Thread: Life in our countries - "good, bad and ugly"...

Originally Posted by Paul G.

I know it. I meant they do it for themselves. Like teenagers joke behind somebody's back.

Ah -- yes, I agree that it could have been CIA employees making a joke to each other.

I think it's equally possible, however, that:

1. Nobody in the CIA's computer-animation department spoke Russian;
2. Nobody in the CIA's Soviet department knew anything about video production;
3. The two departments could not take the trouble of writing a one-sentence memo to each other, and the badly-animated "УЫВЦФБГДД" television was the result.

(Similarly, Hilary's "Peregruzka" button was, I believe, a problem of non-communication between two different offices in the State Department -- and not an attempt to make fun of Russians.)

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

(Similarly, Hilary's "Peregruzka" button was, I believe, a problem of non-communication between two different offices in the State Department -- and not an attempt to make fun of Russians.)

Yes, it was funny and confusing at the same time. I don't think they did it for "making fun of Russians". I guess it could be sort of an "amusing sabotage", if we consider a soft version of the so-called "conspiracy theory". So, some people could make the wrong translation specially (to expose Hilary, for instance). In fact, they were right: Russian-American relations really look like "Peregruzka" now. Symbolism showed us that metaphysics exists.