US representative to Europe: ‘F*ck the EU’

MOSCOW  — An aide to Russia’s deputy prime minister, who was among the first people to post a video online containing a bugged phone call between two US diplomats, says neither he nor the Russian government played a role in leaking the tape.

Dmitry Loskutov told The Associated Press by phone on Friday that he was surfing a social networking website on when he came across the video, in which the top US diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, disparages the European Union. He said his decision to repost the video had no connection to his work for the Russian government.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Moscow’s apparent role in publicizing the video was “a new low in Russian tradecraft.”

The suspicions were aired Thursday after an audio of the call was posted to the Internet and amid continuing criticism of the United States in Europe and elsewhere over NSA spying on foreign leaders and the US. 

They also came as the Russia-hosted Winter Olympics opened under tight security to prevent possible terrorist attacks and highlighted distrust between Washington and Moscow that has thrived despite the Obama administration’s attempt to “reset” relations with the Kremlin.

  

The White House and State Department stopped just short of directly accusing Russia of surreptitiously recording the call between Nuland, and the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. But both took pains to point out that a Russian government official was the first or among the first to call attention to the audio of the conversation that was posted on YouTube.

White House spokesman Jay Carney pointed to the Russian official’s tweet and Russia’s clear interest in what has become a struggle between pro-Moscow and pro-Western camps in the former Soviet Republic.

“I would say that since the video was first noted and tweeted out by the Russian government, I think it says something about Russia’s role,” Carney told reporters. He would not comment on the substance of the conversation, in which the Nuland and Pyatt voices also discuss their opinion of various Ukrainian opposition figures.

In the audio, voices resembling those of Nuland and Pyatt discuss international efforts to resolve Ukraine’s ongoing political crisis. At one point, the Nuland voice colorfully suggests that the EU’s position should be ignored. “F*ck the EU,” the female voice said.

An aide to Russian deputy prime minister, Dmitry Rogozin, was among the first to tweet about the YouTube video, which shows photos of Nuland and Pyatt and is subtitled in Russian.

In the tweet, posted some seven hours before existence of the video became widely known on Thursday, the Rogozin aide, Loskutov, opined: “Sort of controversial judgment from Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland speaking about the EU.”

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki did not dispute the authenticity of the recording and said that Nuland had apologized to European Union officials for her remarks.

The YouTube video was posted on February 4 and is titled the “Marionettes of Maidan” in Russian. Maidan is the name of the main square in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, which has become the center of opposition protests.

The US has repeatedly denied allegations, many of them from Russian officials, that it is taking sides in the Ukraine crisis and Psaki repeated that stance on Thursday.

“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,” Psaki said. “It shouldn’t be a surprise that at any points there have been discussions about recent events and offers and what is happening on the ground.”

“Of course these things are being discussed,” she said. “It doesn’t change the fact that it’s up to the people on the ground. It is up to the people of Ukraine to determine what the path forward it.”