populated areas in the northeast of the country. and their line at the moment is that they have been more focused on battling isis, indeed, than the coalition has. now that fits very well as a line for the russian public, if you look at the amount of air strikes by coalition forces and the push on raqqah and the effective way they have managed to push isis out of raqqah, that may not, indeed, be the case. but russia has always said, actually, we should all unite in the fight against terrorism and it certainly would be a major propaganda victory for them to claim al baghdadi's scalp, rather than the americans. >> all right. diana, for us, thank you so much for that from moscow. keep us posted if there are any new developments there. joining us to discuss all of this morning, cnn political analyst and columnist for "the washington post" josh roben, good to have you sir. >> good morning. >> talk about the breaking news,