There’s no sound John Kerry loves more than the sound of John Kerry’s voice.

Via Washington Examiner:

Secretary of State John Kerry’s negotiations with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov got off to a rocky start Thursday, with the Russian mocking Kerry right at the outset.

“They got off to a really bad start yesterday — partly because of the Putin op-ed and partly because Kerry in the opening remarks spoke at length — and I mean at length — compared to the unprepared few welcoming comments from the Russian counterpart,” NBC News foreign correspondent Andrea Mitchell said on “Morning Joe.”

“And then the Russian minister said at the end, very tartly, ‘Sometimes diplomacy demands silence.'”

Mitchell said the tone improved after a private dinner yesterday evening, but Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s decision to set another precondition for handing over his chemical weapons (he wants the United States to stop arming the rebels, in addition to holding off on a military strike on his regime) is complicating matters.