US officials say they suspect Russia is 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. Another conversation also leaked features two EU officials making comments about the US.
"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," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
The US officials noted that an aide to Russian deputy prime minister, Dmitry Rogozin, was among the first to tweet about a YouTube video that contains audio of the alleged call between the top US diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, and the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. The video, which shows photos of Nuland and Pyatt, is subtitled in Russian.
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--- the EU," the female voice said.
In the tweet, posted some seven hours before existence of the video became widely known on Thursday, the Rogozin aide, Dmitry Loskutov, opined: "Sort of controversial judgment from Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland speaking about the EU."
White House spokesman Jay Carney pointed to the tweet and Russia's clear interest in what has become a struggle between pro-Moscow and pro-Western camps in the former Soviet Republic, but declined to comment on the source of the audio.
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the audio sounds like an authentic recording of a call that occurred last week.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that if the Russians were responsible for listening to, recording and posting a private diplomatic telephone conversation, it would be "a new low in Russian tradecraft."
At around the same time, the same youtube account uploaded another video, this time featuring a conversation between Helga Schmid, Deputy Secretary General for Catherine Ashton’s European External Action Service, talking in German to Jan Tombinski, the EU ambassador to Ukraine.
The two are heard talking about imposing sanctions on Ukraine and complaining about US officials’ insinuations that the EU is “too weak” for not moving on the sanctions issue.
“The Americans are going around telling people we are too weak while they are tougher on sanctions. I talked to Cathy about what we have already discussed and she is on the same page: We have to do it but we have to prepare it in a very clever way,” Schmid says.
“…we are going in that direction. We just don't want to advertise it too loudly because we think it's more effective this way.”
“We are not in a race who is the toughest. We have other instruments,” Tombinski says.
EU officials have yet to comment on the videos.