[SNN] US diplomats call newly-elected Ukrainian President Poroshenko 'disgraceful oligarch' – WikiLeaks -

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http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_05_29/US-diplomats-call-newly-elected-Ukrainian-President-Poroshenko-disgraceful-oligarch-WikiLeaks-0773/


US diplomats call newly-elected Ukrainian President Poroshenko 'disgraceful 
oligarch' – WikiLeaks


Billionaire Petr Poroshenko has been holding high-status positions in Ukraine 
for a long time, Kommersant newspaper says. The newspaper's journalists have 
found, what American diplomats wrote about Poroshenko in their dispatches, 
which were made public by WikiLeaks. Poroshenko was mentioned in the documents 
of the US Department of State 100 times during the period from 2006 to 2010. At 
the same time, part of these references was negative.

The majority of negative commentaries about Poroshenko were made during the 
period from 2006 to 2009.

During this period he was a deputy of the Our Ukraine political party and 
chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine. Sheila Guoltni, US deputy Ambassador 
to Ukraine, told the US Department of State on May 26, 2006 that the image of 
Poroshenko was discredited by "credible accusations of corruption." Former 
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko accused Poroshenko, an ally of Viktor 
Yushchenko during the Ukraine's Orange Revolution, of lobbying for his own 
interests. Thus, Poroshenko was ousted as Secretary of the National Security 
and Defense Council of Ukraine because of a conflict with Timoshenko and the 
Verkhovna Rada.

In the dispatch of February 16, 2006, John Herbst, US Ambassador to Ukraine, 
called Poroshenko "an oligarch, who had disgraced himself." On June 21, 2006, 
the next US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor characterized him as 
"unpopular politician, who had been supported by the party members due to his 
business activity." One month later, Taylor wrote that the Our Ukraine 
political party had followed the advice of "Poroshenko, who personifies all the 
weaknesses of the party", instead of nominating a young and perspective deputy 
for the elections.

According to other dispatches of American deputies, Poroshenko, while being 
Ukrainian Foreign Minister, did whatever he could to prevent Kiev from 
cooperating with Moscow. During the conference between Ukraine and NATO 
Poroshenko asked Western colleagues to "oppose Russia's attempts to secure any 
sphere of influence and to veto Ukraine's aspiration for entering NATO," the 
dispatch of December 2009 says.

Another US Ambassador to Ukraine John Tefft said that Poroshenko himself 
advised Viktor Yanukovych that he firstly visit Brussels and not Moscow. 
Poroshenko also "called upon the US not to take seriously the words of 
Yanukovych, who approved the proposal of former Russian President Dmitry 
Medvedev to create a new security system in Europe." At the same time, 
Poroshenko was insisting on making Ukraine a member of NATO, in spite of 
President Yanukovych's position.

Kommersant asked Irina Friz, spokesperson of Petr Poroshenko, about the 
reaction of Mr. Poroshenko to the references made by the American diplomats 
about him. However, she said that Poroshenko didn't read them.