Thread: Хотели как лучше, а получилось как всегда (Chernomyrdin)

Originally Posted by Seventh-Monkey

Originally Posted by Barmaley

And besides, in a really darkly humorous way, this Chernomyrdin quote was better:
In 2003, he dismissed talk of an apology for the Holodomor Famine by saying: "We're not going to apologise... there is nobody to apologise to."
(from Wikipedia)

That's terrible, and darkly amusing.

That's terrible because the translator has poor command of the Russian language. In this case he said "Извиняться мы не собираемся - нам не перед кем извиняться" - i.e. "they have no right to demand appologies".

As for "Хотели как лучше, а получилось как всегда". Chernomyrdin didn't invent the phrase- he just popularised it on TV. I heard this humorous phrase long before Chernomyrdin.