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CNN Live At Daybreak
Laura Bush in Moscow
Aired October 01, 2003 - 05:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As you know, Laura Bush is in Moscow. It's part of her goodwill trip to France and Russia.
Soledad O'Brien joins us live now with details on the first lady's day there -- good morning, Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Carol.
And a busy day, another busy day for the first lady, who truly spent the day at the Festival of School Libraries, as this particular book festival was called. It's being held at the Czar's Garden, which is essentially a convention center.
The festival was being hosted by the Russian first lady, Mrs. Putin. And she introduced the first lady of the United States, Laura Bush, who, in turn, introduced three of the American authors that she is traveling with. And these names will be known well to children and also to their parents -- Peter Lerangis, who is the author of "The Babysitter" series of book, "The Babysitters' Club;" Author R.L. Stein, who is the author of the "Goosebumps" series; and then Marc Brown, who is the author and illustrator of the "Arthur" books.
And clearly they were able to give a little bit of a program about their stories. And it was fun to see how their works actually translate very well into Russian. Schoolchildren were invited and were a big part of the program.
Then, James Billington, who is the Librarian of Congress, gave the first ladies, and that includes Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Putin, in addition to that, the first lady of Armenia and also the first lady of Bulgaria, took a tour of the exhibit of the Library of Congress, which includes a very impressive and huge online component, some 330,000 digital pictures from an American, Russian-American project. And they expect another million to come online shortly.
And then Mrs. Bush toured a computer lab at this festival with Mrs. Putin. And they sat down and chatted with two young ladies who were translating the poetry of Robert Frost from English into Russian. And the young women said that they had, that the poetry was pretty easy to translate, with the exception of one word, pillared, that they weren't really sure how to translate that. And we assured them that's actually a very hard word in English, too.
COSTELLO: It is.
O'BRIEN: A busy day for the first lady -- it is, you see? That's what I told them. I assured them many of us don't know what that means either.
And then, of course, she has a busy rest of her day. She's going to take a little bit of a break and then head on to the Bolshoi tonight, where the "Don Quixote" is on the program.
So in some ways, Carol, truly a race through both Paris, which that trip has wrapped up, and now through Moscow before she heads back to the U.S.
COSTELLO: Now, it sounds like a really nice visit. But is it really mending fences? Is it really doing any good to, you know, mend the fences between France and Russia with the United States?
O'BRIEN: Well, Mrs. Bush has a very good friendship, and that was said in public many times by both Mrs. Putin, the Russian first lady, and Mrs. Bush. She introduced her as "my good friend Laura Bush is here," and it really underscoring the close personal friendship that the two women have. So I think that in and of itself will go a fair way to mending any fences. And this is certainly a big media event being covered by Russian television and international organizations, as well.
So -- and, again, you're talking about areas where Mrs. Bush is very comfortable -- education. She laughed. She enjoyed being with the young children, who really enjoyed taking part in the story telling processes and the drawing projects that were going on. She was absolutely in her element. And I think that anybody who sees the first lady enjoying herself to this degree, certainly in topics that are politically safe, can't help but sort of have a positive feeling on it. If they go into politically unsafe territory, I think that might be a completely different story -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, I'm sure she'll stay away from that.
Soledad O'Brien reporting live for us from Moscow this morning.
And, by the way, Soledad did interview Mrs. Bush. She'll have that interview live on AMERICAN MORNING at 7:00 Eastern here on CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 1, 2003 - 05:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As you know, Laura Bush is in Moscow. It's part of her goodwill trip to France and Russia.
Soledad O'Brien joins us live now with details on the first lady's day there -- good morning, Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Carol.
And a busy day, another busy day for the first lady, who truly spent the day at the Festival of School Libraries, as this particular book festival was called. It's being held at the Czar's Garden, which is essentially a convention center.
The festival was being hosted by the Russian first lady, Mrs. Putin. And she introduced the first lady of the United States, Laura Bush, who, in turn, introduced three of the American authors that she is traveling with. And these names will be known well to children and also to their parents -- Peter Lerangis, who is the author of "The Babysitter" series of book, "The Babysitters' Club;" Author R.L. Stein, who is the author of the "Goosebumps" series; and then Marc Brown, who is the author and illustrator of the "Arthur" books.
And clearly they were able to give a little bit of a program about their stories. And it was fun to see how their works actually translate very well into Russian. Schoolchildren were invited and were a big part of the program.
Then, James Billington, who is the Librarian of Congress, gave the first ladies, and that includes Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Putin, in addition to that, the first lady of Armenia and also the first lady of Bulgaria, took a tour of the exhibit of the Library of Congress, which includes a very impressive and huge online component, some 330,000 digital pictures from an American, Russian-American project. And they expect another million to come online shortly.
And then Mrs. Bush toured a computer lab at this festival with Mrs. Putin. And they sat down and chatted with two young ladies who were translating the poetry of Robert Frost from English into Russian. And the young women said that they had, that the poetry was pretty easy to translate, with the exception of one word, pillared, that they weren't really sure how to translate that. And we assured them that's actually a very hard word in English, too.
COSTELLO: It is.
O'BRIEN: A busy day for the first lady -- it is, you see? That's what I told them. I assured them many of us don't know what that means either.
And then, of course, she has a busy rest of her day. She's going to take a little bit of a break and then head on to the Bolshoi tonight, where the "Don Quixote" is on the program.
So in some ways, Carol, truly a race through both Paris, which that trip has wrapped up, and now through Moscow before she heads back to the U.S.
COSTELLO: Now, it sounds like a really nice visit. But is it really mending fences? Is it really doing any good to, you know, mend the fences between France and Russia with the United States?
O'BRIEN: Well, Mrs. Bush has a very good friendship, and that was said in public many times by both Mrs. Putin, the Russian first lady, and Mrs. Bush. She introduced her as "my good friend Laura Bush is here," and it really underscoring the close personal friendship that the two women have. So I think that in and of itself will go a fair way to mending any fences. And this is certainly a big media event being covered by Russian television and international organizations, as well.
So -- and, again, you're talking about areas where Mrs. Bush is very comfortable -- education. She laughed. She enjoyed being with the young children, who really enjoyed taking part in the story telling processes and the drawing projects that were going on. She was absolutely in her element. And I think that anybody who sees the first lady enjoying herself to this degree, certainly in topics that are politically safe, can't help but sort of have a positive feeling on it. If they go into politically unsafe territory, I think that might be a completely different story -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, I'm sure she'll stay away from that.
Soledad O'Brien reporting live for us from Moscow this morning.
And, by the way, Soledad did interview Mrs. Bush. She'll have that interview live on AMERICAN MORNING at 7:00 Eastern here on CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
