The EU knows that some of the people in Kiev are dangerous, and more and more Europeans will be wondering who, in fact, is the EU supporting in Ukraine, especially after the leaked Ashton phone tape, international law expert Alexander Mercouris told RT.
“In private a lot of people are going to be very worried because they are going to be asking themselves who is it in fact that we are supporting in Kiev,” Mercouris said.
A leaked phone conversation between the EU foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, and Estonian Foreign Affairs Minister Urmas Paet on Wednesday revealed that the snipers who shot at protesters and police in Kiev were allegedly hired by Maidan leaders.
“There is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers it was not Yanukovich, but it was somebody from the new coalition,” Urmas Paet said during the conversation.
“I think we do want to investigate. I mean, I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting. Gosh!” Ashton answered.
Mercouris explained that the EU will try to say as little as possible about this in public, as they have already came out in support of the coup-imposed government in Ukraine.
“In public I suspect they [the EU] will say as little as they can [about the sniper phone call]. They’ve committed themselves very much to supporting this government and it would be very difficult publicly to backtrack about it. In private and if you listen to the call, it’s quite clear that Catherine Ashton was concerned,” he said.
But Mercouris believes that behind closed doors, it will be another story. “In private a lot of people are going to be very worried because they are going to be asking themselves who is it in-fact that we are supporting in Kiev.”
Moreover, the EU will not be able to commit to giving money to Ukraine on any large scale until the situation is cleared up and until the EU figures out who is really in control.
“If we are talking about government positions, one can already see that for some days European governments have been slowly trying to calm the temperature down. They will try and do that even further. They know that they need the Russians to stabilize the Ukraine and they also know that some of the people in Kiev are dangerous and violent people,” Mercouris said.