kimberly barton is a professor political science, a bernard college. she says it's good that the 2 sides talking, but this week's meetings may not do much. hello attentions. it's very unclear whether these talks will actually have any impact on decision making. i think his decision about what to do in ukraine will have much more to do with a cost benefit analysis of what russia would gain or lose by militarily intervening than it is by how these talk sco. i think that futon is just trying anything that he can to see what might work. but we also have to remember that the background is as a k g b officer. he very much enjoys using deception against his opponents. and so anything that appears to be what he's doing on the surface may not be what his actual intentions are underneath. i think it's significant that russia is meeting with nato once again. because in october of 2021, russia temporarily at least withdrew from the nato russia council. in anger after i think it was 8 russian diplomats had been expelled from benito group as being undercover spies.