"F**k the EU:" Leaked Audio Features State Department Big Trash-Talking the EU Over Ukraine; Russia Fingered as the Culprit in the Leak

First about the leaker, as that's the fresher news. The Associated Press reports:

U.S. officials say they strongly suspect Russia of being behind the leak of an apparently bugged phone conversation about Ukraine between two senior American diplomats in which they make disparaging comments about the European Union.

...

The White House and State Department stopped just short of directly accusing Russia of surreptitiously recording the call between the top US diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, and the U.S. 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. The State Department said the incident marked a "new low in Russian tradecraft."

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.

The earlier news was that Victoria Nuland's disparagement of the EU was leaked (after having been bugged, of course).

“F--- the E.U.,” Nuland says, dismissively referring to slow-moving diplomatic efforts to address political paralysis and a looming fiscal crisis in the country.

The United Nations, she adds, is trying to help faster.

It’s unclear who posted the recording, which surfaced on YouTube on Thursday, just as Nuland arrived in Ukraine for talks. Illicitly recorded material, however, is a staple of politics in the former Soviet Union and is known by its Russian name “kompromat,” meaning “compromising materials.”

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The release of the audio followed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich’s offer to include two senior members of the opposition movement in his government.

You will probably be shocked to hear that Nuland is taking a more aggressive posture on Ukraine than the EU. This shocks me, because for five years we've been a bit softer than even the Europeans. But apparently E.U. is more willing to compromise and agree to some deal by which the Russia-favored current president clings to power, but with some token opposition figures in the government. The US wants the president out.

Thanks to tasker.

At Hot Air, Allah discusses the security breach aspect -- don't we have people on this? The actual call is below.

The interesting thing to me here isn't that she says "F*** the EU" (she says it to mean if we get our ducks in a row, we don't need the EU's help), but listening to government/corporate-speak.

What I've learned today is to say "gaining altitude" when I mean "gaining support." So from now on, I'll be saying, yeah, if that idea gains altitude, I could see some emergent synergy in the near-term.

Damn, I Missed This One: This is the one that alerted me to listen for more Trendy Cliches. CharlieBrown'sDildo reminds me to now say, rather that "this is the complicating factor," "this is the complicated electron here..."

Is This About the Ukraine, or About Sochi? I thought these pictures were jokes until I saw several of them.

These are some of the bathrooms at Sochi. Half-assed, indeed.

posted by Ace at 06:21 PM

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