Here's Photos Of John Kerry Awkwardly Handing Potatoes To Russia's Sergei Lavrov
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today in Paris and took some time to hand him a couple Idaho potatoes.
The meeting between the two men is bookended by talk that Kerry's gaffe diplomacy led to Russia taking the lead in Syria and, more recently, that Russia had defied Washington by giving Edward Snowden asylum.
Late last year, Kerry's had quipped that a U.S. strike could be averted if Syria turned over all of its chems, "all of it, without delay and allow a full and total accounting for that. But he isn't about to do it and it can't be done."
Nonetheless, the statement gave Lavrov the upper hand to spearhead a diplomatic solution in Syria.
Now, Kerry and Lavrov are meeting to discuss the role of Iran in that "solution."
All things considered, it was a situation ripe with tenseness; apparently it was also a situation with ripe potatoes, as Kerry unboxed a batch for his contemporary.
Maria Zakharova, Deputy Director of public relations for Moscow, put this image on Facebook with the caption, "At the beginning of the meeting John Kerry presented Lavrov potatoes from Idaho, where the Secretary of State was recently. I hope this is a good sign.".jp2?maxX=900)
Then turning the potatoes over to Lavrov.
Then giving the thumbs up sign, which can assume means the trade went well.
