US official caught on tape cursing EU for handling of Ukraine crisis
By Peter Foster, Washington, and David Blair
America’s
frustration with Europe’s response to the political crisis in Ukraine
burst into the open on Thursday after a senior US official was
apparently caught on tape saying “f--- the EU”.
Victoria
Nuland, the assistant secretary of state for European affairs, used the
undiplomatic language in a phone conversation with Geoffrey Pyatt, the
US ambassador to Ukraine, which was posted online by an unknown source.
The
pair are overheard discussing a possible deal between President Viktor
Yanukovych and three opposition leaders to end the occupation of central
Kiev by tens of thousands of protesters.
Ms
Nuland relays the news that the United Nations has agreed to send an
envoy to mediate between the rivals, a decision that she welcomes as
necessary to “help glue this thing”.
Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovich (L) greets US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland
“And you know,” adds Ms Nuland, “f--- the EU.”
”Exactly,” agrees the ambassador, Mr Pyatt. “And I think we got to do something to make it stick together, because you can be sure that if it does start to gain altitude the Russians will be working behind the scenes to torpedo it.”
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US blames Russia for leak of undiplomatic language from top official
State department's diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, apparently said 'Fuck the EU' in conversation over Ukraine crisis
Victoria
Nuland, right, meeting the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, in
Kiev. Photograph: Markiv Mykhailo/Itar-Tass Photo/Corbis
"Fuck the EU," Victoria Nuland apparently says in a recent phone call with the US ambassador to Kiev, Geoff Pyatt, as they discuss the next moves to try to resolve the crisis in Ukraine amid weeks of pro-democracy protests which have rocked the country. The call appears to have been intercepted and released on YouTube, accompanied by Russian captions of the private and candid conversation.
Although the US state department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, White House spokesman Jay Carney alleged that because it had been "tweeted out by the Russian government, it says something about Russia's role".
It was impossible to immediately verify the undated post, although the woman speaking sounds like Nuland, who served as the state department's spokeswoman before becoming assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs last year.
Nuland and Pyatt appear to discuss the upheavals in Ukraine, and President Viktor Yanukovych's offer last month to make opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk the new prime minister and Vitali Klitschko deputy prime minister. Both men turned the offer down.
Nuland, who in December went to Independence Square in Kiev in a sign of support for the demonstrators, adds that she has also been told that the UN chief, Ban Ki-moon, is about to appoint a former Dutch ambassador to Kiev, Robert Serry, as his representative to Ukraine.
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US News
Bugged US diplomats conversation: Moscow relishes in Washington's embarrassment
MOSCOW (AP) — It was a conversation not meant for public consumption: two senior U.S. diplomats discussing the political crisis in Ukraine in strikingly frank language.
But within days, the bugged phone call landed on YouTube and was avidly tweeted by Russian officials, who cited it as proof of Western meddling in Ukrainian affairs.
The Russians denied they had any role in bugging the conversation, but they clearly relished in the embarrassment of the U.S. at a time when the ties between the two countries have been strained by a number of disputes, including Syria and most recently, Ukraine.
A look at recent attempts by Russia to jeer at the U.S.
DIPLOMAT IN BLOND WIG
Last May, Russian counterintelligence agents ambushed Ryan Fogle, a 29-year-old U.S. diplomat who they said was trying to recruit a Russian officer. They said he was caught red handed with a recruitment letter, two wigs, sunglasses, a compass and a wad of cash. The spy toolkit that seemed to come straight from a movie became the subject of mockery on Russian state TV for weeks.
SNOWDEN AFFAIR
By harboring NSA leaker Edward Snowden and refusing U.S. demands to extradite him, Russia has dealt a blow to the United States. Though President Vladimir Putin denied that Russian security agencies were controlling Snowden, many security analysts were skeptical, saying it was inconceivable the Russians wouldn't have rummaged through a trove of secrets in his possession.
The Snowden affair and the spotlight it has shone on U.S. eavesdropping activities also offered the Kremlin an opportunity to turn the tables following criticism of Russia's rights record.
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Assistant secretary of state, Victoria Nuland, apologises to EU counterparts for 'undiplomatic language'
THE United States has issued a humiliating apology after a senior official was heard to say "f*** the EU" in an apparently leaked private phone conversation with the US ambassador to Ukraine.The alleged phone call between Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary of state, and the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, was released on YouTube on Thursday. The candid chat is thought to have been conducted on an unencrypted line, which led to its interception.
Moscow has accused the US of meddling in the internal affairs of the sovereign former-Soviet state, which Russia hopes to keep within its economic orbit, Reuters reports. The Kremlin went so far as to suggest that the conversation was evidence that the US may be attempting to foment a coup within Ukraine.
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