You are assuming they had minds to begin with. You might be assuming too much.
Kerry spent part of the Christmas holiday week with his family at one of their houses, in the ski town of Ketchum, Idaho, and apparently Lavrov had mentioned the fame of Idaho potatoes. So Kerry brought two of them along to Paris.
They were, in Lavrov’s words, “impressive.”
After Lavrov asked if he needed to keep the brown wrapping paper, a female adviser seated to Kerry’s right joked, “protection?”
Kerry joked that Lavrov likely won’t make vodka out of them, as he’s not a vodka drinker.
“Well, anyway,” Kerry said, presumably moving the conversation onto actual diplomatic talks.