Top US diplomat’s leaked call angers Angela Merkel
A top US diplomat tried to play down the damage to Washington’s diplomacy in Ukraine from a leaked telephone call, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel called an obscene remark about the EU “absolutely unacceptable.”
US officials blamed Moscow for the internet leak of recordings of a senior State Department official and the US ambassador discussing a possible future government for Ukraine, where Washington and Brussels back anti-Kremlin demonstrators.
Western officials described the leaks as a throwback to the cloak-and-dagger tactics of the Cold War, apparently aimed as much at sowing discord among Western allies as at discrediting the opposition in Ukraine, a country of 46 million people on the verge of bankruptcy, torn between east and west.
Senior State Department official Victoria Nuland is heard using an expletive to tell the US ambassador it would be better if a new Ukrainian government is backed by the United Nations than the EU. “F**k the EU,” she says. US officials have not denied the authenticity of the recording and said Nuland apologised to EU colleagues for the comment.
Angela Merkel – already furious with Washington for several months over reports that US officials bugged her own phone – found Nuland’s remarks “totally unacceptable”, a spokeswoman for the German chancellor said.
Merkel also expressed support for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who heads the bloc’s Ukraine policy.
In a separate leaked recording, an Ashton aide is overheard complaining about the US for telling Ukrainian Opposition members that Brussels was “soft” in its reluctance to impose measures such as sanctions to hurt the pro-Russian government.
Nuland, who met President Viktor Yanukovych in Kyiv on Thursday before the Ukrainian leader flew off to meet President Vladimir Putin at the Olympics in Russia, described the bugging and leaks as “pretty impressive tradecraft” but said it would not hurt her ties with the Ukrainian opposition. In her bugged call, apparently recorded about 12 days ago when Ukrainian Opposition leaders were considering an offer from Yanukovych to join his Cabinet, Nuland suggested that one of three leading figures might accept a post but two others should stay out. In the end, all three rejected the offer.
The diplomatic furore with the EU draws attention to a gulf between Washington and Brussels, who agree on the goal to draw Ukraine closer to the West but disagree over how to achieve it. Some US officials want to threaten Yanukovych’s government with sanctions, including travel bans on individuals. Many Europeans worry that such tactics could be counterproductive by driving Ukraine’s elite closer to Moscow.
Relations between Washington and Moscow, frosty for years, have been bitter recently, with disputes over Syria, human rights and other issues leaving little to show for what the Barack Obama administration once billed as a diplomatic “reset”.