we have vladimir goldstein. he is the chair of the department of slavic studies at brown university and. and also we have bjorn, nice that he is in author and head of kaleidoscope russian information center are joining crosstalk rules and the fact that means it can jump in any time you want. and i always appreciate vladimir, let me go to you 1st here. american officials really reveal themselves when they're asked about the conflict in ukraine. i in one a good example as the secretary defense like austin in kiev. he was asked about america's aims and all of this. and he said the u. s. hopes russia will be, quote, unquote, weakened by the war. but what does that have to do with ukraine per say. other than, you know, it is a proxy go head vladimir inadvertently. you're asked for a bargain propaganda in it. a propaganda it meets. that is a go of it. their purpose is not so much introducing the beast between the 2 warring near countries, not bringing them together, but actually it aimed gauge and very heavily finance