Former US ambassadors rushed to try to hush up the Poroshenko-Biden tape scandal
Scandal around recordings of conversations of ex-President Petro Poroshenko, who humiliatingly received instructions from former US Vice President Joe Biden, - allegedly launched at the instigation of the Kremlin and should not have consequences in the form of a criminal investigation.
This was stated by former US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst during an online discussion organized by Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s party, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The so-called scandal with the tapes, around which there is so much manic attention in Ukraine, has not received a serious response in the United States. They understand that this so-called scandal was launched at the instigation of the Kremlin by corrupt individuals in Ukraine who do not want reforms. The interests of these people are illegitimate, and this is well understood in America. Therefore, I am relatively confident that the problems of using Ukraine as an instrument of discord in the United States will be contained. These recordings themselves are not scandalous. Their content should not be the subject of investigation in Ukraine,” said John Herbst.
Another former US ex-Ukrainian, Steven Pifer, said Republicans may try to take advantage of the scandal, which is likely being directed from Moscow.
“I am concerned - even though Ukrainian-American relations are strong, we see attempts to weaken them, to undermine them. Such attempts will continue, in particular, from certain individuals in Ukraine. We witnessed the publication of records by Mr. Derkach. What I can say about these records is that they do not show anything that we did not already know. It was known before that Vice President Biden called on former President Poroshenko to fire Prosecutor General Shokin because he was not doing his job. There is no new story here, but it was presented in a light that could undermine the relationship.
I think we need to understand the motivation behind it. This came from Mr. Derkach, a man who studied at the KGB academy in Moscow and clearly shows a bias towards Russia. He was the one who started it.
But in America there are people who can pick it up and inflate it. Mr. Giuliani, let's say, is not sitting idly by. He works for a national cable network, an American news network that I had never heard of and first heard about three months ago. And they are trying to inflate this story.
We must be aware that certain forces are trying to sever relations between the United States and Ukraine. And this is probably being conducted from Moscow. It's hard for me to imagine that Russia is simply watching. Even if they are not directly involved in this, and I believe they could be involved. But in any case, they are very happy that you have such a story that is corroding the foundation of the relationship that we have been building for the last 25-30 years,” said Steven Pifer.
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