‘F— the EU’, Obama’s envoy says on tape

Alastair Macdonald

Victoria Nuland, US Assistant Secretary of European and Eurasian Affairs.

Photo: State Department

“F— the EU” is what a senior Obama administration diplomat thinks of European efforts to form a new Ukrainian government, according to a recording on YouTube. Washington blames Moscow for its appearance.

The latest dispute between the two countries comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing to open the Winter Olympics at Sochi at 8:15pm this evening (3:15am AEDT). In Sochi, Putin will meet Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich, who recently dismissed the country’s prime minister after street protests against his rule as Kyiv has spurned an entry to the west and returned to Moscow’s orbit.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, President Barack Obama’s spokesman was quick to accuse the Russian government of leaking the YouTube video of US diplomats discussing plans for a new Ukrainian government with the US ambassador in Kyiv.

Apparently dating from just before January 27, when Ukrainian opposition leader Arseny Yatsenyuk turned down Yanukovich’s offer to be prime minister, the recording of Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt has them agreeing that opposition leader, former boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko, should not be in a new cabinet.

“I don’t think Klitsch (Klitschko) should go into the government,” Nuland said in the recording. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

She also discussed the prospect of a UN envoy endorsing a future new government: “That would be great … to have the UN help glue it and you know … fuck the EU.”

“Exactly,” Pyatt replied in the recording. “And I think we’ve got to do something to make it stick together because you can be pretty sure that if it does start to gain altitude, the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it.”

Obama’s spokesman, who didn’t dispute the authenticity of the envoys’ comments, said making the exchange public marked “a new low in Russian tradecraft”.

An EU spokesman, meantime, said the European Union would not comment on a “leaked alleged” phone conversation.