Thefirst episode deals with popularity of president clinton. Here is a look. The idea the state is more important than the people is not new. For us, it is a collective concept. We consider ourselves to be part of the whole. To be russian means to share the same cultural and historic identity. , he inspired the kremlins ideology. He says the elected identity comes from patriotism, projection of power, and respect for rule. Putin katzen to all three connecting russian taps into all three. It is not something additional or artificial. Breath, our organic way of life. Today, the kremlin uses the patriots and convince the population only a powerful state can protect them from enemies. Enemy number one, the u. S. They accuse the u. S. Of humiliating russia are expanding nato to russian borders and supporting revolutions in former soviet states and satellites. He advocates by fighting back against the west with asymmetric war. Dissidenty supporting movements. Much more. Exactly. We are supporting any kind of national, including russian. Doing the same thing against us. Nick schifrin joins me now. I please to welcome him i am pleased to welcome him to the program. The first part of the program is how russians see Vladimir Putin versus how americans see Vladimir Putin. Russians see it as an attack on their identity. Over the last 15 years, putin has brought relative stability to russia. Anybody old enough to remember the 1990s will remember the economic and political chaos. That is the first step. The second step is recreating russian traditions like the orthodox church, presoviet traditions, into a level of pride in shared religion and traditions. That has tapped into a collective identity that russia has long had. That means the pride russians feel, the patriotism russians feel today, yes, there is some manipulation, propaganda, and repression. But it is also a genuine perception that putin has made the country more stable, better. Brush is able to project power, and that means putins popularity is genuine. It is nostalgia. It is imperial grandeur. Some would call it imperial delusion tapping into russias imperial history. It is legitimate in the sense that you have russian traditions, russian religion, the orthodox church, and a real sense of the ability to project power. That is fundamental to the russian identity and putin brought that back. What new things is he doing to maintain that level of support which is overwhelming . It is. It is not quite 90 like it was right after crimea, but it is still city percent or 70 . Things like crimea, syria are able to convince russians that putin is strong, respected on the international stage, and can project russian power. A lot of that is propaganda. You get an echo of the points on russian tv with anchors saying putin is strong and everyone is weak. Part of it is that. But they do see that russia has a huge part to play in the middle east. Russian television, americans get a bit of that through rt. There are two parts of this. One is the Propaganda Machine in russia. It has gone through different messages and changes, but the consistency is this. We have to rally around russia, and there are lots of enemies. Right now the message is russia may not be great but the west is not great either and you should support us, you should support the government, because you need strength right now. The second part is the external focus, rt, sputnik. Rt and the most popular anchor in russia admits information is a weapon and they have aimed it at russias in these. That means trying to destabilize the west through propaganda campaigns. The propaganda campaigns went far into the United States. President trump certainly echoes some of those propaganda points. Information has been weaponize. Cyber warfare has been weaponize. It is one in the same. The russians do not see it differently. Early last year, there was a fake story about the socalled rape of a german russian girl. It was fake great the Russian Media new that it was fake. The Russian Foreign minister new it was fate but used it as a tool against german chancellor angela merkel. You have a real notion all of this combined, whether diplomacy, information, you can use all of the tools at your disposal to try to weaken your enemy. There is economic suffering in russia. I wonder how the Putin Administration fends off any negative discussion of that. This is where you see a generational divide. This is what we are seeing in the last few months. A lot of people say the 90s were worse, and maybe the economy is not so great but putin has brought stability. You have a Younger Generation saying, why are there potholes in the road if we are in crimea . Why is my life not better . That is what the lead opposition figure has tapped into. He says these people are crooks and thieves taking your money. The Younger Generation agrees. They say we are not as rich as we should be. The older generation is holding on to the notion of the russian identity. Lets talk about the opposition. Where is it and is it growing . It is growing in the sense that two thirds of the country now believes corruption is the number one problem. That is a sea change. That is not something we would have got nine months ago. He is a 41yearold prominent politician. A lot of people who are young really like him. He goes to these events and takes selfies with hundreds of people. He speaks their language. Theres probably a ceiling to his population popularity. Partly generational. Partly urban, liberal, higher educated russians will be listening to him whereas the other part of the country will be listening to propaganda in the evening. But he is growing in popularity. The kremlin takes him very seriously. He is beginning to change peoples perceptions. How much does Vladimir Putin dictate how popular you can become . An activist and author about russia has a good sense on whether putin is this massive manipulator. She says there are emanations that come from the kremlin, that come from the top. It is almost shakespearean. Much control putin has directly in everything, we dont know. We are just guessing. But the system is clearly very much a product of what he and the kremlin and his loyal lieutenants want. Right now, there are a lot of efforts to try to discredit him. One of them is president putin never mentions his name, tries not to take him seriously even though the police take him seriously and oligarchs take it seriously. The structures of the state are taking him seriously even if the president pretends he is not. Vladimir putin has been battling terrorism in his own country ever since he assumed office in 1999. I know you did some reporting on that. What is the state of what is happening now . You have a few examples of that. One is ideologically for russia, that is exactly what they want us to talk about. Bargain, whether it starts in the Southwest Corner of syria. Civilizational battle to say we need to come together. More locally, they have had to deal with local incidents in st. Petersburg recently and moscow before of terrorism. Republics, one of the on russias southern border, the insurgency is not that hot. Right next to chechnya. Buts not that violent now, theres a huge amount of police and Security Services present. A lot of what critics call brutal tactics. That has led to an exit is fighters some of these to isis. Russia is doing everything it can to make sure those people do not come back. That rightem tell us before the 2014 olympics, russian Security Services facilitated some of their travel to syria to get them out of russia. Dagestan is safer. Chechnya is safer. Whether syria and iraq are safer is another question. Where does Vladimir Putin want people in the west to believe he is on ice is now . I think it is relatively genuine when he says we are fighting a civilizational war and isis is the enemy. The technicalities in syria are another question. Inre are a lot of people this administration who say russian jets are not attacking isis. Russian jets are attacking whoever is russias enemy that day and propping up the assad regime. Overall, pressure presents itself as an enemy to isis and is trying to align itself with the u. S. On that basis. What do people in russia think about donald trump . They are disappointed. In what way . They heard a candidate who ind we will not meddle syria or elsewhere. We will not metal in other peoples backyards, whose that i love putin. He says nice things about me, i will say nice things about him. I think the bombing of syria convinced russians that trial President Trump that trump is just another republican president and there is disappointment he has not been what theeliver on candidate trump on russia tv seem to suggest which was a better bilateral relationship and that has not happened. Most russia watchers say this is one of the most tense moments between the countries in decades. Fascinating series on pbs newshour. Thank you so much. The Trump Administration grapples with north korea. There is also trouble brewing between some of americas allies half a world away. A saudi led blockade of qatar is now entering its second month. Saudi arabia, egypt, bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates have accused qatar of supporting terror groups. Qatar rejected a long list of demands that included cutting ties to the muslim brotherhood, distancing itself from iran, and closing al jazeera. Joining me now from washington is steven cook with the council on foreign relations. Good to see you. A lot of this comes down to what say is terrorism. That is hard to define, isnt it . It is hard to define. I think it is clear the qataris have coordinated and given safe haven to groups that having gauged in terrorist activity and violence around the region. It is one of the chief complaints. The saudis do not have a good track record on this issue either. It seems there is more going on than just the question of the qataris position with regard the muslim brotherhood. Say it isdis terrorism. This has been simmering for quite some time. That is absolutely right. You have to look at this crisis in a broader Historical Context in which these three countries and the ruling families of these countries do not see eye to eye on things. They tried to engineer a coup that would overthrow the current emirs father and install their own government more freely to the saudis and miraties and e be in alignment with his organization that encompasses all these gulf states in which the qataris would essentially told the saudi line. The qataris have resisted that and wanted to pursue more independent foreign policy. What is Rex Tillerson trying to do . He is trying to manage this conflict. He is working with the kuwaitis who have positioned themselves at the as the gulf mediator in the conflict. The conflict puts the United States in an awkward position. U. S. Hosts the Largest Military base in the region. It is the place from which the United States runs the campaign against the islamic state. , others are critical partners of the United States. Tillerson is looking for something in those 13 demands that the qataris have said are nonnegotiable and others have said are nonnegotiable that he can work with. My sense is they are trying to parts of those demands of the qataris can work with. Thatcan be u. S. Conditions all of the parties can agree to. Thus far, no one has been willing to budge. The qataris have said we are willing to talk about some of these things, but not until you lift the blockade. We will not negotiate under a blockade. The saudis and egyptians have said these are nonnegotiable items. You have rejected these demands. They are now void, and we will pursue other policies to isolate qatar in the region and beyond. This is a big and odd laundry list of demands. Some would seem to be nonstarters. Eight of them are complete nonstarters and the other five are nonstarters from the perspective of the qataris. Shutting down al jazeera it is something the qataris could not possibly do. Al jazeera is a source of the countrys influence not just in the region but around the world. Victimsompensation to of things, the qataris to whom . What is the evidence the other countries bring to the table to end its ties with iran . It turns out these other countries also have outside ties to iran. For all the business the qataris have done the iranians with the iranians with whom they share one of the largest domes of gas, dubai banks are also doing lots of business with the iranians. That is not to defend the qataris. That is just to point out that some of the demands from the qatari perspective are nonnegotiable and ripe with hypocrisy. Can you talk about the gcc . You mentioned iran as it relates to originally iran, iraq, and the war, and how that has developed in the gulf. The gcc was founded in the 1980s at the behest of the United States in the aftermath of the iranian revolution. This was a way in which the United States could coordinate security in the region. Most of the security coordination has been at the bilateral level. But it gave a structure for United States to work with all of these different countries. It has been a difficult group. They have not been willing to coordinate security amongst themselves until quite recently. They have preferred to work bilaterally with the United States. There was a level of coordination and a way for the United States and british and other allies to work with the gulf as a whole. , thetly, the saudis bahrainis started coordinate more on the military front. You see that in their mission in yemen which has not gone very well, but nevertheless they point to as a maturation of the gcc and willingness of some of the states to Work Together militarily. As it relates to the gulf cooperation council, how much of this dramatic announced blockade was the saudis being emboldened are the president visit from the president . If you talk to officials in the gulf, they say this is something brewing for quite some time. They decided to take the action when they did because they did not want to do it before President Trump visited saudi arabia. They felt they had to give him the opportunity to come and say may. He had to say in late but when that was over, they decided from their perspective there was an accumulation of ,hings the qataris had done that they had not adhered to a 2014 agreement concerning the muslim brotherhood, al jazeera, and other issues. Thus, it was time to take this step. Of course, they were very pleased with what President Trump said in riyadh. And they do feel they have the president s support. If you look at the readout of phone calls the president has had with the crown prince of abu dhabi who is influential in this or with the egyptian president , he does say he supports, the president supports the unity of the gulf and the resolution of this crisis. But makes it clear countering extremism and terrorism should be the first priority. That suggests to people in the president ishe more supportive of the saudi side in the conflict than the qatari side. Saudis and immigrant overestimating how much pressure the u. S. Can put given the importance of the base . I think they miscalculated. I think they believed the qataris would cave quickly and not have options. The qataris have vast resources. This is the wealthiest country on a per capita basis in the world. They have vast resources at their disposal. Airbase the fact of the which is incredibly important to the pentagon and American Military operations around the region. They have demonstrated they have some options. The turkish government moved quickly to express its support for the qataris, to indicate it believed the demands on qatar were unjust, and importantly established an average from turkey to guitar and air bridge from turkey to qatar. Iranians have taken advantage of this situation and early on flu about 500 tons of food in. It is not clear the qataris and iranians can have a strong relationships the same way the qataris and turks do, but thus far the qataris believe they can withstand the blockade and look at is as an existential threat. Early on, they said this is an effort to overthrow the qatari government and undermine the states sovereignty. Qatar wants to manage a run iran because they share Energy Reserves . That is certainly part of it. The dome of gas, qatar is the thirdlargest producer, exporter of natural gas in the world. They share this huge dome of gas with the iranians. By definition, they have to seek cooperation there. They also recognize these are very small countries on the arab side of the gulf and iran is a very large country with a long history. Rolling it back, defeating it in some way is practically impossible. Better to work with the iranians, try to find areas of cooperation. Of course, the qataris are on opposite sides from iran on a variety of issues. Qataris syria where the have coordinated and allegedly provided support for extremist groups fighting the assad regime. How much of this is the new crown prince in saudi arabia asking for a reset . Sonertainly, king salmans who recently moved up from deputy crown prince to crown activeis seeking a more saudi role in the region. You see that in yemen, saudi arabias intervention in yemen in 2015. You see it in a more assertive policy with regard to iran. And you see less deference to american wishes and interests. You saw that certainly at the end of the obama administration. Previously, saudi leaders wanted to establish consensus in the region first, work with the United States, rely on the United States. He clearly sees a leadership role for saudi arabia in the region. It strikes a lot of people that as difficult as the relationships qatar is trying to renage our right now a right now, as long as they had the u. S. Airbase, they have, no pun intended, the trump card. I think that is true. When this began a little more than