This is a NYT update of the earlier article cited here. Yes, we certainly can say that at the very least the "tone" has shifted, can't we. It is really remarkable. Praise also for Putin and Sergey Lavrov--Wait, wait, don't jump in my shit, I know this is a crisis of their making, but so was the Cold War. The most important thing I was taught in graduate school and learned from reading books and just newspapers and magazines, was that the Soviets were "rational actors", they were our enemies but they weren't lunatics like Hitler or even Trump. You could reason with them. This proves that lesson. Were Putin to invade Ukraine now, one could not characterize him as a "rational actor." He would be, as was Hitler, an obsessed, conquering maniac. Praise to President Biden and his team for their strategic brilliance, unprecedented in handling Moscow and to the other foreign leaders, Macron, Scholz of Germany and Rau of Poland.

In stage-managed, televised meetings, the Kremlin sent its strongest signals yet that it would seek further negotiations with the West rather than launch immediate military action. State television showed Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov telling President Vladimir V. Putin there was still a diplomatic path ahead. Minutes later, it showed Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu telling Mr. Putin that what he characterized as “large-scale drills” around Ukraine were coming to an end. 

...

In Mr. Lavrov’s televised meeting with Mr. Putin, he highlighted the West’s diplomatic frenzy as a sign that the Kremlin’s strategy of pairing negotiations with military pressure was working. Mr. Putin laid out that strategy in an address to Russian diplomats in November: it was good that “tensions” were high with the West, the president told them, and it was “important for them to remain in this state for as long as possible.” 

“Our initiative,” Mr. Lavrov told Mr. Putin, “shook up our Western colleagues and became the reason they have no longer been able to ignore many of our previous appeals.”

That's right Sergey, this worked out just like you and Vladimir wanted. Fine with me! Everybody a winner.

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On a related but irrational note from the same article,

The flurry of diplomacy came as fears of war have caused oil prices to spike, pushing well past $90 a barrel.

I will never, ever understand the markets.