>>9366697 (PB)

Obama had just provoked the Russians to leave a mess for the incoming administration. Flynn was asking the Russians to temper their response until we could work toward correcting the offense that Obama committed. Kislyak said that if the matter came to a vote back home, things would not be easy to control, but that he might be able to delay the vote long enough to give the incoming admin a chance at rectifying the offense.

WE (Obama) threw the first stone in this. Flynn was asking that, if the Russians felt compelled to respond, they not escalate the matter.