Here the latest example of that smart power we were promised…
In 2009 Hillary Clinton presented a “reset button” to symbolize a new era in US-Russia relations.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a ‘reset button,’ however the Russian-language label had the wrong word, and read ‘overcharged’ instead of ‘reset.’ (March 6, 2009)
Russia was obviously touched by the gesture.
A recent government report found that Russia’s military intelligence was responsible for a bomb blast that occurred at an exterior wall of the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia, in September, 2010.
The Washington Times reported:
The highly classified report about the Sept. 22 incident was described to The Washington Times by two U.S. officials who have read it. They said the report supports the findings of the Georgian Interior Ministry, which traced the bombing to a Russian military intelligence officer.
The Times reported last week that Shota Utiashvili, director of information and analysis for the Georgian Interior Ministry, said the embassy blast and others in his country were the work of a Russian military intelligence officer named Maj. Yevgeny Borisov. …
(One U.S. official familiar with the U.S. intelligence report) added that it specifically says the Russian military intelligence, or GRU, coordinated the bombings.
Boy, all that kowtowing to the Russians sure worked wonders, huh?