U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said in Kyiv today that the leaked phone conversation where she is heard to say “Fuck the EU,” was “impressive trade craft" -- continuing the U.S. government's allegations that Russian secret services are behind the eavesdropping and leaking of the private talk.
“I am not going to comment on private diplomatic conversations other than to sat that it was pretty impressive trade craft – the audio was very clear,” Nuland said at a briefing in Kyiv on Feb 7.
In her conversation with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, leaked on YouTube on Feb. 7 , Nuland discussed President Viktor Yanukovych’s Jan. 25 offer of the prime minister’s job to Arseniy Yatseniuk, leader of the opposition Batkivshchyna Party. They also shared assessments of other opposition leaders, including Vitali Klitschko of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform and Oleh Tiahnybok of the Svoboda Party.
Nuland’s frustrated exclamation comes as she and Pyatt talked about pressuring Yanukovych into greater cooperation with the opposition. Nuland explained that she spoke to the United Nations and has an official there who said that Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, agreed to send someone to Ukraine to “help glue this thing and to have the UN glue it.”
And then she says “And you know, fuck the EU.”
“Exactly,” Pyatt replied.
Yanukovych met with UN Secratary General Ban Ki-moon in Sochi, Russia, on Feb. 7, his press service said. Yanukovych said that Ukraine’s government is committed to working with international organizations to solve the political gridlock in Ukraine.
“I am grateful for your balanced and level-headed position and share your calls about the need for both sides to show restraint to avoid future tension and violence and to conduct a constructive dialogue,” Yanukovych said.
Nuland said she also attempted to help “bring to a moderate center” the opposition and the government, and said the U.S. is promoting the idea of a “national technical government that many in Ukraine have called for.”
“We believe that it’s still possible, we believe it’s urgently necessary,” she said. She reiterated that U.S. government was prepared to support such a government, including financially, provided it showed commitment to economic reform and was prepared to cooperate with the International Monetary Fund and improve Ukraine’s track record on human rights.
She said the U.S. government also continues “frank and comradely conversations with Russia” about Ukraine, whose prosperity, she said, was in both nations’ common interests.
But Sergei Glazyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adviser, said in an interview with Kommersant newspaper on Feb. 6 that federalization of Ukraine was in Russia’s interests. Some in Ukraine believe that it’s a code word for the breakup of the country.
Glazyev also said Ukraine’s government should use force to disperse protesters on EuroMaidan, because they are attempting a coup, and accused the U.S. government of interfering in Ukraine’s affairs by arming demonstrators and funding them to the tune of $20 million a week.
He said that Yanukovych and Ukrainian oligarchs are not taking strong action because they are cowed by Western threats “to add them into the blacklist with the seizure of all assets, accounts and confiscation of property.”
Nuland called Glazyev’s accusations “a complete fantasy.”
“He could be a science fiction writer, but it’s quite inventive,” she said.
Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at [email protected]
