That last irony was not lost on many who took to Twitter over the last twenty-four hours:
As the U.S., including Nuland herself, tried to account for the comments made in the call growing speculation surfaced that it was Russian intelligence who both made the recording and helped disseminate it to the public.
As this ITN News segment explores:
F*** the EU: Alleged audio of US diplomat Victoria Nuland swearingSubscribe to ITN News: https://bit.ly/1bmWO8h An embarassing phone conversation about Ukraine politics between two high ...
And the New York Timesadds:
A link to the secret recording was sent out in a Twitter message on Thursday by Dmitry Losukov, an aide to Russia's deputy prime minister, just as Ms. Nuland was in Kiev meeting with Mr. Yanukovych and opposition leaders. The White House pointed to that as an indication of Russian involvement, although it said it was not accusing Moscow of taping the call. "I think it says something about Russia's role," said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary.
Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said she had no information about who posted the recording but criticized Moscow for promoting it. "Certainly, we think this is a new low in Russian tradecraft," she said.
Mr. Losukov, responding to messages from a reporter on Twitter, rejected the American assertion that he was the first to disseminate the recording. "Disseminating started earlier," he wrote, adding that his post was being "used to hang the blame" on Russia. Asked if Russia had any role, he said: "How would I know? I was just monitoring 'the Internets' while my boss was off to a meeting with the Chinese leader."
The secret tape, reported Thursday by The Kyiv Post, came to light as a Kremlin adviser, Sergei Glazyev, accused the United States of funding and arming protesters in Kiev and seemed to threaten Russian intervention.
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