The potted biography of Nuland vis a vis Ukraine is as below and nothing really stands out. She was just a person in a place at a particular time. There is absolutely nothing there for conspiracy theorists to get their teeth into. A rather undiplomatic comment about the EU, but she probably didn’t know she was being recorded. But again, nothing there for conspiracy theorists to get worked up over.
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UkraineNuland was the lead U.S. point person for the
Revolution of Dignity, establishing
loan guarantees to Ukraine, including a $1 billion loan guarantee in 2014, and the provisions of non-lethal assistance to the Ukrainian military and border guard.
[17][18] Along with Secretary of State
John Kerry and Secretary of Defense
Ash Carter, she is seen as a leading supporter of defensive weapons delivery to Ukraine.
In 2016, Nuland urged Ukraine to start prosecuting officials whom she perceived as "corrupt": "It's time to start locking up people who have ripped off the Ukrainian population for too long and it is time to eradicate the cancer of corruption".[19] While serving as the Department of State's lead diplomat on the Ukraine crisis, Nuland pushed European allies to take a harder line on Russian expansionism.
[20]During a June 7, 2016, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing titled "Russian Violations of Borders, Treaties, and Human Rights",
Nuland described U.S. diplomatic outreach to the former Soviet Union and efforts to build a constructive relationship with Russia. During her testimony,
Nuland noted Russia's 2014 invasion of Ukraine which she said, "shattered any remaining illusions about this Kremlin's willingness to abide by international law or live by the rules of the institutions that Russia joined at the end of the Cold War."[21]On February 4, 2014, a recording of a phone call between Nuland and U.S. ambassador to Ukraine,
Geoffrey Pyatt, on January 28, 2014, was published on
YouTube.
[22][23][24][25][26][27]In their phone conversation, Nuland and Pyatt were having a discussion about the make up of next Ukrainian government. Nuland told Pyatt that
Arseniy Yatsenyuk would be the best candidate to become the next Prime Minister of Ukraine.
[23][24] Nuland suggested the United Nations, rather than European Union should be involved in a political solution in Kiev, saying that “So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and have the U.N. help glue it and you know ... f* the EU”. The following day, Christiane Wirtz, Deputy Government Spokesperson and Deputy Head of the Press and Information Office of the German Federal Government, stated that German Chancellor
Angela Merkel termed Nuland's remark "absolutely unacceptable."
[28] The president of the
European Council,
Herman Van Rompuy, condemned the remark as "unacceptable".
[29][30] Department of State spokesperson
Jen Psaki said the discussion was not evidence of any American plan to influence the political outcome, remarking that "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".
[31]
