Russian foreign minister sends Idaho potatoes given by Kerry to southern Russia
MOSCOW. Jan 21 (Interfax) - Specialists in Russia's southern Krasnodar Territory will conduct experiments with the two large Idaho potatoes that were given to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as a gift during a recent meeting.
"If the truth be told, I have agreed to a request from one of our farms and have sent these potatoes to Kuban where experiments will be carried out with them," Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday.
Kerry gave Lavrov two gigantic Idaho potatoes ahead of talks in Paris on January 13. On the same day, Lavrov presented Kerry with a pink fur hat.
Kerry explained that he and Lavrov had communicated a lot over the Christmas holidays and he had promised to bring potatoes from Idaho as a gift to Lavrov.
According to the U.S. secretary of state, Lavrov, for his part, promised that these potatoes would not be used to make vodka, but would be eaten.
Lavrov said that the potatoes given to him by Kerry have a specific shape.
The word potato "can be used in the idiom "carrot and stick", where the [word] carrot can be easily replaced by potato," the Russian minister said.