[Amanpour:] Welcome back to the program. Now some latest news into CNN's Jim Acosta about the presidential transition: we understand that Vice President-elect Mike Pence is going to be leading the Trump transition system as it goes forward right now. And the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, will be the deputy chairman of that effort. Now as angry crowds or pockets of them in the United States protest President-elect Donald Trump and what they fear could lie ahead, 5,000 miles away, Moscow sees the Trump win as an opportunity. The Kremlin says it is ready to restore full-fledged relations with the United States after years of being at loggerheads with President Obama and his administration. Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's spokesman, says that Trump's foreign policy appears phenomenally close to Putin's and even that Trump's victory speech had striking similarities to speeches by the Russian president. Many high-ranking U.S. officials are troubled by the seemingly cozy relationship between the president-elect and Putin. Few people, though, are as close to him as Peskov, who joins me now. Welcome to the program, Dmitry Peskov.
[Dmitry Peskov, Putin Spokesperson:] Yes, hello, Christiane, hi.
[Amanpour:] Hi. There's a bit of a delay; so let me ask you, because everybody is interested in the new Russia relationship. When you say that Trump's policy is phenomenally close to President Putin's and that even elements of Trump's speech mirrored some of Putin's speech, what precisely do you mean? What are you hoping for?
[Peskov:] Well, actually, there, they seem to be very pragmatic, both of them. They point out, as a main objective, to protect national interests; we've heard Mr. Trump mentioning overwhelming priority of America's national interests. And the same is being proclaimed by President Putin. He is very consistent in that, saying that Russia and Russia's peoples' prosperity and their national interests are the main objective and the main priority. But at the same time, they both expressed a readiness to develop good relationship with other countries in the world, as far as countries are ready to go. So and this is really, this is a very good, very positive coincidence, in my opinion.
[Amanpour:] Dmitry Peskov, it's absolutely a given that Donald Trump was the Kremlin's favorite candidate to the point that we've even seen a deputy in the Duma, Mr. Nikonov, who talked to me the other day, basically congratulating members of the Duma, saying, this is your victory, congratulations to you. Sergei Markov, who is, as you know, a pro-Kremlin analyst, said that he anticipates Donald Trump having much more support for the Kremlin, for the president, Putin's agenda. Is that what you are hoping?
[Peskov:] Well, I would like to remind you that President Putin did his best in order to stay neutral in this story, despite the fact that personally he was playing an overwhelming role quite unexpectedly for us in American election campaign. But nonetheless, he never he never pointed out his favorite candidate. And he was very careful, saying that Russia would welcome any choice of American people and we cannot afford interfering into America's domestic affairs. You know, again, President Putin is very consistent in that. And he is strictly against someone's interfering in our domestic affairs and he's very careful in order not to do it in the domestic affairs of countries, including the United States.
[Amanpour:] But let me
[Peskov:] So no country, including yes?
[Amanpour:] Well, I just want to follow up, because President Putin did actually say that it was in the public interest and a public service, that all these Democrat emails were released. And Sergei Markov, that analyst who I was saying, said maybe we helped a bit with WikiLeaks. So that's from your own side, giving a nod and a wink to accusations by the American intelligence community that actually Russia, in some form or fashion, was behind this. And there is motivation, as you say. You know, President Putin believes that Donald Trump's policies are more aligned with him than Hillary Clinton and had and actually tried to defend Donald Trump against criticism at the United Nations.
[Peskov:] Well, no one expects that the relationship will improve in a fortnight between Moscow and Washington. We have a very heavy burden of disagreement on our shoulders. But, nonetheless, if our two leaders I mean, the current Russia's leader, President Putin, and President-elect Trump are wise enough to have a political will to talk to each other and to try to solve problems, not by confronting each other, not by using, let's say, a language of sanctions or other illogic things, hurting both sides, then we'll really have a chance to at least to talk and to try to solve the problems being constructed. Then we'll have a whole bet list because what we have currently is a very lousy relationship, let's say, a minimum possible level of our relationship, for last decades.
[Amanpour:] Yes. Can I ask you, because you mentioned a few of these issues, you know, Donald Trump has threatened to tear up or renegotiate or get rid of certain deals that the United States made. One of them is, with Russia's help, which was the Iran nuclear deal. Do you think it was the worst deal ever, as Donald Trump says, and that it should be torn up or somehow metaphorically cast into the dustbin of negotiations? Is that what Russia would like to see?
[Peskov:] Well, Russia would like would like to be constructive anyway. And Russia is ready to take into account concerns of its partners. But, of course, we feel ourselves in a right to expect that our partners are also ready to take into account our current concerns. And we're very strict in fulfilling our international obligations. Russia is extremely careful and is a very responsible international player in that sense. But at the same time we're, we're insisting all the time that our counterparts are fulfilling their obligations. It's a very important balance and yes?
[Amanpour:] No, no, sorry; I don't mean to interrupt you. But what about Syria? Obviously, you've had a great deal of diplomacy but a great deal of acrimony with the United States over Syria. Donald Trump seems to suggest he's much more aligned with the Russian view of Syria. So what are you expecting to be the end result in Syria under a new American president?
[Peskov:] Well, I would say that Syria is a burning issue. And we cannot afford a pause of a couple of months. So we have a couple of months ahead and we'll continue to work with an acting administration in Washington. And Putin will continue to work with Mr. Obama. We cannot afford waiting for a couple of months. What we have to do now, we have to ensure that yes. We have to ensure that promises to deter terrorists from other positions will be realized into life. But after that after that, of course, what we expect on Syria is a real cooperation, not just exchange of information. This is not sufficient. And this, unfortunately, thus, we cannot be effective in combating terror there in Syria.
[Amanpour:] So you say you have these two months before the next president takes office. What is your aircraft carrier doing there? Many, many people feel that President Putin felt that there was going to be a Hillary Clinton victory, wanted to get in with the aircraft carrier and deliver a final blow to Eastern Aleppo. Is that still your plan?
[Peskov:] Well, you know, Russian air force is continuing to perform its duties in order to support activities of Syrian army against terrorists. And this operation is being continued, although in accordance with the order of Russian chief commander, President Putin, they are still holding fire. And they're not using military jets in order to bomb terrorists targets in Eastern Aleppo. But, in general, operation is going on.
[Amanpour:] Can I ask you finally, you have said and I just wanted to you confirm to me that Russian experts were in contact with some members of Trump's staff during the campaign. Just describe your contacts with the Trump campaign.
[Peskov:] Listen, Russian experts are in permanent contacts with their counterparts, with experts on Russia-U.S. relationships, with specialists in politology. It's a normal exchange of views. It's a normal exchange of visits. And then, of course, among those people, there could have been someone interconnected with the election campaign. But, again, I just want to repeat that we cannot speak about any official context or contacts orchestrated or initiated from Kremlin. We haven't had any official contacts with them.
[Amanpour:] All right. Lots more to discuss. We hope you'll join us as this transition goes ahead. Dmitry Peskov, thanks very much for joining us from New York today.
[Peskov:] Thank you, it was my pleasure, thank you, goodbye.
[Amanpour:] Thank you. And coming up, we imagine a world next without the musical mastery of Leonard Cohen, the Canadian pioneer, whose poetry, much like Bob Dylan's, changed songwriting. That's next.