[throwaway829]

In this case, it's not 'quietly' because it's sinister, it's 'quietly' because it's extremely embarrassing. The US used all its political might to force a global boycott of Russia. Now it's telling farmers to buy Russian fertilizer. I'm no expert, but even I know Russia is a (the?) leading source of fertilizer. And to do this when we were already suffering high inflation? It's a blunder at best.

[Eddy_Viscosity2]

How is it being done 'quietly'? Because they didn't take out an ad at the superbowl? Are they whispering into the farmer's ears?

In this case it would have been better to say "US embarrassingly urges use of Russia fertilizer"