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This morning I find myself singing that old song: "Feelings, nothing more than feelings..."  According to the Medusa Project , a Russian news site, President Vladimir Putin accused the U.S. of deliberately and gratuitously worsening Russian-American relations: американская сторона «предприняла ничем не спровоцированный шаг по ухудшению российско-американских отношений» The American side "took an absolutely unprovoked step toward worsening Russian-American relations." Fascinating. Unprovoked? But what caught my eye in the news this morning was the English translation of Putin's characterization of his cuts to embassy and consulate personnel. In English he was reported in the New York Times to have said: "It is biting." CNN was a little more clear, saying that Putin called the cuts  "biting" measures . But the Russian says something different: chuvstvitel'ny . The measures should be sensed, noticeable, possibly emphatic . But

So this week President Vladimir Putin of Russia was quoted in the New York Times as complaining about "boorishness." Photo credit: Mauri Ratilainen/ European Pressphoto Agency for the NYT This was not the  most  noteworthy quote in the NYT this week (I am striving not to use profanity since reading about J.D. Vance's Mamaw in his  Hillbilly Elegy , so I won't repeat the other quote). It was, however, named the " Quotation of the Day ." Not many Americans use the word "boorishness." In fact, I may never have heard it spoken aloud in my entire life. Nonetheless, as often happens when reading translations, I had to back-translate and realized immediately what Putin must have said in Russian. I checked on the Russian internet, and I was right: Putin called the new sanctions being imposed on Russia by the U.S. Senate "boorishness and cynicism" -- or khamstvo i tsinizm . The word khamstvo , or boorishness, seems like the kind of t