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Former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, who departed his position shortly before the current crisis in Ukraine broke out, has confessed in an interview to the Voice of America’s Russian service that Washington has a plan for an extremely catastrophic scenario in Ukraine. The diplomat also said he had asked the White House to reinstate him in his position after the crisis erupted around the status of Ukraine’s breakaway republic Crimea.
McFaul told the VOA he felt “responsible” for the situation the former Soviet member state had found itself in after the coup, which made him re-apply for his former office. He noted that Russia’s move on Crimea had happened the next day after he left for the United States, so he immediately felt he must go back and made a bid to restore his diplomatic status.
McFaul said he kept in touch with his colleagues in Moscow, the White House and the US Department of State, who had warned him Russia might be forced to take action if the February 21 promises by Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych and the opposition weren’t delivered on.
The former ambassador refused to go in detail on Obama’s action plan for Ukraine, but stressed it was a worst-case scenario.This statement comes as the United States continues to beef up military forces close to Ukrainian borders.
The former ambassador, whose career in Russia spans a couple of tumultuous years, alleged that some Russian top officials had been “outraged” over Yanukovych’s surprise flight from Ukraine in early 2014.
He also described President Putin’s decision to protect the Russian-majority republic of Crimea as purely emotional, rather than rational.