MOSCOW, April 21 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova – A week after a controversial trip by CIA Director John Brennan to Ukraine, a visit by Vice President Joe Biden to Kiev promises to reveal further US foreign policy toward the country.
“Brennan is considerably distanced from Obama's foreign policy circle,” said Gordon Duff, a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War.
“With an upcoming visit from Vice President Biden, the public ‘outing’ of Brennan's clandestine meetings may well be poisonous to any attempt the US can make toward preventing a full scale civil war,” Duff told RIA Novosti.
US Vice President Joe Biden has landed in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev where he will stay for two days and meet with Ukraine’s interim government representatives. His trip follows a deadly militant attack on a checkpoint in Ukraine’s Slaviansk on Easter Sunday, part of the crackdown Kiev authorities launched against pro-federalization protesters on April 12 while Brennan was in the country.
“Brennan lacks the personal gravity to deliver a weighty message to a national leader. His own baggage as a torture advocate has left him very much a ‘duck’ among the ‘geese’ within the Obama camp with the likes of Kerry, Hagel and Dempsey as the real insiders,” Duff said. So the visit of Joe Biden could be far more decisive for outlining America’s agenda in Kiev.
“Strong divisions within the US government with the GOP and Tea Party wing led by Senator's McCain and Cruz advocating direct US military involvement, have confused how real US policy, whatever that is, is perceived both at home and abroad,” Duff told RIA Novosti.
Last Thursday, the US, EU, Russia and Ukraine’s interim government reached an agreement on de-escalating the crisis in eastern Ukraine. The Easter night provocation, which killed three and injured three others, is a crime that only benefitted those who seek to violate the Geneva agreement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference Monday.
“The fact that a group of armed extremists appeared in Slaviansk on Easter Sunday and without any warning opened fire at unarmed people at the checkpoint is simply outrageous,” Lavrov said. “It is a crime that is beneficial only to those who seek to violate the implementation of the Geneva agreements,” he added.
Federalization supporters in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Gorlovka, Slaviansk and Kramatorsk have refused to recognize the legitimacy of the current Ukrainian government and have been holding rallies since March. In response, Ukraine’s interim authorities have launched a special operation to crack down on the protests. Moscow has denounced Kiev’s actions.
