Merkel angered by US diplomat’s expletive
Print Edition
A top US diplomat has 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.
Assistant Secretary of State 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.
“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,” she said in the recording.
US officials have not denied the authenticity of the recording and said Nuland apologized to EU colleagues.
Merkel — already furious with Washington over reports that US officials bugged her phone — found Nuland’s remarks “totally unacceptable,” a spokeswoman 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 United States 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 Kiev on Thursday before the Ukrainian leader flew off to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Winter Olympics, described the bugging and leaks as “pretty impressive tradecraft” but said it would not hurt her ties with the Ukrainian opposition.
On the audio clip, Nuland is heard telling US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt that she doesn’t think that Vitaly Klitschko, the boxer-turned-politician who is a main opposition leader, should be in a new government.
But she indicated she did not feel the incident would spoil relations with opposition leaders, who also include former Economy Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk and far-right nationalist Oleh Tyahnibok, some of whom are regarded by Western government as future key politicians in a reformed Ukraine.
“They (the opposition leaders) know exactly where we stand in respect of a non-violent solution to the problem,” she said.
Of relations with Russia, she said Washington and Moscow had “very deep, very broad and complex” discussions on a range of international issues including Iran and “frank and comradely discussions” with Moscow on Ukraine.
But she had sharp words for Sergei Glazyev, a Kremlin aide who accused the US of arming Ukrainian rebels and who warned that Russia could intervene to maintain the security of its neighbor.
Dismissing his comments as “pure fantasy,” she said he “could be a science fiction writer” and added that the US had an absolutely transparent policy on Ukraine.
She said the US sought to defuse street tension to end further violence, and supported the formation of a “national technical government.”
“We want Ukraine back to economic health, back to support from the IMF, back to Europe and back to free and fair elections,” she said.
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