Regime Change In Ukraine – Who Bugged Nuland, an Embarrassment

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[Update] Title change from “Obama Style Regime Change In Ukraine – Nuland: ‘Fuck the EU'” due to addition intelligence sourcing in posts below.

Her words won’t be broadcast in the USA due to filter of cuss words. Other nations can hear the leaked audio tape from Russian NSA – АНБ or WikeLeaks KBG style or whatever …

Ukraine leak designed to ‘split’ EU-US diplomacy

(EU Observer) Feb. 6, 2014 – The publication of what seem to be two sensitive US and EU diplomatic conversations on Ukraine is designed to spoil relations between the allies, EU diplomatic sources say.

The items were uploaded on YouTube by a user called “Re Post” on Tuesday (4 February) and already have several thousand clicks each.

In the alleged US audio clip, which appears to date to Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych’s offer of top jobs to opposition MPs on 25 January, Victoria Nuland, a senior US state department official, is speaking to Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador to Ukraine.

They bat around ideas on which of the MPs should be Prime Minister in an interim government.

Nuland notes that she wants a UN diplomat to go to Kiev to seal an accord on the US-model cabinet.

“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 says.

“Oh exactly, and I think we’ve 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,” Pyatt replies.

In the alleged EU clip, a senior EU foreign service official, Helga Schmid, speaks in German to Jan Tombinski, the EU ambassador to Ukraine.

The EU clip appears to date to 31 January, when EU foreign service chief Catherine Ashton put out a statement on tortured Ukrainian activist Dmytro Bulatov. [The Independent: Dmytro Bulatov ‘kidnapped, tortured and left to die’]

Schmid says: “The Americans are going around telling people we’re too weak while they are tougher on sanctions. I talked to Cathy [Ashton] about what we have already discussed and she is on the same page: We have to do it [impose sanctions] but we have to prepare it in a very clever manner. But what you should know is that it really bothers us that the Americans are going around naming and shaming us – this is what several journalists have told us. Maybe you can speak to the US ambassador?”

She adds: “We have just issued a very strong statement on Bulatov and we are going in that direction [sanctions]. We just don’t want to advertise it too loudly because we think it’s more effective this way. It annoys me when the press is reporting that the EU is not on the side of freedom.”

Tombinski replies: “We are not in a race who is the toughest. We have other instruments.”

Schmid notes: “I don’t want that Cathy is put in a corner – this can hurt, politically. This doesn’t work and Cathy will speak to [US secretary of state] Kerry about it.”

The US state department declined to comment, while Ashton’s spokespeople could not be reached on Thursday.

German government calls Nuland’s EU slur ‘absolutely unacceptable’

Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych meets US envoy Victoria Nuland … below the fold.

Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych meets US envoy Victoria Nuland

(RFERL) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has told a visiting U.S. envoy that he is open to talks with the opposition and is in favor of constitutional reform — one of the key demands of the pro-EU protests. But Yanukovych reportedly told U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland that amending the constitution must follow legal steps.

The president’s website said such steps would involve the Constitutional Court and further hearings in parliament. Yanukovych was quoted as saying that “It is only through dialogue and compromise that we can carry the country out of this political crisis.”

The website said Yanukovych also told Nuland he backed moves to speed up the process of releasing activists detained in the civil unrest. Yanukovych has supported a law that offers amnesty for detainees only on condition that occupied public buildings are cleared of protesters.

« click for NRC as source [h/t] Nuland: "I have a message from president Obama, you are on the way out and Klitschko will be your replacement." [parody]

Yanukovych later left Ukraine to attend the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. He is expected to have talks there with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Nuland earlier on February 6 met with Ukrainian opposition leaders in a bid to end the standoff between the government and antigovernment protesters. Nuland — who is on a two-day visit to Ukraine — held talks with Vitali Klitschko, Arseniy Yatsenyuk [rants against gay marriage!], and Oleh Tyahnybok.

The talks came as some 2,000 thousand protesters marched to the parliament to demand that legislators amend the constitution. Marchers were carrying a banner reading, “We are tired of waiting.”

Germany Grooming Klitschko to Lead Ukraine and role Konrad Adenauer Foundation

U.S. State Department Jen Psaki Spokesperson in Daily Press Briefing

MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: — let’s go to the real fire, or what seems to be the real fire at the moment, and which is Ukraine.
MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: And so before we get into the actual substance of this conversation, this call that was recorded and released, can you say whether you – if this call is an authentic recording of an authentic conversation between Assistant Secretary Nuland and Ambassador Pyatt?
MS. PSAKI: Well, I’m not going to confirm or outline details. I understand there are a lot of reports out there and there’s a recording out there, but I’m not going to confirm private diplomatic conversations.

QUESTION: So you are not saying that you believe this is a – you think this is not authentic? You think this is a —
MS. PSAKI: That’s not an accusation I’m making. I’m just not going to confirm the specifics of it.

QUESTION: Well, you can’t even say whether there was this call – that you believe that this call – you believe that this recording is a recording of a real telephone call?
MS. PSAKI: I didn’t say it was inauthentic. I think we can leave it at that.

QUESTION:Okay. So you’re allowing for the – you’re allowing the fact that it is authentic.
MS. PSAKI: Yes. Do you have a question about it?

QUESTION: Yes, okay. Yes, I do —
MS. PSAKI: Okay.

QUESTION: — now, once we get into it. Quite apart from the colorful language that is used in reference to the European Union, the conversation appears to – well, doesn’t appear to suggest, it does – the conversation shows that the United States certainly has – or at least officials within the U.S. Government have certain opinions about certain Ukrainian opposition leaders and others. And I’m wondering how that squares with your repeated insistence that every – all of this is up to the Ukrainians to decide themselves.
MS. PSAKI: It’s not inconsistent in the least bit. It is no secret that Ambassador Pyatt and Assistant Secretary Nuland have been working with the Government of Ukraine, with the opposition, with business and civil society leaders to support their efforts, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that at any point, there have been discussions about recent events and offers and what is happening on the ground. And as you know, Assistant Secretary Nuland is on the ground right now continuing our efforts in that regard.

It remains the case that it is up to the Ukrainian people themselves to decide their future. It is up to them to determine their path forward, and that’s a consistent message that we’re conveying publicly and privately.

Euro 2012 Soccer Championship Stirs Up the Ghost of Anti-Semitism

(Geocurrents) June 19, 2012 – Like the upcoming London Olympics this year and the planned Sochi Olympics in 2014, the Euro 2012 has attracted worldwide attention to a political topic seemingly unrelated to soccer: anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.

But for some Jews living in Euro2012 host cities, especially in Ukraine, anti-Semitism is alive and kicking. As pointed out by Efraim Zuroff of The Times of Israel, Lviv is the capital of Ukrainian ultranationalism, historically linked with anti-Semitism. The names of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Stepan Bandera are associated not only with Ukrainian nationalist movement but also with mass killings of Jews. Khmelnytsky was the nationalist leader of the Cossack uprising against Polish rule in Ukraine in 1648. Though his primary aim was to establish an autonomous Ukraine, he also aimed at eradicating Jews from the country.

« click for election map
Growth of the Svoboda Party in recent elections [earlier symbol]

In recent years, the ultranationalist ideas in Ukraine have been carried forward by the Svoboda (“Freedom”) party, originally known as the Social-National Party, which is rooted in Nazi collaboration. Svoboda is now the largest party on Lviv city council and in the regional council. It has taken power in other major urban centers of western Ukraine, including Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk. In October 2012.