A Love Song from Lavrov

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: April 13, 2017

There’s been a lot of good analysis published on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s first visit to Russia this week, but it was down at the bottom of this piece by Amie Ferris-Rotman in Foreign Policy which stands out:

Despite the high stakes and heightened scrutiny, there were some aspects of Wednesday’s visit that seemed almost playful. The Russian Foreign Ministry released a video earlier that day voicing its “hope for productive talks” which featured pictures of a mountain landscape, and was set to the soundtrack of the love song ‘The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face.’

This song, popularized by Roberta Flack in 1972, is just too weird not to think about. Are the Russians so disenchanted with the relationship that they throw out mocking videos, or is it one of those things where they are trying so very hard to appear not to care? Both? One wonders.