Oprah Winfrey says she's kinda sorta "sorry" for the fallout that ensued after she told the media about a "racist" encounter at a purse store in Switzerland ... saying, "I'm really sorry that it got blown up."

Yeah, right.

Oprah addressed the media at the premiere of "The Butler" in L.A. last night -- backpedaling after the shop in question started to refute O's allegations of racism during an incident last month.

The shop owner says the whole thing was a "misunderstanding" and had "nothing to do with racism."

Last night, Oprah said ... "I think that incident in Switzerland was just an incident in Switzerland. I'm really sorry that it got blown up. I purposefully did not mention the name of the store. I'm sorry that I said it was Switzerland."

Problem is ... O's full of it. What did she think was going to happen when she went on national TV and cried racism? The media was just going to ignore that??

Oprah once ragged on hamburgers and single-handedly CRIPPLED the beef industry. She knew damn well how the media was going to handle the Switzerland situation ... which is why she went to the media in the first place. Her mission was to destroy the shop.

There are some people who are saying Oprah's Swiss encounter wasn't really about race -- Oprah was just mad she wasn't treated like Her Royal O-ness because the shop employee didn't recognize her ... but now, after the employee told the media she's being unfairly attacked, O's feeling a little guilty.

But pretending not to know about the impact of her race allegations?? That's like Obama pretending not to know what's gonna happen if he pushes that big red button in the White House.