STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
This is the day of what the Kremlin calls the grand press conference. And it is. Each year, Russian President Vladimir Putin talks with about 1,400 journalists. And this goes on for hours. Today's press conference comes after U.S. intelligence agencies accused Russia of interfering in the American election, hacking emails from the Democratic National Committee. Putin has had plenty to say about that. And we're going to talk it through with Vladimir Pozner, who is a veteran Russian journalist who joins us now from Moscow. Welcome back to the program.
VLADIMIR POZNER: Thank you very much.
INSKEEP: Putin says, among other things, Democrats need to learn to lose gracefully - certainly not shy about weighing in here, is he?
POZNER: No, he's not shy about anything. I don't - Mr. Putin - shyness is not his main teacher, no.
INSKEEP: Did he acknowledge that Russia was involved in some way in the U.S. election?
POZNER: Absolutely not. In fact, he denies it totally. He says, not only did the Democrats lose the presidential election. They also lost in the Senate. They lost in the House of Representatives. And then he says, and someone thinks that we could actually influence that. He said, come on. Why don't you all grow up and just admit the fact that the reason you lost is not because of some kind of external pressure but because of your own internal problems that you were not able to identify.
INSKEEP: Which some Democrats have said, as well, in fairness. But Putin seems also to be enjoying this moment, making a number of statements that could be taken as quite provocative - for example, quote, "no one thought Trump would win except us." Are Russians brilliant election prognosticators of the United States, or did they know something?
POZNER: I think he missed something 'cause - I mean, I can't speak for all Russians, obviously - but all the Russians I know, including the journalists and the so-called politologists - not one of them ever said that they thought Trump would win. So I don't know who's the one who told him. But I certainly never met the man.
INSKEEP: (Laughter) Do you think, maybe retrospectively, Putin (laughter) says he knows how the election turned out?
POZNER: Well, I think - yes, perhaps. So does everyone else retrospectively. We all know.
INSKEEP: So would you help us understand what's going on here because we have President-elect Trump who has said that he wants better relations with Russia.
POZNER: Yeah.
INSKEEP: And he's named a secretary of state who has a long relationship with President Putin. But then, yesterday, both Putin and Trump were talking about expanding their nuclear arsenals. What's going on?
POZNER: Well, what Putin says is that it all began in 2001 when the United States backed out of the ABM Treaty, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. And Putin then said to his American counterparts, if you do that, you're forcing us to develop some kind of weapons against your anti-ballistic missile system. When we were both part of that system, it was a guarantee that we were both vulnerable. If you're going to do that kind of a system, we have to somehow counter that.
And he said today in his press conference that the American side - I guess it was Bush - said to him, you can do whatever you want. We're going to do this. So he said, yes, we've done that. And that's where the whole nuclear buildup really began. It was in 2001. And both sides feel very strongly that they need to have these weapons of mass destruction. So I don't - there's nothing really new there, I don't think.
INSKEEP: But Trump, of course, made his statement. And it does raise another question which some analysts are puzzling over here in the United States. Trump would not be the first president to seek better relations with Vladimir Putin's Russia - hasn't worked out very well. Is there a bottom line in which Russia just does not really want better relations with the United States because Russia feels it's been imposed upon around the world? It wants to climb back up again.
POZNER: Well, definitely, Russia wants to climb back up again. There's no doubt about that. Putin's said that very clearly on many, many occasions. He's also said very clearly that Russia would like to have normal work-like relations with the United States. And I think most Russians share that view.
INSKEEP: That view that they would like to get along. They would like to conduct some transactions...
POZNER: Yes.
INSKEEP: ...Conduct some business...
POZNER: Yes.
INSKEEP: ...In places like Syria, for example.
POZNER: Have normal relations with the United States. Yes.
INSKEEP: OK. Vladimir Pozner, it's always a pleasure talking with you. Thank you very much.
POZNER: My pleasure. Thanks a lot. Bye.
INSKEEP: He is a longtime Russian journalist. And he was on the phone from Moscow on this day when Vladimir Putin is holding his grand press conference. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.