Former New Mexico Governor, Former U. N. Ambassador, Is Going to Russia to Try to Negotiate a Deal to Free Her?

There are reports that former new mexico governor bill richardson is going to travel to russia to try to make a deal to free her. He's this before. Is that a good idea to have someone who's not connected to the state department go and try to negotiate? I mean, how does he know what the parometers are? Well, a ex-New Mexico Governor would expect that he and his senter have high level contacts at the stateDepartment. But you're right that he has no formal authority to to do anything other than convey information from one side to the other.