Page 19 - Client State News Today

Syria for a very long time. this is their principle client state in the arab world. its been collapsing. hes trying to prop it up. i think thats hardly someone whos in a strong position. >> reporter: now this all comes two days after president putin and president obama met at the u.n. we know that the two leaders clashed over the issue of sir gentleman but they did talk about the possibility of some type of coordination with the two nations launching air strikes. when you talk about that clash t...

Say which targets they were aiming at and which targets were immediately hit. >> are you taking putins word that he is only going after the isis? >> well, the department of the military will take a look at the activities of the russian mi military, and have a statement on that in the days ahead, but the question does warrant something that deserves mentioning here at the outset which is that we are seeing the russian russians ramp up their support for president assad, and it is clear for some ti...

President to do in the days and the weeks ahead? >> i want the president to get together with a country that has a stake or influence in the country, and that is going to the include vladimir putin. and people forget that syria was a client state of the soviet union, a nd there is a naval bae there, and so i want them to get together with turkey, and jordan countries rn and yes, iraq, and that is uncomfortable, because it is an appalling regime, but they have influence in the region, and for tho...

>> i think that russia very much wants to maintain warm water ports and airfield capabilities in the eastern med. they saw that possibly being challenged by the progress on the ground of those opposing the assad regime. >> reporter: putin makes no bones about wanting to prop up bashir al assad. syria is putins only client state left in the middle east. the personal connection isnt strong, but putin needs assad. >> putin is betting on assad because he has to. he wants to look strong. he wants a s...

For years. theyve had an intelligence relationship with iraq. they announce third-degrd this o play it up. frankly, were not concerned that this represents an operational commitment of russia to engage in iraq. thats not what were seeing. were seeing them move military equipment into syria, which has been their principal client state, frankly, in the region. if you look at what the united states has done, weve taken thousands of air strikes in syria already against isil. weve taken, again, thous...

Of that. we have a lot to talk about. lets bring in white house press secretary josh earnest. >> its great to be here. what does president obama want out of this meeting with president putin? >> this is an opportunity for the two leaders to sit down. they havent actually sat down in person in quite some time. it is an opportunity for president obama to reiterate how important it is that russia not interfere with the 62-member anti-isil coalition that the united states has been leading for more...

>> reporter: what do you think of president obama? whats your evaluation of him? >> translator: i dont think im entitled to give any views regarding the president. thats up to the american people. >> reporter: do you think his activities in foreign affairs reflect a weakness? >> translator: i dont think so at all. >> and the white house, however, is pointing out russias leadership weaknesses. >> russia for years has treated syria as essentially a client state. the action were seeing from the rus...

For years syria has been a client state of russia and that es why russia has had a military presence inside syria for some time theyve work for a long time to prop up al assad. they want to make sure they can protect the investment they have inside of syria. this additional deployment of military resources is not them responding from a position of strength but from a position of weakness, concerned about the investment theyve made inside of syria. what we want to do is we want to make sure that ...

>> well said. 59% of the americans approve of the decision to normalize relations with cuba. david axelrod, senior adviser to president obama and david corn, washington bureau chief for mother jones magazine, both are msnbc political analysts. david, youre the expert on the legacy question, but in terms of the environment, a big issue with the president, marriage equality, clearly health care issues, all kinds of issues, climate this is a big one in terms of reaching out and trying to bring the ...

Change its policies. it also was a time when cuba was a client state of the soviet union, an outpost 90 miles from the american shore, so there was some justification for the policies weve had. weve tried for 53 years to change their policies by shunning them. now hes chosen engagement. and as you pointed out, most americans agree thats the way to go. >> couple ways to look at this. from the left where you come from, the progressive side of things, it seems to me that this is approaching a commu...