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Ever wonder what it feels like to be a senior US official jousting with a menacing Putin when he threatens to invade one of his neighbors? Fascinating excerpt from Bill Burns’s new memoir 1/ #BurnsBackChannel theatlantic.com/magazine/archi… 
Putin has been pretty transparent with US officials. Here he is in 2005: “‘You Americans need to listen more,’ President Putin said as I handed him my credentials as ambassador, before I had gotten a word out of my mouth. ‘You can’t have everything your way anymore.’” 2/
Here’s Burns’s private warning to Secretary of State Condi Rice in 2008 that dangling the possibility of NATO membership to Georgia and Ukraine could unleash a dangerous downward spiral with the Kremlin. 3/
Chilling illustration of how Putin has asserted privately in 2007 (!) that alleged US interference in Russia’s domestic politics entitles the Kremlin to pay us back in kind 4/
Trivia question: when was Putin at his most animated in private with Hillary Clinton and Burns? Venting about color revolutions in Ukraine? NATO enlargement? Nope. Bragging about saving endangered Siberian tigers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #BurnsBackChannel END/
