Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Geneva on March 6, 2009
When former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, for the first time in 2009, she presented him with a mock “reset” button. It was meant to symbolize Washington’s hopes to mend frayed ties with Moscow. The only problem? The button actually said “peregruzka,” which Clinton thought meant “reset” in Russian, but actually means “overcharge” or “overload.” Lavrov teased Clinton about the mistranslation, but the two, meeting in Geneva, pressed the symbolic button anyway for all to see. Whether the metaphor — or the moment of levity it brought — signaled a new era for U.S-Russia relations remains up in the air.