A conversation between a State Department official and the US ambassador to Ukraine posted on YouTube revealed a frank exchange on U.S. strategy for a political transition in that country, including a crude swipe at the European Union.
In the audio posted on Tuesday, Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Victoria Nuland tells Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt she doesn't think Vitaly Klitschko, the boxer-turned-politician who is a main opposition leader, should be in any new government. "So I don't think Klitsch (Klitschko) should go into the government," she says in the recording. "I don't think it's necessary. I don't think it's a good idea."
Nuland met on Thursday with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich to discuss a solution to anti-government protests that have swept the former Soviet republic since November. They discussed political reform and possible further negotiations between Yanukovich and opposition leaders, his website said. US officials, while declining to confirm the tape's contents, did not dispute its authenticity. "I did not say it was not authentic," State Department spokeswoman Jen Paski said.
She said Nuland had apologised to her EU counterparts for the reported comments. The leaked conversation appears certain to embarrass the United States and fuel charges that the Ukrainian opposition is being manipulated by Washington.
In the YouTube audio, Nuland and Pyatt are heard discussing strategies to work with the three main opposition figures: Klitschko, Arseny Yatseniuk, former Ukrainian economy minister, and Oleh Tyahnybok, far-right nationalist opposition leader. Nuland refers to getting the United Nations involved in a political solution in Kiev. "So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and have the UN help glue it and you know ... fuck the EU," he said in the recording, which was accompanied by still pictures of people mentioned in the call.
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