and author of a new novel, accidental czar, the life and lies of vladimir putin. just to get your response there to news from lloyd austin speaking with his counterpart shoygu. we saw shoygu with vladimir putin touring facilities for mobilized troops in russia. they were well equipped, quite the contrary from what we had been reporting and hearing on ground there where soldiers were having to buy their own equipment and scarce resources. what do you make of the timing of this all? so the lines of communication between the u.s. and russian militaries are probably the most important channel that currently exists. there is a real precarious situation on the battlefield inside of ukraine. and a lot of worries about escalation. and given that vladimir putin has been rattling his nuclear sabres, given his attacks on infrastructure inside of ukraine and very mysterious attacks on