Interview with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). Interview with Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT). A top executive for McKinsey & Company appeared before Representative Katie Porter and the House Oversight Committee today to answer questions about the consultant firm`s role in the opioid crisis. It appears that Ukraine is striking back at targets deeper inside Russia with explosions reported in three Russian regions overnight, including one nearly 200 miles from the border.

LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: Good evening, Rachel, and I`m just -- I`m just checking my notes about what you just said, you were -- you have a tremendous amount of expertise about this Russian natural gas story. And I`m pretty sure when I heard you say, I`m pretty sure you referred to shiploads of gas. Shiploads.

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST, "TRMS": Shiploads.

O`DONNELL: Oh, okay. That because it was fast, and I was --

O`DONNELL: Because I --

O`DONNELL: Yeah. No, it could be either one, that`s a thing. I know you. It could be either one.

So, I just want to get that straight.

You know the guest I would love to book on the whole Russia natural gas market and how much they need to sell it and how much they may not be able to sell it, and how they become basically threatening war with -- the expert guest on that subject I would love to book if I could ever get her is Rachel Maddow, because she wrote a book about it, which I read, and has much more to teach about it. So whenever you feel like it.

MADDOW: You know, I got a date tonight. Susan`s cooking, but I could see you tomorrow if you need me.

O`DONNELL: OK, OK, great. And it`s -- it is shiploads, right, it`s shiploads.

MADDOW: I could bring a little white board and spell it out tomorrow, so as to alert any FCC --

O`DONNELL: OK, good. Great.

O`DONNELL: Thank you, Rachel. Thank you.

Well, exactly ten years ago to the day, a frequent guest on this program, Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann wrote a really important op-ed piece in "The Washington Post" and it was titled: Let`s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.

This was an extremely turn in the way we talked about partisanship in Washington. Ornstein and Mann wrote their piece after Republican Congressman Allen West was caught on video saying, there are 78 to 81 Democrats in Congress who are members of the communist party. That was then.

And now, it`s worse. Republicans called Democrats pedophiles and groomers. Today, some of Donald Trump`s closest allies in the House of Representatives confronted House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy over comments he made in the secretly recorded McCarthy tapes. In those tapes, which were obtained by "The New York Times", McCarthy and top House Republican leaders are heard expressing concern that Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz and other extreme members of the Republican Party could incite violence against other members of Congress in both parties.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Okay, the other thing I want to bring up and I`m making some phone calls to some members. I just, I just got something sent now about Newsmax something Matt Gaetz said where he`s calling peoples names out, saying an anti-Trump in this type of atmosphere, so many other places. This is serious stuff people are doing this that has to stop. Oh make --

REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA): I think Mo -- Mo and Louie`s comments, too, a lot of members have said some real concerning things about.

MCCARTHY: Did they say something today, too?

SCLAISE: Not to -- I mean, Mo was at the rally, there were kicking -- and taking names thing at the Trump rally.

MCCARTHY: Gonzalez just sent it to me, so I`m calling Gaetz, I`m explaining to him. I don`t know what I`m going to say, but I`m going to have some other people call him, too. But the nature of what, if I`m getting briefing, I`m going to another one from the FBI tomorrow. This is serious (EXPLETIVE DELETED), to cut this out.

SCALISE: Yeah, that`s, that`s -- it`s potentially illegal what he`s doing.

MCCARTHY: Well, he`s putting people in jeopardy, and he doesn`t need to be doing this. We saw people would do in the capital, you know, these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.

O`DONNELL: NBC News is reporting that during a chaotic House Republican meeting today, Congressman Gaetz confronted McCarthy and his deputy Steve Scalise about their comments, challenging Scalise to specify which of Gaetz`s comments Scalise considered to be illegal.

Georgia congresswoman and Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene also got involved in the exchange, demanding that both McCarthy and Scalise apologize. "The Hill" reports, McCarthy told members that the damning quotes from the January 10th, 2021, leadership call during which he said he would suggest former President Trump resign if impeached. And wondered if GOP members could be kicked off social media, were simply the leaders spectator on different scenarios.

He just said that we were going to lay out different things of what could be, said Congressman Robert Aderholt of Alabama. At this point, you know, I take his word for it.

And joining us now is someone who doesn`t take his word for it, Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland. He`s a member of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol and served as the lead impeachment manager in the second impeachment of Senate trial of Donald Trump.

Thank you very much for joining us tonight.

So we have this, controversy depending on the Republican side of the House. And Kevin McCarthy make defense isn`t apparently not by -- I was right.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): He has to suppress the fact that he had the exact same reaction that the vast majority of members of Congress and the vast majority of the public had. I mean, he was horrified and he knew that in this environment where six people had already died that day, several people would die in the days to come. With 150 of our officers wounded. This was a totally fluid and dangerous and unpredictable environment.

I`m good for him that he thought at least for a fleeting moment that he should try to rein in Matt Gaetz and others who were attacking Liz Cheney and other members who dare to start telling the truth about what just happened.

O`DONNEL: How much of this, well we`re learning from the McCarthy tapes, is relevant to your investigation to the January 6 committee?

RASKIN: Well, it`s important for reviving everybody`s memory of what really took place. That`s important. It`s also important for people to see that he had radically changed his tune and he`s doing that only for political reasons obviously. I think it`s -- he`s not asking for my advice but I think it`s a rather silly strategy in this part. I mean, what the Republicans are saying is that there are not going to rebel against him now because they don`t want to have a complete circus show before the election.

But the election is over and they will get rid of him. And there are ten people lining up to try to take its place, including possibly Donald Trump. Because would a lot of the Republicans are talking about is that the freedom caucus, the Jim Jordan gang, has enough power to stop anybody who shows any kind of equivocation the way that Kevin McCarthy did about succumbing to the will of Donald Trump and whitewashing everything he does.

So if they can stop, you know, a more center leaning or, you know, traditional conservative from becoming speaker. But they can`t elect someone on their own, then they`ll just tell Donald Trump and Trump would happily waltz in and take the speaker`s chair. You don`t have to be a member of the House to run for speaker.

O`DONNELL: The January 6 committee is investigating what happened on the last presidential election. At the same time, you are watching Republican state legislatures take action that involves the next presidential election. Based on your investigation in the January 6 committee now and what you`ve seen Republican legislation to around the country, do you believe that in the next presidential election, everything that you have found in the current investigation of 2020, will recur, they will actually run the plays better and have a stronger chance of actually executing overturning the results?

RASKIN: It`ll be a mostly new playbook. Because they won`t for example have the vice president of the United States. So the whole play against Mike Pence to get him to declare and announce unilateral unprecedented extra constitutional powers to nullify and vaporize Electoral College votes, just disappearing tens of millions of peoples votes in the country, we won`t see that again but we will see for example efforts to empower GOP legislatures or governors essentially to decide who`s won the election in the state by either reviewing and overturning rulings by boards of elections or packing them turning them from bipartisan bodies in the partisan bodies.

So we`re going to have to look at a much more granular way it was taking place in each state because we know that that`s where the locus of attention has shifted.

So it won`t be the exact same playbook except the philosophy is the same, which is rule or ruin. Either we`re going to rule everything or we`re going to ruin the possibility for democracy to work and for the government to make any progress. So, it`s a -- we continue to be in the middle of this danger.

O`DONNELL: Will the January six committee be making any recommendations for the states? You will surely be making some recommendations about things like how to secure the capital and other things involving the presidential transition. But what about for the states?

RASKIN: We`ve given the nature of constitutional federalism in America by definition our recommendations will go all the way up and down the system in terms of securing the right to vote, which is federal dimensions, which has state dimensions to it. In terms of defending the integrity of the popular vote in the state, that too is something that has both the state dimension to it, but a federal dimension to it too when it comes to the election of the president.

So I think you will see some thorough going proposals practical proposals about what can be done to fortify Democratic institutions against coups and insurrections and electoral subversion which is coming up next. But we have to build all of this on the table of truth. There`s got to be truth and facts about what happened.

And you know I`ve come to the conclusion, Lawrence, that when they are all swear their fealty to the big lie, as Donald Trump does, that in fact none of them really believe it anymore. They know that more than 60 courts rejected every claim of electoral fraud and corruption, and they know there`s no evidence for it.

Really, it`s just a little t test to Donald Trump. So when they say I believe Donald Trump is really a president, I think Joe Biden is there illegitimately, they don`t really believe that. But they think that this is how they will demonstrate their subservience and their loyalty to Donald Trump. It`s just a very scary thing for a modern political party to operate that way requires people to suspend critical thinking skills.

O`DONNELL: We have to squeeze in a break here, before we go quickly. On the schedule of January six committee, televised hearings have we`ve been hearing June as a possible start time for that. What will those hearings be will they be witnesses that you have already heard from in private sessions in the committee?

RASKIN: Well, we live in an age of you know a lot of media and good TV as you and Rachel Maddow and a well. So we have to tell this story in an interesting way. We understand that. But the story is really fascinating. It`s really the greatest political crime in American history ever organized by a president in attempt to overthrow a presidential election. And had they succeeded, and they can`t cleanly close to doing so, we could be living in a very different America right now.

And that`s with the judge and California said, judge carter, he said that could`ve been the end of the peaceful transfer of power in America.

O`DONNELL: Congressman Jamie Raskin, thank you very much for joining us here in the Washington studio tonight. It is great to finally be in person for once. Thank you very much.

RASKIN: Thanks for having me, Lawrence.

O`DONNELL: And coming up, after one year in office, President Biden has actually done more for rural America than Donald Trump ever did. Farmer and Senator Jon Tester will join us next. Senator Tester is the political magician who manages to get elected in the heavily Republican state of Montana as of all things a Democrat.

SEN. JON TESTER (D-MT): Egg production has gotten far more consolidated the 44 years since I took the over the farm in 1978.

O`DONNELL: That`s our next guest Senator Jon Tester testifying to the Agriculture Committee today as only a farmer can. No Democrat speaks to the concerns of farmer and rural voters more clearly than Jon Tester. He has performed the political miracle three times now, of getting elected to the Senate as a Democrat in Montana, a state that hasn`t voted for a Democrat for Senate since 1992.

Robert Leonard`s "New York Times" op-ed this week is titled Biden has already done more for rural America than Trump ever did. Robert Leonard describes how the Biden infrastructure bill is bringing necessary improvements where he lives in Iowa, and says quote, more than 450 rural hospitals and dangers of closing with funds from the American Rescue Plan, the Biden ministration program emergency rural health care grants will ward up to $43 million to benefit 2.2 million people across 22 states.

Senator Tester is worried about increasing monopolistic practices a big businesses, have done to the supply chain for food.

TESTER: Capitalism isn`t working in this particular instance, because of concentration and consolidation in the industry. Consumers are paying higher prices because without competition there set without regard to help with people can afford.

Because we have seen a mass exodus off the land, Rural America is drying up. On the other side of the equation, we see consumers, they are being and treated unfairly in the marketplace because there`s no competition. Today, we can address both of those issues with these bills.

O`DONNELL: And joining us now is the senior senator from Montana, John tester. One thing that I love about our discussions on this program is anyone in this town of Washington can talk about politics. Not everyone can talk about government. And not everyone can talk about government in a way that everyone can understand.

The way you approach this subject in that hearing yesterday, that line, and I`ve heard you say something like this before, capitalism isn`t working in this spot where we need it to work, which is the efficient delivery of our food products to the marketplace. I mean, that line, capitalism isn`t working, is something you might except expect to hear from Bernie Sanders somewhere. But it`s a Jon Tester line.

TESTER: Look, it`s not working because as you pointed out, we`ve got monopolistic maker of the biggest packers who control over 80 percent of the food that`s delivered in this country. It`s not much different worldwide.

For capitalism to work, you have to have competition. If you have competition that`s good for the folks underground, the cow calf operators in this case, it`s good for the small, medium sized feeders, and it`s good for the consumer because it will help regulate prices.

Right now, that`s not the case. The ranchers are getting not near enough what they need to stay in business for their products, the calves. And on the other side of the equation, you got folks that are buying meat at the meat countered that are paying way, way more than they should. If there is competition in this system, if capitalism is really working, that wouldn`t be the case. These bills that were put forth will help solve that problem.

O`DONNELL: What will they do? What will your legislation do?

TESTER: Well, basically, I am not for shutting down the big packers. What I am for is getting more transparency in making sure they`re following the law. We`ve passed the Packers and Stock Yards Act in 1921 because of consolidation in the meat industry. Today, it`s more consolidated than it was in 1921.

During the -- since the late `70s and I`ve been on the farm and I took over a farm my folks and grandparents ran before me, we are seeing consolidation happen much quicker. And it`s drying up rural America. These small towns that I knew when I was a kid are just small pieces of that culture because they`ve dried up. My town, 1,000 people in `74 when I graduated from high school, now has 600. A high school has 160 kids now has got 40 kids.

The truth is, you know, hardware stores no longer exists. We had three grocery stores, now we`ve got one. We had three grain elevators, now we got zero.

The problem is that we need some changes here. We need the system to work, or our food chain is going to be put at risk. And by the way, if we lose family farm agriculture`s and family ranch agriculture in this country, that food chain will be put at risk, and I am telling you, democracies don`t work unless you`ve got a fed society. They`re very important to that equation.

O`DONNELL: Is this a lonely subject for you in the Senate, what fascinates me about it is this is a subject if phrase correctly, that affects everyone. We`re talking about the food chain, people. I don`t care where you live in this country, you`re going to care about where that`s coming from, how much it costs and how much it cost to get it into that store in Brooklyn or that store in Santa Monica or anywhere in between.

TESTER: Absolutely. There`s a bumper sticker that says if you eat, you are involved in agriculture.

O`DONNELL: There you go.

TESTER: I can tell you that as a fact.

In this particular case, this is a bipartisan bill. Chuck Grassley and Deb Fischer and Ron Wyden and myself have worked on this bill, it is a really - - both these bills are good pieces of legislation that counted in a bipartisan way. And I`m going to tell you, the meetings that I have been in with Senators Grassley and Senators Fischer and Senators Widen, if they have stepped up to the plate, you wouldn`t know one of those Democrat, one of them is a Republican.

They are concerned about this issue. They are looking at it from a rural perspective and consumer standpoint, and they`re saying this is the right thing to do. It has been a pleasure to work with those folks. It`s in the committee now. Chairman Stabenow did a great job in the hearing we had a couple days ago. And we`re going to get this out of committee, we`re going to get it to the Senate floor, and hopefully, we`re going to get it passed, because it`s the right thing to do.

Rural America is important in this country. If we have the kind of leadership we need, and we`ve seen good leadership out of the president as you pointed out with that editorial, but the bottom line is if we do nothing? We`re going to have the same result. We`re going to see continual drying of rural America.

It`ll put our food chain at risk. Consumers will pay a big price and this country will not be the same that it was when our forefathers came.

O`DONNELL: What happens in Montana when you tell that Joe Biden has been good for rural America?

TESTER: Well, I think --

O`DONNELL: Or do you just never mention the word Biden when you`re in Montana so you don`t really think about you as a Democrat?

TESTER: It`s not the first words of my lips. But I`ll tell you more this, we need to talk about more about what`s being done for infrastructure and that this administration has done and Congress has done, and the Democrats in the American Rescue Plan`s fate case and with the bipartisan infrastructure bill because these have been serious investments in rural America.

In order to have a rural America as vibrant, you have to have infrastructure. And you have to have markets. We`re addressing the infrastructure with the help of the administration, and we`re also addressing the markets with these bills, and other bills.

Look, the president came out and said, here`s some money available for existing packing plants to expand, or start-ups to start up. That money is going out the door and starting to make a difference. We need to continue along these lines if you`re going to have competition in the marketplace, if you`re going to have a strong rule America, if we`re going to have consumers to break at the counter because meat prices have gone through the roof, while these packers have doubled and tripled their profits.

It hasn`t flowed down to the folks on the ground, and it hasn`t made any difference for the consumers when prices continue go up. This is a big issue, you`re right, Lawrence. And if we deal with it and we pass these bills, it will make a difference.

O`DONNELL: Senator Jon Tester, this city boy always learn something from his favorite farmer in the Senate -- thank you very much for joining us tonight. Really appreciate it.

TESTER: It`s a pleasure to be with you in person.

O`DONNELL: It`s great to be in the room, it really is. Thank you for joining us.

And coming up, in the room, Katie Porter, she`ll be here. She did it again today. Today, it was another business executive who found himself on the wrong end of Katie Porter`s interrogation. We`ll show you the video that is already viral. And Congressman Katie Porter will join us next.

O`DONNELL: Here`s a sentence you`ve heard me say many times. "Katie Porter has done it again."

A top executive for McKinsey & Company appeared before Representative Katie Porter and the House Oversight Committee today to answer questions about the consultant firm`s role in the opioid crisis. The "New York Times" reports at least 22 McKinsey consultants had worked for both Purdue and the FDA since 2010 even as McKinsey served FDA offices charged with approving new drugs and monitoring their safety. It also advised Purdue Pharma on its interactions with the agency.

Internal McKinsey documents first reported by the "New York Times" show that the firm cited its connections to regulators when seeking more work at pharmaceutical companies. In a 2014 email to Purdue`s chief executive one consultant stressed, "who we know and what we know", specifically highlighting the firm`s work for the FDA.

And here is how Representative Katie Porter approached that.

REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): Well Mr. Sternfels, shouldn`t the FDA have been allowed to make it its own decision about whether or not your company`s work for Purdue did or did not create a conflict? Why should you and your company be the decision-maker here?

BOB STERNFELS, CEO, MCKINSEY: We aren`t the decision makers --

PORTER: Who made you conflicts of interest czar for the United States government?

STERNFELS; We`re not the conflict of interest czar --

PORTER: Ok. So let me ask you. Did you disclose to the FDA your McKinsey`s work at the same time -- did you disclose to the FDA that McKinsey was working at the same time it was working for the FDA, that it was working for Purdue? Did you disclose that to the FDA?

STERNFELS; We made clear in multiple instances that the individuals involved had experience in both pharmaceuticals and opioid --

PORTER: Reclaiming my time. Mr. Sternfels, they didn`t have experience. They were the identical humans working for both at the same time. Did you tell the FDA, did you make these disclosures and then allowed the government to decide if there was a conflict of interest?

STERNFELS: When we assessed the work -- the work request from the FDA we brought professionals. Our legal team, our dedicated government team to understand first is there a conflict of interest? We verified that the work was different.

PORTER: Reclaiming my time. Mr. Sternfels that is you putting yourself as the czar of conflicts. Look, your scheme worked really well for McKinsey. McKinsey got contracts, Purdue got rich, and America got addicted.

Since 2008 McKinsey earned $140 million in contracts from the FDA. And you did not ever disclose your work for Purdue. You did not disclose your conflicts of interest.

So my question for you as since you didn`t disclose the conflicts of interest, will you return to $140 million to the FDA?

O`DONNELL: So they were working for the biggest opioid pusher on the planet Purdue Pharma and the FDA at the same time.

O`DONNELL: The same people.

PORTER: The same people at the same time. Now it`s possible, and this is their argument, that we were doing something so unrelated for the FDA to drug regulation, that it didn`t affect our work for Purdue on the topic of drug regulation.

But the real fundamental point is you, McKinsey, doesn`t get to decide. You are not, as I said to him, the conflict czar. The point of disclosure is you put these disclosures out there, you put them out there and then the ethics experts, the American people, the FDA administrator, they decide whether or not there`s a conflict of interest.

So what we see here really is a big corporation, substituting their profit motivation for government ethics.

O`DONNELL: You know what you plan to do in these hearings and in this particular hearing. You`ve got the evidence. You go through it. How surprised are you at the way these executives respond and the way he responded today? Do you expect him to be ready with something better than he had?

PORTER: Well I mean I think you have to hold power to account. I think that`s my job, is to hold power to account. It`s to say, on behalf of the American people this doesn`t cut it.

And that`s really what it`s about. They`re not going to cooperate unless you make them. And so the question today was you broke the rules, you didn`t disclose these conflicts. Now will you give the money back?

And the answer of course was no. So we have clear next steps here which is to make sure that they do exactly that.

O`DONNELL: These videos, I`m not sure whether it`s these videos or what it is but I have seen the facts that you are one of the very top, second only I think to Nancy Pelosi, successful fund-raisers, campaign fundraisers, in the House of Representative. Only Nancy Pelosi raises more money than you do.

Is that because people are connecting with this kind of work that they see you do that is so clear in the way you deliver it?

PORTER: Well, I certainly hope so. The only reason that I should get reelected is if people think I`m doing a good job. That`s why I want -- that`s that I want to earn the support for. I don`t want to earn it for my good looks or my colorful earrings. I want to earn it because I`m doing the work in Washington and in my community.

So when people stop me and they say I saw your hearing, you told my story, you raised my concern, you gave them the hell that I want to give them. That`s I think the fundraising flows from. What I hope is that trust that I`m trying to build between me and the American people, and that should be the goal of every elected representative on both sides the aisle.

O`DONNELL: What became very clear to me when I saw you very early in your freshman year in committee work is you knew immediately that the job is in the committee. That that is where a house member can do her job. It -- speech making out there is one thing but the real labor is in the committee.

PORTER: Well, because oversight -- the reason for that is that oversight is a key congressional function. The executive branch has work to do but part of our work as legislators is to hold them to account. Are they doing what the law that we passed says they`re supposed to do?

Are corporations following the law? If they`re not then Congress might need to take action. So you simply can`t pass laws you can`t decide how to vote, if you don`t know the state of the world.

So the next time that I am considering a conflict of interest bill or a good governance bill I`m going to think back to what that McKinsey CEO said, which is basically I don`t have to follow the rules I make the rules. And that`s going to inform how I think about legislative goals.

So I think that oversight is one of the sort of most important but maybe least used tools that we have to earn the American people`s trust.

O`DONNELL: Now redistricting has changed. You`re in -- has it changed your district or are you now in a different district as you`re running for --

PORTER: So I got a new number which is pretty typical. It`s a lot of numbers in California so we go through the double digits. I got a new number but I have about 65 -- 70 percent new voters. Those who have not seen my name on their ballot before.

So my home city of Irvine was part of the old district. That`s going to be part of the new district where I`m running. But I also have hundreds of thousands of new people to introduce myself to.

And what I want them to know, what I want them to see is the work that I do in committee. It`s what I did today, it`s asking the tough questions, and it`s demanding answers not for me but for the American people.

O`DONNELL: Now you flipped a Republican seat for the Democrats. Is your new district more favorably tilted toward Republicans or Democrats?

PORTER: Actually it`s very similar. it`s about a third Democrat, about a third Republican, and about a third Independent -- no party preference. So it has a very similar demographic. Most of these communities -- communities like Huntington Beach and Newport Beach -- these are traditional Republican strongholds.

But I intend to earn their vote. And the reason I`m going to do it is I`m going to promise them that I`m going to stand up to power in Washington.

You know, one of my opponents, you know, is a lobbyist and he`s a lawbreaker. And I really try to be the opposite. I try to -- I don`t take lobbyist money and I try to make sure that laws are being followed, not broken.

O`DONNELL: A lobbyist and lawbreaker versus Katie Porter, ok. Your congressional district has something to think about there.

Congresswoman Katie Porter, thank you very much for joining us tonight. And it`s great to have you in the studio.

And coming up we will go to Ukraine. We will get the latest from Cal Perry, who is in Kyiv. That`s next.

O`DONNELL: Today, a surprise prisoner swap between the United States and Russia has brought a former U.S. Marine home. Marine veteran Trevor Reed is free tonight after serving nearly three years in a Russian prison. He was exchanged for a Russian pilot, serving a 20 year sentence for drug trafficking. He had been sentenced to nine years for allegedly assaulting two Russian police officers.

Russian state TV aired this video of Trevor Reed boarding a plane in Moscow. NBC News cannot independently verify when, where and under what conditions this video was recorded.

In a statement today, President Biden said quote, "The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home require difficult decisions that I do not take lightly. We won`t stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends."

Trevor Reed`s family thanked President Biden for saving his life saying, "Today our prayers have been answered."

The Pentagon confirmed that over half of the howitzers artillery systems promised by President Biden have arrived in Ukraine. As the White House prepares to send Congress a new request for five months` worth of aid to Ukraine.

Today, Russia cut off the supply of natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria after those countries did not pay in rubles due to economic sanctions imposed on Russia. The Kremlin said that any country refusing to pay in rubles would also have its natural gas prices -- its natural gas supplies cut off.

Here`s what Defense Department Press Secretary Admiral John Kirby said about that today.

ADM. JOHN KIRBY, DEFENSE DEPARTMENT PRESS SECRETARY: Mr. Putin can do the right thing right now by ending the war. Moving his forces out of Ukraine, sitting down in good faith with President Zelenskyy and coming up with a negotiated settlement.

Now clearly, he doesn`t appear interested in doing that because they`re still fighting in the Donbas and in the south. Short of that, raising the specter of nuclear confrontation does nothing for the peace and security of the region.

O`DONNELL: It appears that Ukraine is striking back at targets deeper inside Russia with explosions reported in three Russian regions overnight, including one nearly 200 miles from the border.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility, but an advisor to President Zelenskyy called the attacks payback for invading another country and killing civilians, adding quote, "Karma is a cruel thing."

This comes as one Ukrainian billionaire with ties to the Kremlin is speaking out exclusively to NBC News against Vladimir Putin`s war.

DMYTRO FIRTASH, UKRAINIAN OLIGARCH: He is never going to come out victorious, no matter what happens. Russia will lose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you could pick up the phone and call him, what would you tell him?

FIRTASH: It`s time to stop. There will be no victory. The longer this war takes, the worse it will be for the Russian people.

O`DONNELL: Joining us now is NBC News correspondent Cal Perry in Kyiv. Cal, what is the situation?

CAL PERRY, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well look, as we see the sun coming up on the morning number 64, we turn our attention again to Mariupol. That city in the south where for 64 days there has been heavy bombardment. We have been talking about this since the beginning of the war.

But now a nation is really watching this steel plant in the hopes that there could be some kind of evacuation. In just the past six hours or so, we`ve heard from a Ukrainian marine commander who talks about him folding his unit in with the Azov brigade.

He said that he has over 600 soldiers there wounded, that he`s unable to get them medical treatment, he`s on unable to get them out. Add that to the thousands of civilians who are huddled there, who are trying to get out of that city unable to do so.

We`ve continued to hear from President Vladimir Putin of Russia saying that he would allow civilians to leave if there would be some kind of cease- fire. That has just simply not happened, Lawrence.

And when you talk to the Ukrainian military officials, they`ll tell you, they`re hoping that they`re actually able to blunt that offensive in the east, by continuing to engage Russian forces in Mariupol. That they`re actually slowing them down for making that swing movement, that pincer movement to the east.

Here in the capital today, we will see the U.N. Secretary General on the ground. He`s going to be investigating war crimes in the suburbs around the capital, mostly in Bucha and Irpin as well.

The backdrop to that is as you laid out, Russia cutting off its natural gas supplies to both Poland and Bulgaria. The European Union, for their part saying they will help fill in that gap that has been created, that they will stop their dependence on Russian natural gas.

But it is an indication that Moscow is starting to play those cards that they have to try to retaliate for what we`ve seen these visits over the past weekend from both the U.S. Defense Department and the U.S. Secretary of State.

It seems timed with that visit. This was a card that they had to play. It`s a double edged sword for Russia, Lawrence, because of course, they need that revenue. And we heard that from General Austin that he wants to weaken Russia as best he can. So that they cannot replace the resources that they`re using. They need that natural gas revenue to do so.

PERRY: So it is certainly a dangerous game for them economically, Lawrence.

O`DONNELL: Cal, what is the safety level in Kyiv now? There are things happening in Kyiv that weren`t happening a month ago. It seems as though people seem more confident about the safety level in Kyiv?

PERRY: Yes, and you have people coming back to their homes. Especially in these suburbs where there was fierce fighting. Of the 7.7 million internally displaced people, the U.N. says 15 percent are trying to return to their homes.

Now that said, the diplomatic missions of countries are moving here, but there`s a growing concern, I think, that Vladimir Putin could start retaliatory strikes here in the capital and he has said as much. He has continued to say, if explosions continue in Russia, on the Russian side of that border and you mentioned those three in 24 hours. He said if those explosions continue he`ll start targeting the capital.

People here are worried about that. At the same time, there`s not a person here that you talk to who`s not happy about explosions taking place on that Russian side of the border, Lawrence.

O`DONNELL: So Cal, going forward, do you expect the American diplomatic delegation to begin working in Kyiv?

PERRY: Yes, we do. We expected this week or next though. In talking to folks on the ground, it seems they`ll keep that a very, very sort of skeleton staff. They want the embassy to be operational but at the same time, they`re saying that it is very symbolic in nature.

And again, they are going to keep an idea and an eye on the security situation. And if there are strikes in the capital, you can expect them to rethink that decision, maybe a backup operation and what is sort of the unofficial western capital of Lviv, Lawrence.

O`DONNELL: Cal Perry, thank you for your reporting once again and we hope you stay safe. Thank you, Cal.

Tonight`s LAST WORD about Madeleine Albright is next.

O`DONNELL: I was one of the hundreds of people who filled Washington National Cathedral today to honor the life of the first woman who served as secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, who came to this country as an 11- year-old immigrant. The current secretary of state Antony Blinken attended the funeral, as did former secretaries of state John Kerry and Condoleezza Rice. Defense secretary Lloyd Austin was there, along with General Mark Milley. Former President Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama sat in respectful silence throughout the over two-hour funeral, as did former Vice President Al Gore.

The president of the United States was the first to speak about Madeleine Albright. Followed by former President Clinton and former secretary of state Clinton.

The last and most important speakers to eulogize Madeleine Albright were her three daughters. They spoke with love and wit about their mother. The youngest daughter, Katie Albright, painted a picture of her mother as only a daughter could.

KATHERINE ALBRIGHT, DAUGHTER OF MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Picture mom sitting on the sofa with her feet up, glasses perched on her nose, knitting. Knitting everything from a little close for our dolls to colorful cozy women socks. Think of her helping us to maneuver a little red wagon filled with Girl Scout cookies in the spring or campaign leaflets in the fall along the crowded sidewalks and cobbled streets of our neighborhood.

With every step and unspoken lesson in hard work, giving back and civic participation, imagine hands that like hers were both soft and strong. Hands that exchange greetings with numberless heads of states, refugees and fighters for freedom. Hands that congratulated graduates and new citizens.

Hands that tickled our toes when we were young, took our temperatures when we were sick, held our babies when newly-born. And hands that often join together in prayer that people everywhere might live in peace.

O`DONNELL: Katherine Albright gets tonight`s LAST WORD about her mother, the Honorable Madeleine Albright.

"THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE" starts now.