*CHINA TOPIX*
*Wikileaks Released Cable Reveals Russia Warned US of Potential Split in
Ukraine*
May 13, 2014 10:22 PM EDT |
Katie Collom
A secret cable released by Wikileaks on Tuesday revealed that Washington
had been warned by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as early as 2008
that US-EU-NATO interfering in Ukraine would result in the country
splitting in two.
The 2008 cable classified by William Burns, then US Ambassador to Moscow
and currently the US Deputy Secretary of State stated:
"Following a muted first reaction to Ukraine's intent to seek a NATO
Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the Bucharest summit (ref A), Foreign
Minister Lavrov and other senior officials have reiterated strong
opposition, stressing that Russia would view further eastward expansion as
a potential military threat."
The cable further revealed that the former Russian foreign minister and
Moscow believed that NATO's involvement and expansion in Ukraine and
Georgia was not based on security measures but rather a leftover legacy of
the Cold War.
Ukraine and Georgia have lobbied to become members of NATO for some years,
with full backing of the US, but their proposal for membership was rejected
by the alliance at the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008.
In February of this year, Ukrainian far-rights groups ousted President
Viktor Yanukovych - a coup which has been largely supported by the US and
Europe.
The newly appointed Ukrainian government hopes to hold early elections on
May 25, a move which has caused Russia to view the coup as an illegitimate
fascist movement and motivated the large nation to become further involved
in Ukraine and Crimea.
©2014 Chinatopix All rights reserved.
http://www.chinatopix.com/articles/2314/20140513/wikileaks-secret-cable-russia-nato.htm
- application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document attachment: CHINA_TOPIX.docx
Received on Wed May 14 2014 - 11:02:56 EDT