This is John Batchelor, a conversation with Ambassador John Bolton about the conversation said to

have taken place between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin about Iran. John observes that Putin is eager to hand off Iran

to Trump in exchange for an advantage in Ukraine. Here, John explains the way that Putin sees Trump's

asking for intercession or help with Iran and the way Putin sees Ukraine. More of this tonight.

Well, I think he's playing games with ukraine i think i think this is part of

his effort to manipulate uh trump by trying to appear helpful on what he knows is a trump priority

knows that there's a tough decision here for the united states and israel whether to

take out iran's nuclear weapons program or trust that entering

yet another agreement with Iran will somehow produce a result in entering earlier agreements.

In Putin's list of priorities, Ukraine is number one, two, and three, and Iran is somewhere

down in the double digits.

So he's prepared, I think, in order by goodwill with Trump

to make some adjustments on Iran in the guise of mediation, hoping to get a freer hand with Ukraine.