Something tell me the Russians aren’t cowering in fear.

Kerry to confront Russian foreign minister Friday — The Hill

Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to London to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday to try to “diffuse” mounting tensions between Russia and the United States.

Kerry announced the hastily arraigned trip during a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wendesday. He said he will use the meeting to try to “de-escalate” the crisis sparked by Russia’s military incrusion into Ukrainian territory.

Kerry said that the U.S. is not eager to apply sanctions on Russia’s $40 billion worith of annual trade with the U.S.

“We do not seek a world in which we have to apply additional costs,” he said, adding that isolating Russia could harm efforts on Iran, Syria and nuclear non-proliferation.

But he said the U.S. must present Lavrov with choices.

“We will do what we have to do if Russia cannot find the way to make the right choices here,” he said.