credible you need three things. you need two parties who are committed and are willing and able to participate in negotiations. you need some semblance of of a balance of interests so that each party would be able to extract from that negotiating process something they could call a win. and finally, you need a sense of the right time. and frankly, right now, january 27, six seven, i don't see any of that in place. and that raises a serious question. i think the united states wants the diplomatic off-ramp. the real question is what does vladimir putin want? and frankly, nobody on planet earth knows that. >> he does want russia to be viewed as a great superpower. but ukraine and other former soviet bloc countries are drifting further west. do you think he's going to try anything to stop that from happening? >> you know, i think he's created sort of a box for himself. on one hand he's ramped up his