…and confuses Iraq and Iran…
US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki conducts her daily briefing for reporters on June 16, 2014 at the State Department in Washington. (AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards)
Long-suffering State Dept. spokesperson Jen Psaki endured another torrid press briefing as she was forced to defend some distinctly unsavory remarks by Ukrainian politicians and struggled with the differences between Iraq and Iran, as well as oil and gas.
As usual, AP’s Matt Lee served as Psaki’s chief tormentor, bringing up last week’s protests outside the Russian embassy in Kiev, in which Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchitsa addressed the anti-Russian mob by telling them that “Putin is a f**ker.”
“These are officials you have supported, is this the kind of language you find acceptable?” Lee asked Psaki.
Psaki insisted that Deshchitsa’s words are not relevant. Rather, what truly matters is “what the FM was doing when he made those comments,” she said.
“He’s been encouraging calm, encouraging a peaceful resolution, and I would otherwise point you to the Ukrainians on the meaning of the language used, but I think the context here of what effort he was undergoing is an incredibly important part.”
Whether Deshchitsa truly succeeded in his aims of quelling the crowd is questionable – the video shows his words being immediately picked up and turned into a football chant by the delighted mob, as the somewhat mortified diplomat looks on.
And while the Russian embassy did not get torched, one international incident was replaced with another after an official press release from Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, in which anti-Kiev militias in eastern Ukraine were described as “sub-human” separatists.
“I think the Prime Minister behavior and his leadership has been consistently in support of a peaceful resolution,” Psaki said, refusing to answer whether she felt okay with the Ukrainian official using the Nazi-like word “subhuman” to describe the Russians.
But that’s not all…
ITAR-TASS: Andrii Deshchytsia dismissed as Ukraine’s acting foreign minister
Poroshenko wants to appoint Deshchytsia Ukraine’s ambassador abroad!
