US interference destabilizing Ukraine: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Carl Osgood, with the Executive Intelligence Review from Leesburg, to ask for his insight on the renewed ceasefire in eastern parts of Ukraine.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The German foreign minister has hailed the four-way talks as a success. Are there any hopes that the current proceedings will actually help normalize the situation in Ukraine?

Osgood: It depends immediately on the Kiev regime itself whether Poroshenko, the president, will actually abide by the agreement. You may be aware that the Russian side and the side of the independent republics have accused repeatedly the Kiev regime of delaying implementation of the agreement, refusing to implement certain parts of it, particularly with respect to dialogue between the Kiev regime and the two breakaway republics. The Russian side continues to say and Putin emphasized this again today that the… [inaudible] simply has not occurred. And yet that is a necessary element of implementing the agreement.

Press TV: It’s interesting that you’re talking about Ukraine standing by its commitment and we already know that there is a renewed ceasefire that’s been in place in eastern Ukraine since September 1, but we are still witnessing US officials very recently, Victoria Nuland, make nonstop threats to Russia. Wouldn’t this language in itself create tension?

Osgood: Yes of course it could. Victoria Nuland played the key role in the February 2014 coup that brought down the elected Yanukovych government and brought in these, I mean, she handpicked Yantsinyuk, the prime minister, as was revealed in this famously leaked phone call between her and the US ambassador in the days before the coup. The coup itself and the government was brought in basically on the guns of neo-Nazi groups that had been supported from the West and from the US actually for a long period before the coup occurred. So, there’s still a danger coming from the US and coming from certain elements in Europe that support these neo-Nazi gangs. And as far as the internal politics of Ukraine goes, these gangs represent a threat to Poroshenko, because the right sector for example and groups like the Azov Battalion and Aidar Battalion, they’re totally opposed to the Minsk Agreement. And so there is a potential factor of sabotage and provocation in this process. Even now, despite the fact that the ceasefire is held really for about two weeks, because according to the OSCE reports, the gunfire began dying down around the 28th of August…

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