Tillerson: My Relationship with Putin Was Always About What I Could Do To Be Successful for My Shareholders

EXCERPT:

BRENNAN: "You’ve said you had a very close relationship with Vladimir Putin. You’ve done huge deals with him. Photos of you toasting him with champagne. And all that closeness raised eyebrows It even inspired a Saturday Night Live skit. Did you ever see that skit?"
TILLERSON: "I did. My kids pointed me to it."
BRENNAN: "Did you laugh?"
TILLERSON: "Absolutely. Absolutely. I laughed out loud.  "
BRENNAN: "What— it— it made light though of— of this concern that you have— a friendship with Vladimir Putin and that because of that you and the president aren’t going to hold him to account."
TILLERSON: "The relationship that I had with President Putin spans 18 years now It was always about what could I do to be successful on behalf of my shareholders, how Russia could succeed."