Hi. Nice to meet you. - Hello, Mr. President. How are you today?
Yeah?
I'm... tired today, a little bit.
I didn't sleep well.
Yeah, but your muscles hurt.
I took a nice walk.
I took a nice walk with my wife in the park.
And I was thinking about Sochi in the fourth century BC,
what it must have been like here.
Is that your... Is that his home?
It's pretty.
Pretty, peaceful here. Do you want to talk out here?
I mean, uh, tell him I'm fine either way.
Can we start?
Should we go in that way?
- Yeah. All right. - Just, you know. Let's...
This was a rehearsal out here.
I wanted to go over the Ukraine crisis.
We've had this discussion before on my first visit, on the terrorists.
I wanted to go over it, just to be really clear,
because this is very important to the, uh...
to people who will be watching this show.
Both EU and Ukrainian officials said on Thursday,
the suspension of talks on closer ties could be revived
after the two-day meeting,
but officials said the deal was off the table for now.
From November to February 20th,
2013 into 14, there was quite a bit of protest.
I remember him vividly on television saying it was
a coup in slow motion.
It was pretty evident, transparent to the Russians.
The Ukraine to us was not... We were not paying attention.
No... Yeah.
Of course. Of course.
For weeks, this European capital has been the scene of a violent uprising.
Today, the bloodiest day yet.
The protesters are pushing up towards the government district,
armed here with Molotov cocktails,
but we saw handguns and shotguns too.
There is absolutely no doubt that snipers are working here.
I've counted ten bodies.
There are casualties on both sides.
Well, she just said that there are six dead people up there.
Not just injured, dead. They say they've been hit by snipers.
Fourteen policemen dead and 43 wounded?
During the Maidan Massacre,
did you get any intelligence of what was going on?
It's the strangest massacre
because of the number of casualties of policemen
and the civilians who were killed indicates...
And the policemen not firing back,
they were retreating and called back by Yanukovych.
During that, it seems like there was this...
A sniper force that was definitely aiming
at the policemen and the civilians to create
the chaos necessary for the takeover.
Well, who were these snipers?
Have you heard any reports about the training that was going on in other cities
of battalion, of, uh, certain Right-party Sectors?
Hardened, uh, people of the right?
Hundred-man units came to the city, I am told
in the days before the, uh, the Maidan.
It was characterized in the US press
as if Yanukovych abandoned Kiev.
Ukraine's parliament has voted for the new speaker of the assembly
to become interim president.
Oleksandr Turchynov called on lawmakers
to form an interim government by Tuesday.
These latest developments follow the dismissal
of president Viktor Yanukovych on Saturday.
I'd like to ask is, Mr. Obama during this period,
what kind of communications did you have with him?
Obviously, you didn't agree.
Are you still talking to him?
Would you say relations, uh, the dialogue is cordial?
Do they see each other visually when they talk?
Yes. May I... So this is just a trivial question,
I've always been curious. Do they call each other
Vladimir and Barack? Or do they call...
First name? That's great.
Can we talk about outside influences in this Ukraine story now?
We know the about the NGOs that were operating in Ukraine.
We know that Victoria Nuland, the undersecretary of state for Eastern Europe,
was very active supporting change in government.
Good to see you. We're here from America.
Would you like some bread? Please, take something. Please.
We've invested over five billion dollars
to assist Ukraine in these and other goals
that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic Ukraine.
We know that Senator John McCain,
visited and was seen at rallies
with extremist leaders, including some neo-Nazis.
This is about the future you want for your country.
This is about the future you deserve.
We know that America
and the National Endowment for Democracy,
which is a, uh, also a very influential pr...
A non-profit, private NGO, was very active, very active here.
Carl Gershman, who was the president of it, made very strong speeches,
uh, he wanted an independent Ukraine.
And we know that the Hungarian billionaire hedge funder,
George Soros was also very involved in supporting
the groups from here, in Ukraine.
In other words, United States can unite...
Can keep a united pro-American Europe,
and NATO, with an external enemy such as Russia.
The final assault came
amidst fire and ice,
snipers on rooftops.
The Heavenly Hundred paid the ultimate price of patriots the world over.
Their blood and courage
delivering to the Ukrainian people a second chance for freedom.
Their sacrifice...
to put it bluntly,
is now your obligation.
In hindsight, looking back,
did you make a mistake by annexing Crimea?
Because it cost you tremendously.
The sanctions, the whole East EU turns on Russia, the US.
It becomes big news, because it's... it's illegal.
It's regarded as illegal in the international post-war treaty world.
But it does raise questions on whether this vote really is free and fair,
especially given the heavy military presence in Crimea right now. Errol?
More than 95 percent voted to become part of Russia.
Officials said there was an unprecedented turnout,
with at least eight of ten eligible Crimeans having their say.
But economically, as you say, you're self-sufficient.
They're gone. Let them have their problems.
It's not gonna destroy your country.
And at one point, you told me in our last, uh, meeting that,
I asked you, I said what about the, you know, the Russian submarine base
in Crimea at Sevastopol.
He said it wasn't threatened
by the loss of the base.
Even if NATO made an agreement with Ukraine,
I still don't see the threat to Russia,
in a new... with a new, with the new weaponry.
You know, this is a pretty big place you got here.
Can you show me around?
How do they heat this place?
No, don't tell me.
Don't tell me. Don't tell me.
Do you get lonely at night, when you walk the corridors?
I know you have an office here,
because I know... It's hidden away.
I was in it once.
It was Stalin's old office.
Yeah.
Ten years of Munich speech.
He looks good.
Could've been a movie star.
February.
So today's the day you got into trouble.
You had quite an audience.
Is this where you work now?
Do you take meetings in here too?
- Sevastopol, you say? - Yes, sir.
That's why you fought for it. No.
So two desks. How does he use them?
- That's mine. - Yes. Yes.
Ah, that's great. Mm-hmm.
That's my history book, cowritten.
Yeah. Sure. Endless curiosity.
Wow. Oh, I've been here, yes.
This is where we had our first night.
It was our first night.
Remember, Dmitry? We started there.
So, three different offices.
Yep.
Last time we talked about, uh, surveillance, mass-surveillance.
I had the impression you were against it,
and you deplored the American technique.
And as our Snowden movie pointed out,
it was selected targeting, would work best on terrorists.
And since that conversation, I've been away, coming back and I...
There is a new law in Russia that I've heard that has been signed by you,
what they call... has been nicknamed the Big Brother law...
that provides for mass surveillance techniques.
I'm surprised. Snowden has condemned them here, in Russia. He's condemned them.
Right.
But, uh, why? Why are you doing this?
It seems like a dragnet on all Russian citizens.
Yes.
So, situation-type room.
This is, uh, commando raids and stuff?
What happened?
Are those real airplanes back there?
Access to submarines?
So, in conventional military terms, your budget, as you said,
the American budget is 600 billion.
Your annual budget is 66,
according to the Russian statistics.
Sixty-six. That's almost a tenth,
uh, twelve percent roughly of American spending.
The Chinese are at 215 billion, 215.
Saudi Arabia's at 87,
which leaves Russia fourth place at 66.
Is this an accurate figure?
Whoa. Saudi Arabia's spending more money than you are.
How do you do it? I mean, you have quite an army.
I mean, quite an intelligence economy.
But what's the trick? I mean, how do you...
You don't have lobbies that cost a lot of money?
You don't... No graft, no corruption in this thing?
The US makes a lot out of building up.
They keep talking about its antimissile systems.
Is there a reason to believe there's been some kind of breakthrough
in their technology?
Some kind of first-strike superiority?
But they have a, they have a plan... They're doing something.
I feel that they really are working, that they can get an advantage
in which your missile silos would be knocked out on a US first strike.
And we'd be able to absorb whatever you had left to throw at us.
But then we'd warn you
that we're going to be hitting you again with a second strike,
and that would really wipe out your cities, your population, the whole works.
In the matter of Syria, can you describe
what your objective was?
Give us a little history of that and where you are now?
Who's they? The terrorists.
This is the biggest concern?
And, uh, the roads that ISIS were using to drive
the trucks to, uh, to Turkey, the oil trucks?
Right.
And you confronted Erdogan with this information, correct?
You were hitting Turkmen areas,
and you didn't tell him, uh, why?
Could you have said in a diplomatic way,
uh, Mr. President, uh, we have information, good information
that the oil is coming into certain places in Turkey,
and we believe that there are elements in Turkey on the border,
smugglers that are cooperating with ISIS
and bringing the oil in, and we're very concerned about that?
Who from the United States was in that room?
So two times a day, tomorrow, uh, today,
you'll give information to NATO as to when the missions are in Syria.
To... Oh, really? Directly.
And you get the same information?
To prevent major catastrophes?
Yeah. This is a dangerous situation.
I know.
So they're illegal.
Any foreign troops coming to Syria
without our invitation... Mmhmm.
Or consultation or permission, they are invaders.
So we have French airplanes, we have British, uh, fighters,
we have Turkish fighters, and now we have...
Is there another one I missed?
Oh, really? Yeah, really so.
Australians? This is...
- And Canada. - Mm.
What about Iran? No Iranian air force?
So, it's pretty hot air space, I'd say.
Uh...
You're making 72 to a 100 airstrikes a day?
Seven days a week?
- Yes. Yes. - Wow.
And, uh... so there must be some progress I would think?
We're not gonna have a Vietnam-type situation here, are we?
You see progress?
It seems to me if you're striking 70 to a 120 times a day
at least two months, that's 60 days.
We're down to four to seven thousand strikes?
How big is ISIS? How big is this thing?
Who's on the ground?
But they don't have Stingers?
These people have fought you before in Afghanistan.
Yeah.
So they were surprised?
I think it'd be a good... It's an anti-recruitment poster for ISIS.
You wouldn't want to join ISIS if you saw that poster.
Let's talk about another war situation.
In the Crimean, when the referendum was coming up,
the US destroyer Donald Cook was apparently
coming right into the Black Sea
when it made a U-turn and didn't carry through its mission.
It seems like it was similar to the Cuban Missile Crisis
when the same thing happened where a ship was coming towards
the demarcation line and made a U-turn.
Rising tensions between the US and Russia after a Russian fighter jet
buzzed a US warship in the Black Sea.
ABC Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz
is tracking this all from Washington.
Martha, this maneuver by the Russian fighter carries echoes of the Cold War.
It certainly does, George. This was a Russian jet
that screamed by a US destroyer in the Black Sea,
not just once but 12 times
over a 90-minute period.
Yeah.
Bastion, was it called?
But this is a big missile.
And the destroyer, the Donald Cook has Tomahawk missiles.
That's probably why it turned around.
But your commander had the authority to fire.
Still, it's a big incident, potentially.
What time frame did all this take place? This challenge?
Was he warned? Was there a warning sent out to him?
All this thing takes place in two minutes?
Thirty minutes? Fifty minutes?
I mean, does this happen all the time?
He sounds very cool.
Were you... Were you contacted?
He admits to the brink.
Well, finally, you're admitting it.
Yeah.
Yes.
At that time, you made a speech.
"This is our historic territory. These are Russian people.
"They are in danger now.
"We can't leave them alone.
"It wasn't us who staged the coup,
"it was done by nationalists
"and people with far-right views.
"You supported them. But where do you live?
"Five thousand miles away.
"But we live here, and it is our land.
"What do you want to fight for there?
"You don't know, do you? But we do know.
And we are ready for it."
Is there any hope?
So he's an optimist.
Or Moscow will be a caliphate.
Thank you.
Well, you came close.
And now you're close again, so it seems to be
a very tense presidency you have.