A phone call between a top US official and the US Ambassador to Ukraine was leaked and posted on YouTube – and revealed several details of the American strategy for Kiev
Her “fuck the EU” is now notorious worldwide: in the end, the US diplomat – one of Kerry’s top officials – had to apologise. Victoria Nuland, top US diplomat for European and Eurasian affairs, in a phone call with the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, was discussing the strategy to be used for reaching an agreement between the Yanukovich’ government and the opposition led by Vitali Klitschko, former boxer. They were talking about US initiatives in Kiev and she said the now infamous “you know, fuck the EU.” Perhaps she ‘just’ wanted to say the US are going ahead by themselves but her phone call was leaked and taped. In addition, it was then posted on YouTube in a video subtitled in Russian.
Not only a faux pas there, but also several details on the American strategy to be implemented: everything on YouTube now. For instance, we’ve learnt that Jeffrey Feltman, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, was about to send a special envoy for Ukraine – and the matter had already been discussed with the VPOTUS Joe Biden. Or, that the idea of the leader of the opposition Klitsch as new Prime Minister is not seen as “a good idea”.
Kind of a Cold War story: the US government’s reactions were far from positive. The White House accused the Russian government for the leak: Jen Psaki said that if the Russians were responsible for listening to, recording and posting a private diplomatic telephone conversation, it would be “a new low in Russian tradecraft”. White House spokesperson Jay Carney explained, “The Secretary of State has contacted his colleagues at the European Union” to apologise and reassured that “relationships are stronger than ever.”
