REPRINTS
by Patrick Armstrong
http://us-russia.org/
An important part of the Obama Administration’s new approach was the improvement of US-Russia relations and accordingly Obama, soon after taking office, began to speak of a "reset” in relations. Secretary of State Clinton formally launched the "reset” in Geneva with Lavrov on 6 March 2009. She presented him with a "reset button”. Nothing wrong with that as a symbol and something to put on his desk except for the fact thatthe wrong word was used and that wrong word was written in the Latin alphabet. Are we to assume – Clinton said"we worked hard to get the right Russian word”– that the US State Department has no Russian translators or no people who know that the Russians have their own alphabet? Of course not, but she evidently couldn’t be bothered to consult them. Microsoft and Apple, by the way, know the right word and what alphabet to use. An amateurish beginning to something that was presented as a serious policy change.
But, in my opinion, revealing: if she got something so simple so wrong, was the "reset” ever a thought-out policy? Or was it just a transitory rhetorical flourish?
Yes missile defence installations in Poland and the Czech Republic were cancelled.But missile defence is very far from off the table and Russia’s concerns are still brushed off as not being worthy of a serious response.
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