Lost in translation: Supposed praise of Putin ends up raising heckles

The Cold War spirit is back in relations between the West and Russia. How else can one view the tweet by the US envoy in Ukraine, praising Ukraine’s foreign minister Andriy Deshchytsia for his bid to “defuse a dangerous situation”? Now, how exactly did he calm the violent mob around the Russian embassy in Ukraine to wow the Americans?

Well, for starters, after he was shouted down, he showed empathy by saying, actually, “I support you….” Then, to stress the point, he said, “Yes, Putin is a khuilo, yes.” The Western media has dutifully translated khuilo to mean something unprintable. If so, the US diplomat should clarify his praise.

The point was made by Russia Today head Margarita Simonyan who quipped that Ukraine must have legalised marijuana.

“Whoa, bad idea,” she tweeted. The more we researched this, the more we found layers of meaning. For instance, we realised that the Nato code name for a Russian-built class of submarines is the Kilo. Is it a deliberate misspelling of Khuilo?

Our own navy operates several such vessels, sporting the desi name Sindhughosh. So, each time one of our defence analysts praises the virtues of the kilo-class, are the CIA embeds in Delhi laughing till their bellies ache? Until we have more clarity on the antecedents of kilo/khuilo, let’s not call them that, at least within earshot of Putin.