Replies

“Yeah, suuuure....we all know that the Ukrainians themselves and their Parliament had nothing to do with it, right? It was all just this lone woman who did it all herself, including running Yanukovych out of the country! What a weak man he was for letting that happen!”

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Recorded conversation between Asst. Sec. of State Victoria Nuland and Amb. Jeffery Pyatt

A recording of Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt speaking on the phone about US strategy for a political transition in Ukraine and includes a crude swipe at the European Union.

Transcript:
0:08
the klitschko piece is obviously the
0:11
complicated
0:12
electron here especially the
0:14
announcement of him as deputy prime
0:16
minister and you’ve seen some of my
0:17
notes on the
0:19
troubles in the marriage right now so
0:20
we’re trying to get a read really fast
0:22
on where he is on this stuff
0:24
but i think your argument to him which
0:26
you’ll need to make i think that’s the
0:27
next phone call we want to set up
0:29
is exactly the one you made to yachts
0:32
and i’m glad you sort of put him on the
0:33
spot on where he fits in this scenario
0:36
and i’m very glad he said what he said
0:38
in response
0:40
good so uh i don’t think clete should go
0:43
into the government
0:44
i don’t think it’s necessary i don’t
0:45
think it’s a good idea
0:49
yeah i mean i i guess
0:53
you think what in terms of him not going
0:56
into the government just let him sort of
0:58
stay out and do his political homework
0:59
and stuff
1:00
i’m just thinking in terms of sort of
1:03
the process moving ahead
1:05
we want to keep the moderate democrats
1:07
together the problem is going to be tony
1:09
broke and his guys
1:10
and you know i’m sure that’s part of
1:12
what yanukovych is calculating on all of
1:14
this
1:15
um i think yats is the guy who’s got the
1:20
economic experience the governing
1:21
experience he’s
1:22
he’s the gut you know what he needs is
1:24
clitch and tony book
1:26
on the outside he needs to be talking to
1:27
them four times a week
1:29
you know i i just think klitsch going in
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he’s going to be
1:33
at that level working for yatsenyuk it’s
1:36
just not going to work
1:37
yeah no i think that’s i think that’s
1:39
right okay good would you want us to try
1:41
to set up a call with him
1:42
here’s the next step my understanding
1:46
from that
1:46
call but you tell me was that the big
1:49
three were going into their own meeting
1:51
and that yachts was going to offer in
1:52
that context a three-way
1:54
you know three plus one conversation or
1:56
three plus two with you
1:58
is that not how you understood it no i
2:00
think i mean that’s what he proposed but
2:02
i think just knowing the dynamic that’s
2:03
been with them where
2:05
um klitschko has been the top dog he’s
2:07
going to take a while to show up for
2:08
whatever meeting they’ve got and he’s
2:10
probably talking to his guys at this
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point so
2:12
i think you reaching out directly to him
2:14
helps with the
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personality management among the three
2:18
and and it gives you also a chance to
2:20
move fast on all this stuff and put us
2:22
behind you behind it
2:24
before they all sit down and he he
2:26
explains why he doesn’t like it
2:29
okay good i’m happy why don’t you reach
2:31
out to him and see if he wants to talk
2:32
before or after
2:34
okay we’ll do thanks okay i’ve now
2:37
written oh one more wrinkle for you jeff
2:39
yeah uh i can’t remember if i told you
2:42
this or if i only told washington this
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that
2:44
when i talked to jeff feltman this
2:46
morning he had a new name for the un guy
2:49
robert serry
2:50
did i write you that this morning yeah i
2:52
saw that
2:53
he’s now gotten both sarri and ban
2:56
ki-moon to agree that sari could come in
2:58
monday or tuesday
2:59
okay so that would be great i think to
3:03
help glue this thing and have the un
3:05
help glue it
3:06
and you know the eu no exactly and
3:09
i think we’ve got to do something to
3:11
make it stick together because
3:12
you can be pretty sure that if it does
3:14
if it does start to gain altitude the
3:16
russians will
3:17
be working behind the scenes to try to
3:19
torpedo it and again the fact that this
3:21
is out there right now
3:22
i’m still trying to figure out in my
3:23
mind why yanakovich did that
3:27
but in the meantime there’s a party of
3:28
regions faction meeting going on right
3:30
now and i’m sure there’s a
3:32
lively argument going on in that group
3:34
at this point but
3:36
anyway we could uh we could land jelly
3:38
set up on this one if we move fast so
3:40
let me work on
3:41
let me work on klitschko and if you can
3:43
just keep i think we want to try to get
3:45
somebody
3:46
with an international personality to um
3:49
come out here and help to midwife this
3:51
thing then the other the other issue is
3:53
some kind of
3:53
outreach to yanukovych but we probably
3:56
regroup on that tomorrow as we see how
3:57
things start to fall into place
4:00
so on that piece jeff uh when i wrote
4:02
the note uh sullivan’s come back to me
4:05
uh vfr saying you need biden and i said
4:08
probably tomorrow for an
4:09
atta boy and i get the deets to stick so
4:11
guidance willing
4:12
okay great thanks

Audio Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoW75J5bnnE