Bad French in Ossetia/Übersetzungsprobleme in Ossetien

It appears from an article in the Telegraph that something went wrong with the translation of the Russia-Georgia ceasefire agreement from French into Russian. 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." The Russian version allegedly speaks of security 'for' South Ossetia and Abkhazia, whereas the English version speaks of security 'in' the two areas. There is no mention of a Georgian version. The Telegraph seems to view the problem not as the translation, but as the very fact that the agreement was written in French. Hmm. If French speakers were involved, that doesn't sound very convincing. The farce is a huge blow to the Fren…