Pardon My French

You’ve got to be kidding me. From the Telegraph:

Bad French prolongs Russia-Georgia conflict The conflict between Russia and Georgia has been worsened by badly-translated French, France’s foreign minister has admitted on the eve of crucial talks in Moscow between the European Union and the Kremlin. By Peter Allen in Paris Last month’s ceasefire agreement centred around the creation of “buffer zones” between Russia and the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia which are now effectively controlled by the Kremlin. The agreement was brokered by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president whose country currently holds the EU presidency. But the original diplomatic coup became an embarrassing failure as Russia failed to move its troops off the main body of Georgia. Bernard Kouchner told a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the weekend that the ceasefire agreement was written in French before being translated into English and then Russian. Asked what problems surrounded the buffer zones, Mr Kouchner replied: “The translation, as always.”