Russia is increasing its military (and thereby political) aid to Syria’s Bashar al Assad by sending him Russian tanks for use against the Syrian rebels.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said Kerry called Lavrov for the third time in the last 10 days. Kerry “made clear that Russia’s continued support for President Assad risks exacerbating and extending the conflict, and undermining our shared goal of fighting extremism if we do not also remain focused on finding a solution to the conflict in Syria via a genuine political transition,” the State Department said in a written statement.”

Sharp talk. Yeah, that’ll show those Russkis.