Madeleine Albright, born Maria Yana Korbelova, passed away at 85 after a battle with cancer. Among many in her country, she was a controversial figure, welcomed by some and disliked by others. Even her peers reflected a strange mix of respect and disagreement. Yevgeny Primakov, for instance, spoke of a deep respect for Albright and called her one of the best foreign ministers he had worked with. Her experiences offered her a unique view of global diplomacy. There is also a persistent, controversial memory linked to her on the Palestinian issue, connected to a sentence attributed to her later, a claim about the wealth of Siberia and its people which Russian audiences questioned as an oversimplification. A retired intelligence officer later admitted that the quote may have originated from his interpretation or misattribution, casting more doubt on its historical accuracy.
