attorney general rod rosenstein was referring to there is yevgeny, a russian oligarch nicknamed putin's chef because he became close with the russian president because of putin's visits to his restaurants. through one of his companies he controls those who a taktd syrian forces in early february. according to the washington post, the u.s. responded to the response with an airstrike that reportedly killed four russian nationals and possibly dozens of other russians. the kremlin has referred to it as, interestingly enough, mercenaris. list' bring in ken dilanian who has been tracking this story for us at nbc. ken, can you -- what of this do you think is the most important to understand, why would the russians be so specific in saying these are mercenaries not associated with us? >> it's interesting with the mueller case. this is a month ago, february 7