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In a meeting in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Hillary Clinton presented a...

Five years ago, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton drew flack for one wrong word.

In a meeting in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Clinton presented a token of good faith from the United States: a bright red and yellow button, bearing the word reset in Russian.

The term represented a larger principle of the Obama Administration: U.S.-Russia relations needed to start afresh. But the Russian word on the button didnt mean reset at all.

You got it wrong," Lavrov told Clinton. The word on the button translated to overcharged.

The gaffe blew over quickly. But now, Clinton might be wishing shed picked another word entirely.

As Russia took control of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine, taking advantage of political upheaval there, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ignored demands by the U.S. and its allies to pull back his forces.

The change in dynamics has flipped political arguments on their heads suddenly, the reset in relations spearheaded by Clinton has shifted from an apparent moment of strength during her tenure as secretary of state to a potential political land mine.

In a speech at UCLA on Wednesday, Clinton defended herself. I was very clear-eyed about what I thought we could get done, she said.

Reset was a phrase, a word used to say, OK, were not happy about [Russias war with] Georgia, were not happy about other efforts to re-Sovietize the border were going to deal with that but we want to get some other things done. And we did, she said.

Original post:

Ukraine shows Obama and then Hillary Clinton goofed on Russia