Lost in Translation? Russia's Lavrov Scolds Female Reporter

Sept. 30, 2015, 8:51 PM UTC / Updated Sept. 30, 2015, 8:51 PM UTC

By Halimah Abdullah

It was certainly a head scratcher.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, during a fiery response to the Pentagon’s criticism of Moscow’s airstrikes in Syria on Wednesday, took a moment to scold a female journalist for crouching when she tried to ask Secretary of State John Kerry a question.

“It is politically incorrect for a lady to address a gentleman on her knees,” he told Whitney Ksiazek of Fox News.

The moment took other journalists by surprise and they took to social media to note the interaction.

After Lavrov's chiding Kerry thanked the gathered journalists and both walked into a closed door meeting.

Halimah Abdullah

Halimah Abdullah is a digital editor and writer for NBC News and is responsible for reporting, writing, editing and web producing federal policy news for NBCNews.com. Prior to joining the site in April 2015, Abdullah worked at CNN.com, where she reported, edited and web produced stories on federal politics and policy. In that role, Abdullah was responsible for helping cover Congress, the White House, federal agencies, and national political races.

A veteran politics and policy reporter and editor, Abdullah has worked for Bloomberg Government, McClatchy Newspapers' Washington Bureau, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Newsday, and the Dallas Morning News. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times and TODAY.com, among other publications. Her journalism and creative writing have won awards, been published in several anthologies, and earned her invitations to attend several writing colonies. Abdullah is also a writing professor who has taught at the University of Maryland and the University of the District of Columbia and John Jay College and Brooklyn College in New York.

Abdullah lives in the Washington D.C. metro area.