been covering all along, it's just hard to know how serious those talks are. but one thing that does seem clear, from all the reporting we have. again, this is sort of a black box. it's sort of okay. but to the best that we can tell, from the reporting we have, from the observations we are seeing, taken all together, reading between the lines, it would appear, at the very least, that putin does not believe this war is going as planned. whether or not that leaves to a doubling down on the atrocities that he is currently to this hour, minute, leveling on the ukrainian people, remains to be seen. because unfortunately, so much right now of the world's suffering and misery, and the reverberating effects of it is wrapped up in the frustrations and the psyche of this one man. a checklist through and through. david remnick is a pulitzer prize-winning author and editor in chief. he's written extensively on russia, ukraine and putin. his latest piece is called a russian journalist who stayed