Ashton-Paet phone call leaked to YouTube

Photo: AP / Scanpix

A February 26^th telephone call between Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Estonian defence minister Urmas Paet – touching events in Kiev, Ukraine – was recorded, and leaked into the internet YouTube environment yesterday. The publication of the call may have been facilitated by secret services of some third country.

At a press conference at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, yesterday, Mr Paet said the goal of the telephone call was to inform the EU representative of the mood prevalent in Kiev, relating what locals have to share about the recent violent events.

Mr Paet stressed yesterday that in the phone call he wasn’t forwarding his own views, rather mediating what the local people are talking about. According to the minister, he has no idea how the call was leaked, and he didn’t think it prudent to engage in guesswork.

Even so, Mr Paet thinks it no accident that the call made a week ago surfaced now that Ukraine has its new government in office.

«It is regrettable that such calls go to those who are not supposed to have them. Distorted versions, also, have appeared of the conversations, aimed at discrediting the government of Ukraine,» said Mr Paet.

According to the minister, it far from clear at the moment if it was his or Lady Ashton’s phone that was bugged. Mr Paet is using foreign ministry’s iPhone 4 type telephone. The day before, he dad that very phone with him, in Kiev.

The foreign ministry will not launch investigations regarding the leak itself. According to Mr Paet, this is the job of corresponding agencies. Also, the foreign minister saw now need, at the moment, to raise the phone calls security requirements. «This is the task of other agencies; should they deem it necessary, then they’ll do it,» he said.

The foreign ministry has also notified Lady Ashton; however, Mr Paet said she had surely heard of the incident via agencies dealing with such matters. By yesterday afternoon, Mr Paet had not talked about it, personally, with Lady Ashton as yet.

Commenting on the event, yesterday, Estonian Internal Security Service remained tongue-tied.

«We are aware of such a recording being distributed. In earlier years, Internal Security Service has informed public of the danger of communication solutions in civilian use not being secure and that these may be eavesdropped by unfriendly intelligence,» said security service press representative Harrys Puusepp.

Marko Mihkelson (IRL), chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee at Riigikogu, is convinced the leak is the work of Russian intelligence. According to him, this is not the first, but already third time such recordings appear in YouTube. As assessed by Mr Mihkelson, there’s no doubt it is Russian secret services wiretapping the calls.

The first recording was published last summer, after Lithuanian had assumed presidency of the European Union – a conversation between Lithuanian diplomats on Eastern Partnership appeared via YouTube. The second call was disclosed at the beginning of this February, as US diplomats were holding a conversation about the situation in Ukraine.

Extracts from February 26^th phone call

CATHERINE Ashton /.../ I just wanted to inquire what you saw [in Ukraine] while there.

URMAS Paet: I got back last night already, so I only spent a day there.

Ashton: Impressions?

Paet: Impressions are sad. I met representatives of the Party of Regions, representatives of the new coalition, and civil activists. There’s a lady there, Olga [Bogomolets], a leader over the doctors. You know her?

Ashton: I do.

Paet: My impressions are sad as there’s no trust. No trust, even, towards the politicians that have returned to the coalition. People from Maidan and civil activists say that they know all those that will belong to the new government and that these people all have a dirty past. They made Olga and other civil activists some proposals to join the new government but Olga, for instance, put it plainly that she would only agree to go into the government if she could take along foreign experts in her team, to launch genuine health care reforms. /.../

Party of Regions was agitated; they said they accept that there will now be a new government and new elections, but at the same time there is a tremendous pressure to parliament members. During the nights, uninvited guests visit members of parties.

Some journalists that were with me saw how guys with guns roaming the streets, in broad daylight, were beating a parliament member in front of the parliament building. So all the confusion is still there. And, of course, Olga and other civil activists were quite sure that the people would not leave the streets before they see that actual reforms are started. Government change is not enough. And that’s the main impression. /.../

Party of Regions’ representatives also said that you will soon see people riot in Eastern Ukraine and start demanding their rights. Some of the people that were with me had been in Donetsk and they said the people there cannot wait how long the Ukrainian occupation in Donetsk will last. That, actually, Donetsk is a Russian city and would like to see Russia to take over the city.

Ashton: That’s very-very interesting. /.../ On the political side, we’ve been working with the resources that we’ve got. I proposed the civil activists [Arseni] Yatseniuk and [Vitali] Klitchko, to all others I met yesterday: «We can offer people to you who know how to carry out political and economic reform. The states that are closest to Ukraine, having themselves underwent dramatic change and carried out large-scale political and economic reforms. So we have so much experience to share with you, that we would be glad to share.» /.../

And I told Olga that «you may not be health care minister at the moment but you need to think of becoming that, in the future. Because there’s a need for people like you, to make sure that reform happens». I also told them that if you just build barricades before buildings and the government is not functioning, we cannot send you money. We need a partner.

I also told the opposition leaders soon to become government that «you must communicate with Maidan and put ordinary policemen back to the streets, with a new understanding of their role, so people would feel secure».

I also told the Party of Regions members that «you must take flowers to where people died. You must show you understand what happened here. Because what you are experiencing now is the wrath of the people who have seen how [Viktor] Yanukovych lived and what the corruption was like, and they assume everybody is like that. Also the people who have lost loved ones and feel he gave orders for that. I think there’s a shock and lots of sadness in the city, and it will be manifest in a very strange way if you’re not careful».

We must all work. We had a grand meeting today to get things settled, and I’m very interested in your observations.

Paet: Actually, the only politician that the civil society members mentioned positively was [Petro] Poroshenko. Him, the Maidan people trust somewhat.

Secondly, what was quite disturbing, Olga told that all the evidence shows that people who were killed by snipers from both sides, among policemen and people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides. So she also showed me some photos, she said that as medical doctor, she can say it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it's really disturbing that now the new coalition, that they don't want to investigate what exactly happened. So there is a stronger and stronger understanding that behind snipers it was not Yanukovych, it was somebody from the new coalition. /.../