sergey lavrov, the russian foreign minister is a skilled diplomate, he s been doing this for many years, he is a very intelligent, very seasoned operator in russia. he s probably the second most well-known, second most popular figure after vladimir putin. in russia you see people wearing flags or pins or t-shirts with putin s image on it and the only other person you see with that kind of recognition is sergey lavrov. so these were going to be difficult negotiations for the secretary of state to begin with. then going into the going into these negotiations having had the president inject this ambiguity, say that there might be one kind of response if there was a small military action and then having to have the white house issue a written correction just minutes after he said it, and then to have the president