author of "fragile empire." ben, you know a lot about putin. the man, his character, his personality, his power moves. i was -- there was a former national security official who says he expects, quote, an olympian level of macho posturing. what's putin's first move behind those closed doors? >> well, typically, when vladimir putin first meets western leaders, he likes to see how vulnerable they are to intimidation or how vulnerable they are to charm. for example, when he first met angela merkel, he knew that frightened of dogs and he brought along one of his pet labradors to sit next to him during the meeting to see how vulnerable she was to that form of intimidation. when he met the former french president, sarkozy, for the first time, his aides say that putin, for the initial first part of the meeting, went into a