U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov two potatoes during a swapping of delegation gifts on Monday, the Associated Press reported.
Lavrov walked into the meeting with two ushankas, the traditional fur hat with earflaps used in Russia, and gave both hats to women on Kerry's staff, according to the AP.
When approached by reporters after news of the spuds got around, Kerry quickly denied any serious diploamtic meaning behind the gift of potatoes, the AP reported.
Kerry explained he had been in Idaho for the holidays, around the same time he spoke to Lavrov over the phone, the AP reported. After realizing Lavrov associated the name Idaho with potatoes, Kerry thought it would be humorous to gift him with some.
"He told me he's not going to make vodka. He's going to eat them," Kerry said of Lavrov, the AP reported.
"I really want to clarify: There's no hidden meaning. There's no metaphor. There's no symbolic anything. ... He recalled the Idaho potatoes as being something that he knew of, so I thought I would surprise him and bring him some good Idaho potatoes," Kerry added, according to the AP.
The funny gifts handed out during the exchange seemed to be the only happy highlight to an otherwise serious and grim meeting where officials were discussing the fate of Syria, the AP reported.
When vodka was mentioned, Lavrov began a short rant about the process, the AP reported.
"In Poland, they make vodka from potatoes," Lavrov said, according to the AP. "I know this. But that's in Poland."
Even as Kerry tried to bring the discussion back to Iran or Syria, Lavrov continued.
"We used to do this in the Soviet Union," Lavrov said. "Now we try to do it from wheat."
Then after the conversation had moved on, Lavrov brought the potatoes back into the conversation with a failed attempt at linking them to the Syria conflict, the AP reported.
"The specific potato which John handed to me has the shape which makes it possible to insert potato in the carrot-and-stick expression," he said, according to the AP. "So it could be used differently."
