If we're going to quote Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov - and we are - this is probably as good a time as any to remember that everyone who takes a shot at Barack Obama is not necessarily someone we should admire or trust. The Russians may be pleasing conservatives at the moment by showing Obama up, but they still have a geopolitical agenda that would prop up some of the worst characters on the face of the Earth for the sake of Russia's own influence and power, and of Vladimir Putin's personally.