How The Tables Have Turned.

Really, amazing, actually. In general, the revenge is a dish best served cold. 

Moscow has acknowledged receiving a call request from Washington on Thursday. A conversation between the two nation’s top diplomats might take place as soon as the busy schedule of Russia’s top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, makes it possible, the Foreign Ministry said. Lavrov will “pay attention to this request when time permits,” the ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, told journalists, referring to Washington’s request for a phone conversation between Lavrov and US State Secretary Antony Blinken. Earlier on Thursday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a news briefing that the US “made it clear to the Russian Federation that we are seeking a conversation between State Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Lavrov.” The request had been conveyed to Russia “directly” and “repeatedly,” Price said. The US expects the two top diplomats to “have an opportunity to speak in the coming days,” he added. 

It needs no additional elaboration--Sergei Lavrov's schedule is extremely busy, obviously, because Russia is so "isolated", that it will be problematic for him to find time to talk to some low-class schlimazel who is to diplomacy as I am to Chinese choreography. So, using good ol' Russian saying--в очередь, сукины дети, в очередь (Get in line, sons of bitches, get in line). Lavrov undeniably read Bulgakov, that goes without saying. In the same time, I can only imagine what an emotional satisfaction Maria had when stating this:

Zakharova said on Thursday that the Russian foreign minister currently “has a busy schedule with international contacts,” including a Shanghai Cooperation Organization ministerial summit and some bilateral meetings.  

Meanwhile Russia's "isolation" is so complete, and Russia is so "insignificant" economically and technologically, that even fanatical Russophobic BSers from Daily Beast had to admit:

Russia Might Just Plunge the World Into a Dark Era for Space

Nah, don't worry, Tony Ho Tran (yes, that's the name of the author of the piece), who needs this insignificant "gas station masquerading as a country"? Come on, I am sure Russia's withdrawal from ISS will be unnoticed. This doesn't prevent this whole piece being filled with all kinds of BS, starting from "discussion" of Russia's upcoming space station ROSS, to asking an "expert" Wendy Whitman Cobb to comment on Russia's space program. Here is Wendy's CV and... drum roll..she has a Ph.D in political "science", meaning she has no education at all.  

That may explain (partially) why the US is nearing the bottom. With "experts" like these, who needs the enemies? The United States institutionalized illiteracy and ignorance and called it "education".