in a book he wrote called "from cold war to hot peace" and since he was named to be the ambassador, state-run tv started denouncing him saying he had no business being an ambassador, that he was some kind of operative who was an expert in destabilizing governments and starting revolutions. and they denounced him as a really, really close friend of russian opposition leader alexei navalny. now, at this point he had met navalny precisely once. while ambassador mcfaul is a nice guy who makes fast friends, he's not that fast. as ambassador to russia, he not only continued to meet with russian opposition leaders, he continued to do so. as a sort of unbowed percentage for the u.s. government expression of free press and democracy in the united states