The kettle is boiling over the insults of the EU by State Department senior official Victoria Nuland following her use of an expletive to describe the EU when talking to the American Ambassador to the Ukraine. In addition to the kettle the German chancellor Angela Merkle is spewing steam with the revelation that the United States State Department has such low regard for the European collection of sovereign states.
Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland referred to the EU using a graphic swear word, in a conversation with the US ambassador to Ukraine. The EU, US and (unofficially) Russia are all involved in talks to end months of unrest in Ukraine which has to do with whether the Ukrainians become part of the EU or whether former Mother Russia gets to Lord it over them once again. Ms Nuland has been forced to apologise "for these reported comments".
The Ukrainian situation reminds us of the biblical account of the twelve spies of Israel who went into Canaan to check out the Promised Land. Two gave a good report and the others balked causing the Israelites to spend another forty years in the wilderness.
In Ukraine it is a battle amongst the people on the one hand to break away from Russian influence and become solidly ‘European’ whilst on the other hand to accept that Russia is Big Brother and it is safer to stay in the shadow of their former communist oppressor.
Nuland, along with President Obama, seems to like the Russians and think they should be worked with. This is good news for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who, after shafting Obama previously, no doubt can’t wait for the opportunity to lie to him before he does it again.
The Americans save their sentiments for the EU despite having suggested a future merger with them. Nuland was caught on the said leaked tape saying to the Ukrainian ambassador "So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and have the UN help glue it and you know @#&% the EU." And the Ambassador agreed.
The Assistant Secretary is no stranger to scandal having been involved in the Benghazi cover-up. After reading the first draft of the State Department talking points in September 2012 that stated that the incident was a coordinated terrorist attack, she sent a message saying that they "could be abused by members of Congress to beat the State Department for not paying attention to agency warnings so why would we want to seed the Hill."
This tells us that Nuland is far more interested in political posturing than in democratic concepts like truth and public opinion. To her, control of the situation and the right to broker power is the most important thing, more important than the actual policy.
Beyond the raw insult Nuland and Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt were heard discussing the merits of each of the main opposition leaders Vitaly Klitschko, Arseniy Yatseniuk and Oleh Tyahnybok. It’s clear they wanted to pick winners and losers though unclear if they would seek to implement means to affect their choice.
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, is not amused. She described the apparent insult of the EU's efforts to mediate in the Ukraine crisis as "totally unacceptable". German government spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said Ms Merkel fully supported the work done by EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton to find a solution to the crisis.
Wirtz said: "The chancellor finds these remarks totally unacceptable and wants to emphasise that Mrs. Ashton is doing an outstanding job." That there was no mention of American efforts suggests the air is increasingly icy between Berlin and Washington after it was revealed last year that Merkel had been bugged by the NSA.
The American State Department is already in full spin mode blaming the Russians for the leak. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “We think this is a new low in Russian tradecraft. This is something they've been actively promoting, posting on, tweeting about.”
Whereas Russian involvement may well be true it doesn’t take way from the attitudes that were revealed. The complicit American Press will co-operate with Team Obama in making this about Russian interference but in Europe the BBC is reporting it more neutrally and other agencies on the continent can be expected to follow suit.
Ms Psaki meanwhile said that Ms Nuland had "been in contact with her EU counterparts and of course has apologised for these reported comments". An EU official responded with: "The EU is engaged in helping the people of Ukraine through the current political crisis. We don't comment on alleged leaked telephone conversations."
America will comment though because it’s been caught with its pants down. Integrity in diplomacy is a key ingredient especially when you are dealing with an adversary like the Russians. And as the Americans should know from their own spy agency, phone calls may be taken down and used in evidence against you.
