Awkward, but imagine how much more awkward it’ll be if the shooter — or shooters — turns out to be a pro-Assad fanatic angry at American threats against the regime. (It’s naval assets, after all, that are expected to lead a potential U.S. attack against Syria.) If you’re going to gloat over a mass murder that’s been committed against your new “partner in peace” while it’s in progress, at least wait until you know for sure that you’re not allied with the perpetrator.

Новая стрельба у штаба ВМС в Вашингтоне – одинокий стрелок и 7 трупов. Никто уже не удивлен. Наглядное подтверждение "амер.исключительности" — Алексей Пушков (@Alexey_Pushkov) September 16, 2013

BuzzFeed’s translation: “A new shootout at Navy headquarters in Washington – a lone gunman and 7 corpses. Nobody’s even surprised anymore. A clear confirmation of American exceptionalism.” He followed up 10 minutes later with a tweet in English claiming that the notion of American exceptionalism “smells of political racism,” which is on the cusp of parody as something an especially soft-headed American leftist might say. Evidently that’s the new M.O. for influential Russian fascists who want to troll the U.S. — pretend that they’re the real liberals of the international order and snicker as Americans try to decide whether to be outraged at them for trolling or at their own political system for giving the Russians the opportunity.

By the way, this is the same guy who crowed to Time magazine last week that there’s nothing the U.S. can do about making Syria give up its WMD short of occupying the country like it did Iraq. Lavrov may be the face of Russian diplomacy but this cretin is evidently its id. And no, needless to say, his claim about American exceptionalism here isn’t as true as he wishes it was.