Tillerson's toughest trip

Poor Rex Tillerson. He took the job of secretary of state because he had an absolute IN with Vladimir Putin. They were almost mates. Tillerson had some Russian award. So he, successor to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, was going to be the one man to warm up relations with Russia and make the world look and feel a safer place. Now that's all gone into a deep black hole. Putin is so angry about Trump's Tomahawks and his threat to change the regime in Damascus, he may even snub his old mate Tillerson and refuse to see him. May be ask for the award back!! Relations between Moscow and Washington are frozen solid, even more than under Obama. And I won't even mention Boris Johnson. His decision to cancel his trip to Moscow smells like an order from the White House. Trump wants Tillerson in Moscow, and no one else right now.If there's going to be a slanging match, Trump doesn't want Boris adding his bit. So it's down to Tillerson to save the world. But has he got what it takes to make Putin see sense and push for a new peace deal in Syria, without the ghastly "war, what war?" Assad in charge? Putin, you have to always remember, is an old KGB hand. He isn't going to give in to anyone, certainly not to his old mucker Rexie Tillerson. As for Trump, they haven't even met yet, So Putin stands ready to say Niet Niet Niet in good old-fashioned Andrei Gromyko style. You recall the guy, the one with the sour face and Homburg hat who loved the Cold War and the whole language of hostility and suspicion and Kremlinesque intransigence. Putin, despite his smile and half-naked horse-riding and judo body, is from the same school. "You want me to drop Assad? Niet. You want me to join you in solving Syria? Niet. You want me to come to Washington? Niet. You want to buy a dacha outside Moscow? Niet. You want me for once to say Da? Niet".