The State Department called the results of Nuland’s activities as Assistant Secretary of State a “catastrophe.”
Former colleagues of Victoria Nuland, who oversaw the post-Soviet direction at the US State Department, whose impending resignation was reported by the Associated Press, say that she was overly carried away by the Maidan, writes Kommersant.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Telegram, Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
The Associated Press reports that Nuland, who served as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, along with many other senior US diplomats, did not want to work with the Donald Trump administration.
Kommersant’s source in the Russian Foreign Ministry did not comment on Nuland’s departure, saying only: “There are no such words.”
“The critical attitude of Russian officials towards Ms. Nuland is explained by her role in building US policy in the post-Soviet space. Since 2013, after her appointment, Victoria Nuland immediately began to have a noticeable influence on shaping Washington’s agenda in this region. This is explained both by a combination of circumstances and by the peculiarities of the management style of the 44th president,” the publication notes.
In turn, an expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center, Alexander Gabuev, told the publication that Moscow refused to negotiate with Washington about further reductions in strategic arms without exchanges on missile defense, after which “in Russia, after the protests, anti-American rhetoric intensified, and scandals around the Magnitsky Act and Edward Snowden has completely destroyed the possibility of cooperation.” At the same time, according to the expert, losing interest in a certain region, Barack Obama “usually brought policy in this area down to the level of the specialized assistant secretary of state.”
As the political scientist points out, “without proper supervision from senior administration officials, it was Nuland who became the demiurge of American politics, which played a fatal role in Ukraine.”
“For Nuland, Maidan was an opportunity to complete Ukraine’s transit towards the West, which began during the Orange Revolution, when she worked as an assistant to US Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney,” Gabuev emphasizes.
Nuland continued to be one of the main players in supporting pro-Western forces in Ukraine after the coup in Kyiv and the sanctions policy towards the Russian Federation.
“The toughest decisions, like the idea of supplying Ukraine with offensive weapons, were blocked by President Obama, but otherwise Victoria Nuland until recently remained the mistress of the post-Soviet clearing,” says Gabuev.
Diplomatic sources of Kommersant claim that if John Kerry held negotiations on the topic of the post-Soviet space, then Victoria Nuland always actively participated in the conversation and often interrupted and pulled back the boss.
“John Kerry once made a critical remark to his assistant about this, which allegedly brought her to tears,” the sources said.
But one of the former State Department employees, who asked not to give his name, said in a conversation with the publication that “the results of Victoria Nuland’s work cannot be called anything other than a disaster.”
“There are no positive results in any of the areas, except perhaps her bureaucratic victories in Washington and her ability to impress her superiors,” Kommersant’s interlocutor is convinced, noting that Nuland should not have been “so carried away by the Maidan.”
“And not because of the critical attitude of the Kremlin, but because what is happening has become too important a political phenomenon for us to openly admit that there are problems. As a result, instead of talking about failures, only successes and reforms were publicly announced. Criticism, sometimes very harsh - even screaming, was voiced, but only behind closed doors. And this gave the Ukrainians a reason not to listen to her,” said a former State Department official.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.