Chernomyrdinka

thumb|right|200px|Viktor Chernomyrdin A chernomyrdinka (; plural: ) or a chernomyrdinism is a quotation, often a malapropism or a gaffe, attributed to the former Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. Many of them entered the everyday Russian lexicon. The most famous example is "We wanted the best, but it turned out as always", uttered in the context of Russia's efforts in economic reforms, namely the monetary reform in Russia, 1993.

Chernomyrdinki were often accidental rather than scripted, and over time commentators have found them to be both humorous and inadvertently resonant. They were produced after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when country leadership, including Chernomyrdin, attempted to speak "not from the paper sheet" (in other words, not in a scripted fashion) and without bureaucratisms typical of the late Soviet Union. Russian journalist writes that chernomyrdinki often reflected the spirit of the epoch better than thick books of writers and philosophers.