Strange Bedfellows

Twitter Brings White House, Kremlin Together

John Hudson Jun 24, 2010

On Wednesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev toured the headquarters of Twitter. Besides having a fruitful cultural exchange with Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, he also fired off his first tweet:

Всем привет! Я в Твиттере и это мое6 первое сообщение!less than a minute ago via webПрезидент России
KremlinRussia

The message roughly translates to "Hello everyone, I'm now on Twitter and this is my first message." Appropriately, his maiden tweet has a typo (notice the number 6 amid the Russian script). Delightfully, the White House quickly welcomed its sovereign counterpart with an amicable retweet:

Welcome to @twitter President Medvedev! RT @KremlinRussia_E: Hello everyone! I'm on Twitter, and this is my first tweet.less than a minute ago via HootSuiteThe White House
whitehouse

Proof that the White House and Kremlin can get along?

As an aside, kudos to the White House's social-media aide for discovering Medvedev's tweet, drafting a response and getting official approval a mere three hours after the tweet was sent.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at jhudson at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
John Hudson

Presented By

Topics: Russia

Related Articles				More by John Hudson
Alcoholism Is Killing Off Russian Men	Money Quote: Remembering Putin's Award-Worthy Hip-Hop Speech	Vladimir Putin Is Not Jonny Quest		R.J. Cutler: What I Read	Gavin Newsom: What I Read