US diplomat calls leaked recording ‘impressive tradecraft’

A U.S. diplomat, Victoria Nuland, whose controversial telephone conversation about the political crisis in Ukraine was leaked on the Internet earlier this week, said on Friday that the recording was “pretty impressive tradecraft” but suggested it would not harm her ties with the Ukrainian opposition.

Nuland, assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs, also denied a Russian claim that Ukraine’s anti-government protesters are trained on the grounds of the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Kiev, calling it “pure fantasy.”

“I am obviously not going to comment on private diplomatic conversations, other than to say it was pretty impressive tradecraft. The audio was extremely clear,” she said, referring to audio posted to YouTube earlier this week in which she told U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt that she doesn’t think Vitaly Klitschko, the boxer-turned-politician who is a main opposition leader in Ukraine, should be in a new government and had some harsh words for the European Union.

The comments come at a time of heightened tensions among the U.S., Russia, Ukraine and the EU over the fate of Ukraine as protests over the country’s close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government enter their third month.

Russia has been trying to mend its relationship with Ukrainian citizens. Nuland’s comments prompted a Russian official to say the U.S. was overstepping its bounds and violating a 1994 treaty under which Washington and Moscow jointly guaranteed Ukraine’s security and sovereignty after Kiev gave up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal.

“What the Americans are getting up to now, unilaterally and crudely interfering in Ukraine’s internal affairs, is a clear breach of that treaty,” Sergei Glazyev, an adviser to Putin, said on Thursday.

He also accused the U.S. of providing Ukrainian protesters with money for weapons.

Another Russian government official denied that Russia leaked the recording. Dmitry Loskutov, who is an aide to Russia’s deputy prime minister and was among the first to post a link to the recording online, told The Associated Press on Friday that he was surfing a social-networking website when he came across the video. He said his decision to tweet a link to the video had no connection to his work for the Russian government.

Nuland tried to stem fallout from the comments on Friday, saying the U.S. was dedicated to working out a solution in Ukraine.

“Our message has been that we all — Ukrainians, Russians, Americans, all of Ukraine’s neighbors — have an interest in a stable, peaceful, democratic Ukraine,” she said.

Nuland apologized to the EU for her comments on Thursday but still faced heat from the international body’s leaders.

In the leaked recording, she appears to suggest favoring a U.N.-backed solution in Ukraine.

“I think, to help glue this thing and have the U.N. help glue it and, you know ... f--- the EU,” she said in the recording.

A representative for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the comment was “absolutely unacceptable.”

Asked whether Merkel believed Russia was responsible for leaking the recording, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman took the opportunity to take a swipe at the United States for its own sweeping surveillance, including allegations of tapping Merkel’s cellphone.

“This shows you that eavesdropping is stupid,” he said.

Al Jazeera and wire services