Congratulations to LRC for breaking this news ahead of Google. This conversation between Estonia’s and the EU’s foreign minister is genuine, for sure.
Paet takes 5 minutes describing his impressions from a visit, and they are that the “civil society” (non-government) people (activists) who want various reforms have no trust in the interim government.
Later in the conversation, he states that it was not the old and falling government that brought in snipers but “somebody” from the new coalition. This ties in with a BBC source I linked to a day or two ago. (This link also had material on anti-government snipers and right-wing thugs.) That BBC source wrote (on February 1):
“(BBC News) Feb. 1, 2014 – This man, Vadym Titushko, used to be one of Ukraine’s most notorious pro-government vigilantes, paid to show up at protests and cause trouble. Now he’s switched sides to join the protesters, saying he doesn’t want his name to be a byword for a thug any longer.”
Ashton goes on at length about how to create a state, with protections against corruption, out of the existing surplus of distrust and vacuum, and how to use the IMF as midwife or midwife’s assistant in this birth.
Any grand rhetoric coming from U.S. politicians in support of the non-existent new democracy is seen to be empty of content. Paet characterizes the situation as very “sad” with people thinking the current group is “dirty”. He also mentions some sentiment in Donetsk to go Russian. The Russian position in all of this does not appear unreasonable behavior — as state behavior goes — as compared with the bluster and juvenile leaping to conclusions exhibited by some U.S. leaders.
2:21 pm on March 5, 2014
