then went back to being prime minister, and he's been president since then and will run for re-election as president in 2018. this is russia's post -- this is it. this is russia's post soviet leadership. it has been 25 years, but that's all you have to remember. yeltsin for a hot minute and it ended weird and now putin forever. that's it. but it's interesting. putin very clearly learned from some of yeltsin's experience. he decided that he didn't need to cook up some complicated scheme where banks got involved as auctioneers and bidders and favored rich guys got good deals in state-run business so he could get kickback cash from them, he learned from what happened to yeltsin and decided it didn't have to be nearly as complicated as that. he decided that he would cut out all the middlemen. what putin is believed to have done since he's been in power is he's just taken for himself secretly but he's just taken for himself ownership stakes, big ownership stakes in all of russia's

this is what putin thinks about trump. this is the way putin has acted towards other nationalists in europe and france and scotland. so, it makes sense that he would try to be very active in disrupting our democratic process simply because he's a hostile actor and he would take a lot of pleasure from being able to believe that he is either manipulating the american system or we think so and i don't think any of those can be denied whether or not you believe the cia's report and their intelligence or not. >> so, abby, i mean, what does it tell americans that the president-elect, trump, seems to believe putin saying, no, we didn't do anything, over the intelligence community? >> well, this goes both ways. as an addendum to what david just laid out, donald trump has also done and said and appointed people close to him who also have positive ties to putin. >> rex tillerson. >> michael flynn, his national security adviser is one of his closest advisers on broad national security issues and is in the white house. not subject to

underestimating putin. the guy is ruthless, vindictive, hates america, he's extremely capable. he'll do anything to get his way. he has a long term strategic vision. and what i worry about is that mr. trump is going to be so much on his plate that if he goes for a hasty deal with vladimir putin, it could turn into easily the equivalent of obama's iran deal. putin wants everything and he wants to give nothing. and putin is the ultimate master of the haart of the deal. the president-elect when he's inaugurated, he needs to be very very very very careful with vladimir putin. we saw today, putin dangled a little bait with how he handle the sanctions issue and president-elect fell for it. tweeting again how great put,in is. he's our enemy because he hates us and everything we stand for and he wants revenge for the collapse of the salve yoviet un >> this is a problem. nobody should underestimate russia or vladimir putin. when you think about him, kgb, that's it. he does have strategic long term vision. he does wa

>> i doubt putin would do that. i strongly oppose putin. i think he has been attempting to carry out cyber attacks against the united states. i believe he was involved with the hacking of the democratic national committee. having said that, he would have to realize any attempt to shut down power grids in the u.s. would be an act of war. when it comes to retaliation, we can do a lot more harm to the russians than they can do to us. putin would not do that, not because he's a good guy, but he's realistic enough to know the action we can take in response to that. >> burlg hill electric said it found the code after utility companies nationwide were alerted by homeland security. what more can you tell us about the homeland security warning and possible threats to other companies and their power grids? >> i really can't go beyond that for obvious reasons. having said that, we have to constantly be on our guard against the russians and against putin. but having said that, also, i really doubt that putin would plan any type of major cyber attack ag

donald trump praising vladimir putin tweeting, great move on delay by v. putin. i always knew he was very smart. trump applauding putin's remarkable move to wait for trump to make office before responding to president obama's decision to expel russian diplomats and new sanctions. this comes on the heels of a back and forth week in which trump has blasted president obama, tweeting he thought it was going to be a smooth transition, not. to trump saying it was going smoothly. >> i just want to thank everybody. >> reporter: now the president-elect and his team characterizing the current white house's showdown with russia as politically motivated. >> even those who are sympathetic to president obama on most issues are saying that part of the reason he did this today was to quote, box in president-elect trump. that would be very unfortunate if that were the, if politics were the motivating factor here. >> reporter: trump's team continuing to dismiss the u.s. intelligence assessment on russian cyber attacks. >> we've been talking about this for a while. i think that, yo

i think president putin is a cautious and savvy player. if the response is proportional he would probably find some way of ignoring it. >> and thanks terry. let's put all of that to the american diplomat whose job is to study vladimir putin for america and its allies. doug lu. the u.s. ambassador to nato joins us. part of your job is indeed to study vladimir putin. what is he up to and trying to accomplish? >> well, clearly things have changed over the last couple years. most recently the news is all about cyberattacks but over the last couple years since the illegal annexation of crimea, a sovereign piece of a neighboring country, ukraine, russia has really in many ways torn up the rule book that has guided the international system since at least world war ii dating back to the u.n. charter. russia has become more a source of instability and uncertainty, unpredictability for the nato alliance than it has over the last 20 years where we honestly tried to have a meaningful partnership with nato. >> you're meeting with the russian representa

putin has done the grand slam this year. he has become what forbes magazine described as the most powerful man on the planet for the third year running. he's now the chief actor in the middle east because america simply backed away because there was no leadership from the west to give him a contest. and so now he perhaps is stuck. i think he has wedged himself into a position of tremendous power in the region but in trouble at home. still stuck with the fact that his economy is absolutely dependent on the oil price but diverting attention from the economic problems at home by this new imperial move abroad. can i suggest one of the reasons 2017 could be a good year for putin is that the eu is in absolute disarray, isn't it? good news? i don't think he benefits because russia does need a strong european union, strong europe, for trade. le pen? why does russia back marine le pen? i don't think russia backs le pen. she has no chance of winning. why would they back a loser? all this talk of russia supporting right wing movements,

and he has sided with vladmir putin recently when vladmir putin attacked hillary clinton and the democrats, calling them sore losers. it's been a sort of shocking and major reversal for republican nominee, for anyone that covers politics in washington, to see the republican party reorient itself as a pro putin party. and so i think what's going to be very interesting after january 20th when republicans control the house and senate and the white house is how much of that fight plays out and how much of trump's pro putin views control the republican party going forward. how much pushback he gets from people like john mccain and lindsey graham and marco rubio, republicans who have very strong anti-putin instincts and do not like this reorientation of american foreign policy. so that's the fight to watch and see if trump shifts on that. >> jill, for someone who has spent so much time in russia covering the situation there. how does this change thing? everything that ryan laid out for us, the way things are changing within the republican party, does it stay that way? is that your sense after ja

>> i think that vladimir putin is no fool. i think he probably expected that trump would be doing unpredictable things. i think there's probably a percentage that he takes off these comments to bring them back to some type of normality. so he looks at that and says well, that's an opening gambit, that is mr. trump, talk about an arms race, that's an opening gambit but what we really want to do is maybe work together. that's been the hope all along. so what president putin is setting up, is he's saying the old guy, president obama, who is leaving, is the bad guy and the previous presidents, the united states which walked out of the abm treaty back in the bush days, now we can start fresh with this new president who wants to work with us. i think there's a lot of posturing, message sending, and ultimately he wants to work with trump but i don't think he totally trusts that trump can deliver. so i'm reading this as very subtle messaging. >> it's interesting, the key language from putin is restore the framework of bilateral cooper

he said he pulled putin aside at the j.d. summit in china and said cut it out and if it was this outrage, if the intel and disruption was as big as it should have been, he should have been pounding on the table and saying "putin, what in the hell are you doing hacking into our elections." >> let me push back and play devil's advocate because i sit here every night, you would have sitting here pounding on the table saying barack obama is interfering with u.s. elections and there's no evidence. where are my democrats on the panel? no? >> i think you're right and i think that is why actually we can trust the intelligence reports now because they had no incentive to make this up, indeed they thought hillary clinton was going to win, but here i think is our bigger point which is we're at a point right now in this country where the republicans are trying to decide whether to take health insurance away from 20 million people in the next three weeks. we have confirmation hearings around somebody who rolling back environmental issues.