Has the Obama-Appointed Head of Ukraine Been Ousted?

by Eric Zuesse

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the banker whom, on 4 February 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama’s Assistant Secretary of State for European & Eurasian Affairs instructed the U.S. Ambassador would lead Ukraine after the planned coup was over (which occurred 18 days later), was apparently ousted from his post, on Thursday, January 14th, barely shy of his second anniversary as Ukraine’s Prime Minister.
The person who ousted him appears to have been the former CIA assett whom the U.S. administration allowed to run as a candidate in Ukraine’s Presidential election on 25 May 2014, and who had won that election — the billionaire Petro Poroshenko. Poroshenko had assisted in the coup and admitted it to the EU’s investigator who was sent in right after the overthrow. (The information that it had been a coup instead of an authentic revolution came as a shock to the EU’s Foreign Affairs Minister.)
This apparent ouster was first reported by the TV channel 112 Ukraine, which is owned by a publicly unnamed anti-coup politician, whom the government has been trying to dispossess of the channel, so far unsuccessfully.
The news report hinted at this apparent ouster by a succession of vague asides, which is the traditional way dictatorships make their most important announcements.  On December 30th, Channel 112 reported that, “Yesterday the final press conference was chaired by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.” However, this was a statement with two meanings, one of which would be “final press conference of the year.” At that press conference, Yatsenyuk had been asked whether he was about to be ousted, and he gave vague answers.
The news-report on January 14th was headlined “Poroshenko is waiting for immediate personnel changes in the Cabinet,” and it said, in another ambiguous side-comment, “It should be noted that the Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk gave a final press conference at the end of last year.” The Fort Russ news site provided the transcript of Poroshenko’s latest public statement, but it included nothing at all which was new.
However, Prime Minister Yatsenyuk’s official website appears remarkably empty now. Its “Upcoming Events” page shows nothing at all. The “News” page is also interesting. On January 15th, the only headline is “Ukraine launched a new Silk Road bypassing Russia.” That news-item doesn’t even mention Yatsenyuk. Its relevance (if any) to his office isn’t at all clear.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

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