The Putin Interviews

Oh, man.

So, uh, as to, uh...

We're gonna sit here, Mr. Putin.

I'm gonna sit here.

I will come around, and we can meet here.

We'll meet about here.

Descend from the balcony.

‐I like it better from there... ‐Okay.

'Cause it gives you some depth.

In fact, there's a bar back there if you'd like.

No, further back, further back.

Okay.

All right, ready?

Now pretend like we don't know each other.

And we're‐‐ Pretend we haven't seen each other in months.

Okay. And action.

Action.

Tell him "action" in Russian.

Okay.

Where's my AD? Come on.

Action!

He went into another meeting.

Oh, there he is.

Oh, that's very kind of you.

Here.

Thank you, Mr. President.

How have you been? It's been a long time.

‐Sugar. ‐Sugar?

Without sugar here.

Uh, it's been quite a lot of activity

the last few months.

My country, uh,

America has had an election.

Donald Trump won.

This...

This is your fourth president.

Am I right? Your fourth president.

Mr. Clinton...

Mr. Bush...

Mr. Obama, and now,

the fourth one.

What changes?

Is that your feeling, in between all the four presidents?

Yeah.

Is there any possibility, a hope of change

with Mr. Trump?

Wow. That's very Russian.

Very Dostoyevsky.

Vladimir Putin himself

directed the covert cyberattacks.

This is not just an attack against me and my campaign,

this is an attack against our country.

US intelligence believes that the cyberattack

on the e‐mail of the Democratic National Committee

was ordered by the Russian president himself, Vladimir Putin.

In early September, when I saw

when I saw President Putin in China,

I felt that the most effective way

to ensure that that didn't happen...

was to talk to him directly.

And tell him to cut it out, and there were gonna be

some serious consequences if he didn't.

The election has been heavily criticized.

And the narrative as written by the West

has now become that Russia

interfered in this election, to the benefit of Mr. Trump.

Yes. So why, why did you bother to hack the election then?

Sadly...

the American Dream...

is dead.

Donald J. Trump is calling

or a total and complete shutdown

of Muslims entering the United States,

until our country's representatives

can figure out what the hell is going on.

Build that wall! Build that wall!

But, you know, even Trump has said

the Russians hacked the election. That was a quote.

As far as hacking, I think it was Russia,

but I think we also get hacked

by other countries and other people.

If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what folks?

That's called an asset, not a liability.

Now, I don't know that I'm gonna get along

with Vladimir Putin.

I hope I do, but there's a good chance I won't.

And if I don't, do you honestly believe

that Hillary would be tougher on Putin than me?

Does anybody in this room really believe that?

Well, this all seems to me still historically enormous.

I've never seen where the two leading parties,

the intelligence agencies,

and, uh, the political leadership of NATO

believe this story that Russia hacked the election.

It's enormous. I mean...

Have you read the 25‐page report?

It details Russian cyberattacks

against not just the Democratic National Committee,

but the White House

the Joint Chiefs of Staff,

the State Department,

even American companies.

Some hacks, successful.

Others, thwarted.

And, uh, it seems, Senator McCain for example, today or yesterday,

was proposing a veto, a Senate veto,

of any lifting of sanctions from Trump, in advance.

Putin is a killer.

There is no moral equivalence

between the United States and Putin's Russia.

I repeat, there is no moral equivalent

between that butcher and thug and KGB colonel

and the United States of America, the country...

that Ronald Reagan used to call a shining city on a hill.

"Carthage must be destroyed."

Russia has been accused of enormous treachery now.

This is a major charge.

The media repeats it and repeats it,

and it seems to have entered into the lexicon in the United States.

It's just taken for granted.

You can say Russia hacked the election,

and many people say Trump is, uh,

in the Kremlin's pocket, has a debt to the Kremlin.

So you, you see where this leads to.

It makes a situation impossible, very difficult for Mr. Trump,

if indeed he intends to correct relations,

to reset relations.

Many people are frustrated, who agree

that this hacking charge is fraudulent.

Many people agree with Julian Assange,

who has a pretty solid record going back to 2006.

We can say, um, we have said, repeatedly,

uh, over the last two months,

uh, that our source, uh, is not the Russian government,

uh, and it is not state party.

Well, it seems to me that if you know their tricks, you could make

some kind of statement about cyberwarfare

and give specifics of why this was not possible,

and why there should have been a trace.

I mean, there's many different avenues you can explore.

It seems as if Russia doesn't care

about defending itself to these accusations.

They're letting them fly by and saying business as usual.

Well, is there any evidence, uh, in cyberspace

that Russia can present in its defense?

So, right now, he's waiting it out.

At the same time, you know, Mr. Trump has called, on more than one occasion,

for another massive US military buildup in both nuclear and conventional,

which makes no sense to me.

I mean, how can America spend more than it's already spending?

Do you have any hopes of a meeting, uh,

sometime in the coming months with Mr. Trump?

But how is he going to work with the intelligence agencies if the intelligence agencies

are telling him that Russia hacked the election?

It's a dead end.

If, uh, Mr. Trump called for...

wanted to declassify or see the files on Ukraine,

all the files, all the files on Syria,

and see the origins of these problems,

is there a possibility of that,

that he might change some of his thinking?

When is the next G20 meeting?

So that, theoretically, would be the first time they'd ever see each other if they did?

I gather you've had two phone calls with him?

And I gather, uh...

some of the talk may have been about terrorism?

Right. Right. I understand.

Uh... was there US interference

in the 2012 election in Russia?

We have programs both inside Russia and outside Russia.

To work with those Russian activists

who want to work with us, to try to strengthen rule of law,

to try to strengthen a free press.

We have a large number of Russian journalists

who've actually fled this, uh, fled Russia now,

who are working with us and with others in Europe,

to try to ensure there is,

um, independent Russian language news,

uh, inside‐‐ going back into the country.

We also work on lege‐‐ uh, LGBT rights

and other things inside Russia

with those who want to work with us.

Yes. Was there cyberinterference in the 2012 election?

Let's clarify it, 'cause cyberwarfare is here with us.

We've started down that road a few years ago.

We have entered into a new phase of conflict,

in which we use a cyberweapon to create physical destruction.

In the movie I did, Snowden, there's a scene‐‐

and Snowden, uh, told me this story‐‐

he's in Japan.

NSA wanted to impress the Japanese,

show them our reach.

They were not as thrilled to learn that we wanted them

to help us spy on the Japanese population.

They said it was against their laws.

Of course, we tapped the entire country anyway.

And we didn't stop there,

'cause once we owned their communications system,

we started going after the physical infrastructure.

We'd slip these little sleeper programs into power grids, dams,