Opinion:

US ‘Regime Change’ plot uncovered in Ukraine

by Daya Gamage

US State Department Assistant Secretary for Europe and European Affairs Victoria Nuland was caught on tape last week confirming that the US is now openly spending US $ 5 billion to effect ‘regime change’ in Ukraine.

Victoria Nuland with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev

Nuland told Geoffrey Pyatt, the US Ambassador to Ukraine, she had discussed the plan with UN Undersecretary for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman and that he would appoint a UN representative to help move it forward.

And who is this Jeffrey Feltman? A career American diplomat, Feltman served as the most senior State Department official on the Middle East from 2009 moved from US Foreign Service in May 2013 to take the United Nations Number Three job, Undersecretary General for Political Affairs.

Portfolio

In his role with the United Nations as the Undersecretary General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman’s portfolio covers the world’s political conflicts.

And that includes Sri Lanka and her issues ‘Reconciliation’, ‘Accountability’ that the United States is highlighting these days with the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Whether it's good or bad news for Sri Lanka, the United States works through Feltman to get the UN agencies to censor that nation's government as much as the US works through him to get changes effected in Ukraine.

Manipulation

The Nuland-Pyatt ‘sensitive’ conversation is one example how the State Department is manipulating UN officials and UN agencies to influence other regimes and intervene in domestic affairs.

The phone conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Nuland and Ambassador Pyatt apparently took place late last month, after President Viktor Yanukovych offered the posts of Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister to Opposition Leaders Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Vitali Klitschko.

One media outlet noted what the US says is that it is working with all sides in the crisis to reach a peaceful solution, noting that “ultimately it is up to the Ukrainian people to decide their future”.

However the Nuland-Pyatt transcript suggests that the US has clear ideas about what the outcome should be and is striving to achieve these goals.

Russian spokesmen have insisted that the US is meddling in Ukraine’s affairs but Washington clearly has its own game-plan.

Game-plan

Asian Tribune readers will recall that the State Department and its officials continually say that ‘it is upto the people of Sri Lanka to decide what its good for their country’ but, as in Ukraine, Washington has its own game-plan.

The mainstream media in the United States give a twist to this story accusing Russia of tapping phone conversations of American officials and releasing it to public domain.

But the real story is concealed: that the State Department is manipulating a regime change in Ukraine.

The London Guardian said, “Blaming the Russians for leaking a conversation that was presumably obtained by covert means poses problems for the US, as documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal that the US has in the past listened into the communications of its allies and enemies.”

Sanctions

The conversation underlines mounting US frustration at the EU’s position on the ongoing democracy protests in Ukraine. The EU has held back from joining US threats to impose sanctions should the Ukrainian regime violently suppress the protests.

In the tapes, Nuland and Pyatt discuss the upheavals in Ukraine, and President Viktor Yanukovych’s offer last month to make opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk the new Prime Minister and Vitali Klitschko Deputy Prime Minister. Both men turned the offer down.

Nuland, who in December went to Independence Square in Kiev in a sign of support for the demonstrators, a clear interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation, adds that she has also been told that the UN chief, Ban Ki-moon, is about to appoint a former Dutch ambassador to Kiev, Robert Serry, as his representative to Ukraine.

“That would be great I think to help glue this thing and have the UN glue it and you know, f... the EU,“ she says, in an apparent reference to differences over their policies.

Changes

“We’ve got to do something to make it stick together, because you can be pretty sure that if it does start to gain altitude the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it,” Pyatt replies.

The Nuland comment clearly denotes that the American government is working to effect changes in Ukraine through its former foreign service officer (FSO) Jeffrey Feltman whose claws are all over the globe, Ukraine and Sri Lanka.

Referring to Klitschko, head of the UDAR (Strike) party, which has close financial ties with Germany’s ruling conservative party, Nuland tells the ambassador: “I don’t think Klitsch should go into the government. I don’t think it’s necessary, I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Pyatt agreed, saying, “let him stay out and do his political homework.”

Experience

Nuland continues: “Yats (Yatsenyuk) is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience.” Pyatt later warns Nuland that “Klitschko has been the top dog” within the opposition, and that she will need to “move fast on all this stuff” and speak with the UDAR leader as part of their “personality management” of the opposition leadership.

Media commentator Patrick O’Connor wrote: In her telephone conversation with Pyatt, Nuland praises UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for deploying a special envoy, Robert Serry, to Ukraine.

This, she explains, will “be great, I think, to help glue this thing (i.e. a new government).” These remarks underscore the role played by the UN as an instrument of imperialism, working with the US and its allies to cover up or endorse their predatory operations around the world.

In the Nuland-Pyatt discussion, the US ambassador expresses his agreement on the need for the UN to be involved, saying, “we’ve got to do something to make it stick together, because you can be pretty sure that if it does start to gain altitude that the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it.” He adds that “we want to try to get somebody with an international personality to come out here and help to midwife this thing.”

One could visualize the manner in which Washington manipulates the UN to achieve its goals.

Courtesy: Asian Tribune