From Responsible Statecraft, July 25:
Uber Russia-hawk Victoria Nuland rises to acting deputy secretary of state
She’s done as much as anyone to sour US-Russia ties; now, she is one of Washington’s top diplomats.
In a little-remarked move, the Biden administration announced Monday that Victoria Nuland will take over as the acting second-in-command at the State Department. She replaces Wendy Sherman, who plans to retire at the end of this week.
Nuland’s appointment will be a boon for Russia hawks who want to turn up the heat on the Kremlin. But, for those who favor a negotiated end to the conflict in Ukraine, a promotion for the notoriously “undiplomatic diplomat” will be a bitter pill.
A few quick reminders are in order. When Nuland was serving in the Obama administration, she had a now-infamous leaked call with the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. As the Maidan Uprising roiled the country, the pair of American diplomats discussed conversations with opposition leaders, and Nuland expressed support for putting Arseniy Yatseniuk into power. (Yatseniuk would become prime minister later that month, after Russia-friendly former President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country.) At one memorable point in the call, Nuland said “Fu–k the EU” in response to Europe’s softer stance on the protests.
The controversy surrounding the call — and larger implications of U.S. involvement in the ouster of Yanukovych — kicked up tensions with Russia and contributed to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to seize Crimea and support an insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Her handing out food to demonstrators on the ground in Kyiv probably didn’t help either. Nuland, along with State Department sanctions czar Daniel Fried, then led the effort to punish Putin through sanctions. Another official at State reportedly asked Fried if “the Russians realize that the two hardest-line people in the entire U.S. government are now in a position to go after them?”
Nuland’s hawkish inclinations continued after she left the Obama administration. Back in 2020, she penned a Foreign Affairs essay entitled “Pinning Down Putin” in which she called for a permanent expansion of NATO bases in the alliance’s eastern flank, a move that would be sure to ratchet up tensions between the United States and Russia. As I’ve previously noted, Nuland also opposed the idea of a “free rollover of New START” — the only remaining agreement that limits Washington and Moscow’s nuclear weapons stockpiles — when it was set to expire in 2021.
Since returning to the State Department under President Joe Biden, she has showed little interest in a dovish turn. In an interview earlier this year, Nuland called Putin a “19th century autocrat” and justified Ukrainian attacks in Crimea, which Russia has called a red line. “If we don’t [defeat Putin], every other autocrat on this planet is going to go looking to bite off pieces of countries and destabilize the order that has largely kept us safe and prosperous for decades and decades,” she argued.
To recap, Nuland 1) was allegedly involved in a conspiracy to overthrow Ukraine’s president, 2) was definitely behind a strict sanctions regime on Russian officials, and 3) has never softened her uber-hawkish stances since. With U.S.-Russia tensions at their highest point in decades, there should be little doubt as to how her appointment would be received in Moscow....
....MUCH MORE
We have quite a few posts on Victoria Nuland. Here's one from January 15, 2022 i.e. six weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine:
"The Ukraine Mess That Nuland Made"This September 2022 post on the other participant in the "F**K the EU" phone call had a few links in the outro:
....I think our last mention of the ambassador was June's:
We Are Governed By Idiots and Psychopaths: Fertilizer Edition
I don't mean President Biden. He's a nasty, corrupt old perv with anger and cruelty issues but he's not the one running the show.
I'm talking about the people around him, the advisors from BlackRock and WestExec and the retreads from the Obama administration. They've had eight years since Nuland and Pyatt and the rest of the gang put together the Maidan coup in Ukraine, eight years to game out: "If Putin does this, we do that."
And all they've seemed to accomplish is wrecking the U.S. economy and absolutely destroying the economies of our European allies....
If interested here's the BBC:
Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call
- "How $1.8 billion in aid to Ukraine was funneled to the outposts of the international finance galaxy"
- Ukraine: NeoCons Nuland and Kagan; A Family Business of Perpetual War
And a more broadly focused July 2022 post that may be of interest:
RAND Corporation on Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies And Influence Campaigns/Information Warfare
There are a couple dozen more on Nuland but for the interested reader these are solid background.
