www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19719.html
GENEVA--After promising to "push the reset button" on relations with Moscow, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton planned to present Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a light-hearted gift at their talks here Friday night to symbolize the Obama administration's desire for a new beginning in the relationship. Lavrov opened it and pulled out the gift--a red plastic button on a black base with a Russian word "peregruzka" printed on top. Clinton said as reporters, allowed in to observe the first few minutes of the meeting, watched. "You got it wrong," Lavrov said, to Clinton's clear surprise. Instead of "reset," he said the word on the box meant "overcharge." Despite the shoddy translation work on the US side, Clinton and Lavrov emerged from their meeting a few hours later saying they had accomplished their initial goal--reducing the frostiness in US-Russia relations that had taken hold by the end of the Bush administration. At a joint press conference afterward Clinton and Lavrov called each other by their first names and said they had conducted wide-ranging discussions on Iran, missile defense, Afghanistan, and nuclear arms reduction. They agreed to intensify preparations for opening a new round of nuclear arms negotiations to replace the one that expires at the end of this year. They each emphasized that major disagreements and disputes remain on matters such as US support for Georgia, the former Soviet republic invaded by Moscow last year, and on an announced sale by Moscow of advanced air defense missiles to Iran. The improvement in tone was unmistakable compared to the icy encounters that Lavrov used to hold with Clinton's predecessor. But in a meeting largely devoid of concrete accomplishments, Clinton's gift became a source of continuing amusement to everyone except her staff, who realized that flubbing a foreign language hardly made their boss, the nation's top diplomat, look good. When a Russian reporter asked her about the mistake, Clinton conceded that Lavrov had "corrected our word choice" and went on to gamely make the best of it. "In a way the word that was on the button turns out also to be true," she argued Though Lavrov had said that word on the button meant overcharge, Clinton suggested that that peregruzka could also be translated as overload. "We are resetting so the minister and I have an overload of work," she said But Lavrov refused to let the matter rest there, bringing it up twice more during the press conference in a way that suggested he wasn't completely unhappy at Clinton's discomfort. "We have reached agreement on how reset should sound in both Russian and English," he announced at one point. A few minutes later, he referred to the gift again, noting that he and Clinton had pressed the button together--a move that summoned up thoughts not of easing tension but of launching a nuclear strike. "I do hope that Russia and the United States and other countries would never ever push any other buttons associated with initiation of destructive hostilities." He told Clinton he would put the button on his desk in Moscow.
ADAAM Party: Conservative Reply #1 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 1:30 PM EST She's like sending a box lunch to a banquet. Perhaps a couple of hand-dipped ceegars from her husband's private collection would have been appropriate for Mr Lavrov.
borntoraisehogs Party: Libertarian Reply #2 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 1:34 PM EST We should pass a law prohibiting the giving of gifts . These people are turning a gracious tradition into continuing embarrassment . Somebody , Carvile , Huma , or Chelsea please tell Hillary to stop the nervous cackle during every meet and photo op .
FtAntonia Party: Conservative Reply #3 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 1:34 PM EST Foreign policy based on cheap props and gimmicry? "I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious."
jakebobo Party: Independent Reply #5 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 1:53 PM EST What a capable government obama has orgainized. What did they teach obama at his college or does he even have a degree?
FtAntonia Party: Conservative Reply #6 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 1:59 PM EST borntoraisehogs: Mar 6, 2009 - 1:34 PM EST We should pass a law prohibiting the giving of gifts . These people are turning a gracious tradition into continuing embarrassment . Somebody , Carvile , Huma , or Chelsea please tell Hillary to stop the nervous cackle during every meet and photo op . "I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious."
updated She should have handed him a red button that said "easy " on it. This administration will be just a bunch of pushovers for the Russians. They have just got to be besides themselves with the negotiating gaffes thus far.
liberal_defender_of_freedom Party: Democrat Reply #8 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 2:11 PM EST Good. So far 6 for 6 of the first comments are from the unhinged right wing kooks spattering as they type their nonsense.
dianeremarx Party: Independent Reply #10 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 2:23 PM EST SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience (in Brussels) Friday "never waste a good crisis," and highlighted the opportunity of rebuilding economies in a greener, less energy-intensive way. "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," said Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. "This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before." HOW DARE THEY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AT A TIME OF CRISIS TO PUSH THEIR LIBERAL AGENDAS THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH HELPING THE ECONOMY?
government is killing me Party: Conservative Reply #11 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 2:23 PM EST liberal_defender_of_freedom: Mar 6, 2009 - 2:11 PM EST Good. So far 6 for 6 of the first comments are from the unhinged right wing kooks spattering as they type their nonsense. Since you said nothing about the article itself, I assume you, like many dems, are starting to understand what a disasterous joke this administration is.
rizvisa1 Party: Independent Reply #13 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 2:35 PM EST I think who ever is responsible for this gaffe needs to be discplined as it made USA look bad. Also next time it might be a good idea to have the translation checked by an ohter person before actually giving it to some one.
Obamatron Party: Democrat Reply #14 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 2:50 PM EST Hillary should have given Sergie some of Bills Clinton Library and Massage Parlor guaranteed prophylactics. I am quite happy that Hillary took a chartered jet with stops at various Four Seasons to deliver shuch a meaningful gift. The stock market is tanking and Obama gets 15 jobs for a year in Columbus and Hillary spends some 5 million to run around like a deposed queen.
Spamlet Party: NA Reply #15 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 2:53 PM EST This administration is no joke. Don't even get us started on how embarrassing W was in our representation towards other nations.
Frommaine Party: Conservative Reply #16 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 3:18 PM EST rizvisa1: Mar 6, 2009 - 2:35 PM EST I think who ever is responsible for this gaffe needs to be discplined as it made USA look bad. Also next time it might be a good idea to have the translation checked by an ohter person before actually giving it to some one. You'd think they'd have at least ONE person fluent in Russian over at the State Dept.
Logan5 Party: NA Reply #17 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 3:20 PM EST Hey Spamlet, I've got news for you: Obama is already the worst president in the history of the country, and it's only been SIX WEEKS! In fact, he doesn't even convey the slightest sense of being presidential. It often feels like he's just some idiot who is pretending to be president, which given the birth certificate controversy, is probably literally the case. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
dealer66 Party: NA Reply #19 Date: Mar 6, 2009 - 3:24 PM EST Another gaff? When is it the occupants of the White House and their entourage stop committing gaffs in our foreign relations. George did it with his cowboy boots gift to the Chinese, the Big O snubb...
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