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Theres no love lost between Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama. The former US president has said he doesnt trust his Russian counterpart, that he has a kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom. Meanwhile, Putin has riled Obama with his backing of Syrias Bashar al-Assad, his annexation of Crimea, and support for rebels in eastern Ukraine.

And yet, despite a near decade of discord, the two granted each other a measure of intimacy allowed to few others: calling each other Barack and Vladimir. (We contacted Obamas office to seek confirmation, and will update with any reply.) So the Russian president revealed to director Oliver Stone in The Putin Interviews, a four-hour marathon, shot between 2015 and 2017, that aired on US cable television this week. That doesnt mean the conversationswhich, Putin says, would take place on the phone without a video link are warm, however. Asked if they are cordial, Putin replied: No, theyre businesslike.

Obama seemingly isnt the only president with whom Putin is on first-name terms. At another point in the documentary he refers to George W. Bush as George, while accusing the US of supporting Chechen rebels in their war against the Russian state in the early 2000s. I think George remembers our conversation, he said, telling Stone that he had confronted Bush about it. Asked how he had felt when Bush (notoriously) told reporters he had got a sense of [Putins] soul, the Russian president said: I felt he was a person you can come to an agreement with, to work things out withor at least thats what Id hoped.

He also had words for the new American president. While denying hacking last years election, Putin said: Of course we felt kindly towards Mr Trumpand we still dobecause he publicly said he was ready to and wanted to restore Russian-American relations. He went on to compliment Trumpalbeit in a somewhat backhanded wayon his intelligent campaign: I also thought he was going too far with some of his campaign speeches but it turned out he was right, he said. He struck a chord in peoples souls and was able to play on that.

However, the Russian leader was more cautious than effusive asked whether theres any hope of change in US-Russian relations with Trump as president. There is hope until the very moment they take us to the cemetery to bury us, he said.

Reflecting on the fact that he is now dealing with his fourth US president, Putin said almost nothing changes with each new incumbent. Life brings some adjustments but everywhere, especially in the United States, we have strong bureaucracies and its bureaucracy that rules the world, he said.

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Putin and Obama are on first-name terms, according to Putin - Quartz

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Andrea Mitchell Rushes to Defend Obama's Handling of North Korea NewsBusters (press release) (blog) After the network evening newscasts downplayed or ignored the father of freed North Korea hostage Otto Warmbier criticizing the Obama administration's failure to bring his severely injured son home, on Friday's NBC Today, correspondent Andrea Mitchell ... Father of comatose student freed by North Korea slams ObamaNew York Post Obama Administration Told Warmbier Family Not To Hang Ribbons On Trees Because It Might Offend North KoreaTownhall Otto Warmbier's father lashes out at Obama: Did his administration do enough?Today.com all 304 news articles »

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Andrea Mitchell Rushes to Defend Obama's Handling of North Korea - NewsBusters (press release) (blog)

Republican hopes that the election of President Trump would open the federal government's vaults to investigators probing Obama-era scandals including Fast and Furious and the IRS have died as burrowed-in workers try to "wait out" until the president leaves office, said a top House GOP member.

In a blunt exit interview, retiring Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the outgoing chairman of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, said stonewalling by agencies is just as bad as it was during the Obama era.

"I think if we went to the senior most people, even the president himself, they would be pulling their hair out and they would hate to hear that but within the bowels of the organization, they just seem to circle the wagons and think, oh we just, we can just wait you out. We can just wait you out," he said on the upcoming Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, airing Sunday.

But Chaffetz, who surprised Washington when he announced his retirement set for June 30, also hit the president, top appointees and even congressional Republicans for refusing to play offense.

"The reality is, there aren't very many people that want to play offense. There aren't many people who say, look, we have a duty and an obligation to fulfill the oversight responsibility that was put in place at the very founding of our country," he said on the news magazine show that airs at 9:30 a.m. on Sinclair stations and also livestreams.

He also puts the blame on Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions for not helping investigators gain access to documents hidden by the Obama administration.

"The reality is, sadly, I don't see much difference between the Trump administration and the Obama administration. I thought there would be this, these floodgates would open up with all the documents we wanted from the Department of State, the Department of Justice, the Pentagon. In many ways, it's almost worse because we're getting nothing, and that's terribly frustrating. And with all due respect, the attorney general has not changed at all. I find him to be worse than what I saw with Loretta Lynch in terms of releasing documents and making things available. I, I just, that's my experience, and that's not what I expected," said the Utah lawmaker.

"There was the investigation into the IRS. And one that was more than seven years old is Fast and Furious. I mean, we have been in court trying to pry those documents out of the Department of Justice and still to this day, they will not give us those documents. And at the State Department, nothing. Stone cold silence," he said.

And worst of all, he added, the president has sat on demands from 50 Republicans to fire IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

"You have more than 50 Republicans pleading with President Trump to release him, to let him go, fire him. Or at least encourage him to retire. No, he's still there. No changes. Nobody was fired. Nobody was prosecuted. Nobody was held accountable. We tried to issue subpoenas, we tried to hold people in contempt and the Obama Administration said, no, and the Trump Administration came in and did zero. Nothing. Nothing changed," he told Attkisson.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com

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Obama era-bureaucrats 'waiting Trump out,' block IRS, Fast and Furious probes - Washington Examiner

President Trump is expected to make a speech in Miami, Fla., on June 16, 2017, to announce changes on U.S. policy toward Cuba.(Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

MIAMI When President Trump travels to this Cuban-American enclave on Friday to announce curbs on recentU.S. ties withCuba, he'llbe flanked by supporters of his moves and confronted by protesters opposed to his rollback of one of President Barack Obama'ssignature achievements.

Trump, who has assailed Obama's renewed relations with Cuba's communist government after more than 50 years of estrangement, plans to fulfill a campaign promise to those in the Cuban-American community mostly older Republicanswho wantto maintain harsh sanctions against the regime of President RalCastro. Trump is scheduled to deliver his speech with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., and other anti-Castro lawmakers who helped craft Trump'spolicy by his side.

But outside the Little Havana theater where he'llspeak, throngs of predominantly younger Cuban Americansplan to demonstrate against retrenchment fromcloser connectionswith Cuba based on the argument that improved diplomatic, business and travel ties are the best way to spur growth in Cuba's emerging private sector and pressure the government to end its repression ofpolitical freedom. They contend thatrolling back the U.S.-Cuban thaw begun by Obama and Castro in December 2014 will hurt the Cuban people more than their communist leaders.

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Trump to change Cuba policy by limiting travel and business transactions

"It's heartbreaking," said Patrick Hidalgo, a Cuban-American and former director of the White House Business Council under Obama. "We all know that Ral Castro and the leadership in Cuba will be fine. They don't worry where they're going to get breakfast, lunchand dinner. The average Cuban does, and our policy has helped them. This change will have a very direct, negative impact on their daily lives and their morale."

Trump won'tundo all U.S.-Cuban ties, ashe threatened to do while campaigning through South Florida last year. The embassies in Washington, D.C., and Havana that reopened in 2015 will remain, the two governments will continue negotiating on a variety of problemsof mutual concern and commercialU.S. flights and cruises crossing the 90 miles separating the two countries willcontinue.

Rather, advocates on both sides of the issue expect Trump to unveil more modestchanges that would limit the ability of U.S. companies to work directly with state-owned businesses in Cuba, and make sure Americans visit the long-isolated island only for specific and closely monitored purposes, not merely as tourists.

The reasonfor suchchanges, according to the Trump administration and supporters of the move, isCuba's failureto open up its political system, severties with anti-American dictators and end mistreatment of political dissidents.

"The new policy centers on the belief that the oppressed Cuban people rather than the oppressive Castro regimes military and its subsidiaries should benefit from American engagement with the island," said a Trump administration statement obtained by USA TODAY.

"Nothing has changed because of Obama's opening,"saidJaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami."Cuba remains an enemy of the United States.Cuba remains an ally of Iran, of Russia, of North Korea, of Syria."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tolda Senate panel Tuesday thathe wants to maintain the "sunny side" of the opening to Cuba, butthere also is a "dark side" tothe new relationship that the administration needs to correct.

"Political opponents continue to be imprisoned. Dissidents continue to be jailed," Tillerson said. "If we're going to sustain the sunny side of this relationship, Cuba must, absolutely must, begin to address its human rights challenges."

Read more:

Want to visit Cuba? Trump may make it harder

Sen. Marco Rubio guiding President's Trump Cuba policy to be unveiled Friday

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Some critics ofthat approach accuse Trump of hypocrisy.Marselha Margerin of Amnesty International noted that Trump recently traveled to Saudi Arabia, where helavished its leaders with praise and signed a huge military dealbut ignored their flagrant human rights abuses."It's a bit hypocritical how the U.S. government addresses human rights violations in different countries," she said.

John McCullough, president and CEO of Church World Service, saidreports from church leaders in Cuba indicate the government hasscaled back arrests of political prisoners.In the first five months of 2016, Cuba averaged 1,215 political arrests a month, according to the Havana-based Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation. Over the same time period in 2017, that average has fallen to 448 arrests a month.

"Our view is that conditions on the ground are, in fact, improving," McCullough said. Church leaders in Cuba, "feel like their voices are being heard and being respected. Increasingly, they feel like they're partners in the development of Cuba."

Trump also has caughtheat from members of his own party on Capitol Hill.Three Republican senators who support an opening with Cuba Jeff Flake of Arizona,Mike Enzi of Wyoming and John Boozman of Arkansas wrote a letter to Tillerson last week urging him to reconsider any drastic changes with the island.

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., calls himself "the absolute strongest supporter" of Trump, but he said the president will position himself on the "wrong side of history" by rolling back the opening with Cuba. Emmer lamented that Trump seems to be crafting his Cuba policy with only hardline Cuban-American legislators whispering in his ear rather than listening to the growing chorus of Americans, and Cuban-Americans, who want closer ties with their Caribbean neighbors.

"We've tried to communicate with the White House as best we can," Emmer said. "Unfortunately, I think he might be listening to a very small group of voices. Until I hear otherwise, I'm going to hold out hope that the president will listen to some rational voices."

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Trump to face protests over rollback of Obama's Cuba opening - USA TODAY

Church bells rang out and Cubans strung American flags from their windows when President Barack Obama announced in December 2014 that the U.S. would stop trying to push Cuba toward collapse.

Obama's new policy of engagement unleashed a flood of American visitors, pumping cash into Cuba's nascent private sector, even as the centrally planned economy hit its first recession in nearly a quarter century. Many Cubans did better. But most lives remained a grinding daily struggle. Jubilation faded to resignation.

President Donald Trump on Friday is expected to give America's Cuba policy its second 180-degree spin in three years during an appearance in Miami, reviving the Cold War goal of starving Cuba's communist system of cash while inciting the population to overthrow it. On the table: cutbacks on U.S. travel to Cuba and a ban on doing business with the military-linked conglomerate that controls much of the Cuban economy.

Ordinary Cubans are bracing for the worst. Across the island, people of all ages, professions and political beliefs expect rising tensions, fewer American visitors and a harder time seeing relatives in the U.S. And while some Cuban exiles in South Florida are celebrating, others question the wisdom of undoing a policy that had started showing results by increasing the number of Cubans economically independent of the government.

In 1980, some 125,000 Cubans fled the port of Mariel on boats to the U.S. in the largest single exodus of refugees in modern Cuban history. Today, the city 30 miles west of Havana is home to the county's main cargo facility, where freighters unload containers of supplies for the country's booming tourism industry.

A few miles from the gates of the port, 42-year-old Yosvani Reinoso works as a self-employed locksmith from a stand on Mariel's main square

He hasn't seen his life improve much since the U.S. and Cuba re-established friendly relations, but the restart of commercial flights after a half-century gave his wife hope she could afford to visit her 19-year-old son who emigrated to the U.S. two years ago.

Trump's looming policy change has her worried that the cheaper, more convenient flights could soon be a thing of the past.

"All of the problems between the two countries need to end so she can go to the U.S. Embassy and say, 'I want to see my son,' buy a ticket and go for the weekend," Reinoso said. "The best thing that can happen for the two countries is for all of these problems to end, for everything to be normal."

In Havana, 53-year-old hairdresser Dioslans Castillo said Obama's 2016 visit to Havana and his calls for Cubans to seize control of their economic destiny had inspired him to try to open a bar with gourmet food and cultural activities for LGBT Cubans.

"Obama incentivized entrepreneurship," Castillo said. "His visit influenced society because the people saw the so-called opening, despite it happening in slow steps compared to the rhetoric. But with Trump, it's all going to crash."

Speaking from Miami, where he was working with anti-Castro Cuban-American groups ahead of Friday's announcement, Cuban dissident Antonio Rodiles said he supports Trump's plans and many ordinary Cubans do as well.

"Many, many people are telling me that we have to squeeze the government once and for all," Rodiles said. "And many people I meet in the street have much tougher opinions than mine."

Also in Miami, Roberto Pique, who left Cuba at age 15 in 1961, said that even though he wanted the Castro family to leave power, Obama's actions had allowed Cubans to have more access to information. The number of Cuban-Americans traveling to Cuba has increased and the government has opened hundreds of public Wi-Fi spots since the warming, greatly expanding internet access.

"Obama was a very wise man. He had something in mind, like playing chess with those people, the communists over there," he said. "The Cubans have more access to what's happening in the world because there are so many people traveling over there, their families." said Pique, a retired juvenile probation officer. "I don't think anything that (Trump) will do will help us get rid of those communists in Cuba. They have survived worse, unfortunately."

Even opponents of Obama's policy said they didn't expect much from Trump's proposal.

"He will make the same promises than the last 10 presidents have made Cuban-Americans here in Miami and nothing happens," said Raul Masvidal, 75, a financial adviser who arrived in the U.S. in 1960 from the eastern Cuban city of Camaguey. "Outside the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 when you really look back to the last 50 years, nothing has been done. Castro is still there. Different first name."

Standing in front of a primary school in Mariel, 56-year-old teacher Juan Manuel Lemus said he had hoped Obama's opening would lead Cuban-Americans to invest in businesses in his decaying industrial hometown, the same way many had poured money into tourist centers like Havana.

"There are a lot of Americans and Cuban-Americans who have family here and more investment would be good for us," he said.

But his immediate worry was much more personal.

"I have a son, my oldest, in the United States," he said. "I'm afraid, really, about what happens if Trump cuts back relations. He's in Tampa, painting houses, and the more open things are between the U.S. and Cuba, the better."

Gomez Licon reported from Miami. Gisela Salomon in Miami also contributed.

Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mweissenstein

Adriana Gomez Licon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/agomezlicon

Andrea Rodriguez on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ARodriguezAP

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Cubans brace for worst as Trump takes aim at Obama opening - ABC News