what are the up sides and down side of trying to get that done? >> i think there are positives of trying to separate the two, but to me that is a little bit of a too neat and explanation, too small ball to explain a really big geo political position. yeah, we should try and pull iran away from looush and we should try and find zones of cooperation with russia as i mentioned. potentially one is on containing iran. but, at the moment, that does not appear to be going very well, given the iranian/russian lash-up in support of assad. >> joe? >> alex, i want to bring you in here. obviously, you know very well the nature of the old soviet union and the nature of kgb agents and the hard bloodied history. what would you i have the president or the president's advisers on this front the next time he is asked about vladimir