Donald Trump intends to submit for the Senate the candidacy of retired Lieutenant General Keith Dayton for the post of US Ambassador to Ukraine. Information on this is available on the website of the presidential administration.
Keith Dayton, 71, spent most of his life in military service. He previously headed the Department of Strategy, Planning and Policy of the US Department of the Army, intelligence intelligence of the Pentagon intelligence in Washington. It was Dayton who at one time was the director of the Iraq Study Group, which participated in the preparation of the American campaign “Iraqi Freedom”, which culminated in the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
- Keith Dayton
- © Wikimedia Commons
In recent years of military service, Keith Dayton served as coordinator of US security in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. At the same time, the general devoted many years to work in the European and post-Soviet areas.
Having retired in 2018, Dayton headed the Center. George Marshall in Germany. According to the organization’s website, the structure is one of the five regional centers of the Pentagon. Based on the official wording, the organization’s mission is to create opportunities for solving regional security problems. The center’s area of interest includes not only the European theater of action, the organization “provides support” to the countries of the former Soviet Union - Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The Marshall Center also maintains relations with Mongolia and Afghanistan.
In addition, in November 2018, the head of the Pentagon (then held this post by James Mattis. - RT ) appointed Dayton a senior adviser on Ukraine.
Dayton speaks Russian and German, and is professionally versed in the post-Soviet space. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary of Virginia, holds a master's degree in history from Cambridge University, and a master's degree in international relations from the University of Southern California.
"Trained in a foreign direction, General Dayton studied at the US Army Institute for the Study of Russia in Garmisch," the Center’s website reports. George Marshall.
Recall, the US Army Institute for the Study of Russia was founded in 1947 and operated on the territory of Germany. The mission of the institution was to train military specialists who speak Russian and are well versed in Russian and Soviet culture, history and politics.
The consequences of Ukrainogate
The information that Keith Dayton is considered by Donald Trump as the most likely candidate for the post of US ambassador to Ukraine appeared in the American media at the end of 2019. About this with reference to anonymous sources wrote the publication Politico. The publication noted that Dayton's candidacy is one of the most suitable for this post. The publication reminded that one of the last projects of Dayton at the Center. George Marshall became a course for Ukrainians in defense reform and anti-corruption.
“In these areas, there is such a personnel vacuum that the nomination of this candidate for the post of ambassador - especially when it comes to a political appointee, but at the same time pleasing both to the foreign policy establishment and the bureaucracy of the Department of State - will come in handy,” Politico then assessed the former consultant Senate, expert on Ukraine Daniel Vaidich.
- Marie Jovanovic
- Reuters
- © Jonathan Ernst
It is worth noting that for the whole year the post of American ambassador to Ukraine remained vacant. The personnel gap formed after Washington recalled the previous ambassador - diplomat Marie Jovanovic.
Donald Trump did not hide his antipathy to Jovanovic. The politician even accused her of the fact that for a long time she allegedly did not want to hang a portrait of the 45th US president at the embassy after the 2016 elections.
“The ambassador, whom everyone is so enthusiastic about, refused to post my portrait at the embassy. A year and a half or two years passed before the portrait appeared on the wall, ”Trump said in an interview with Fox & Friends.
Subsequently, Jovanovic was at the epicenter of the scandal associated with the alleged attempts of Donald Trump to put pressure on Kiev to obtain compromising evidence on his political opponent Joe Biden.
In October 2019, the ex-ambassador testified against Trump at closed congressional hearings. Jovanovic said she was forced to leave the Ukrainian capital due to pressure from the US presidential administration, as well as accusations against him by his lawyer Rudi Giuliani.
Later, similar accusations were voiced by the diplomat and during public testimony as part of the Trump-launched impeachment procedure. Excerpts from the transcript of these testimonies were published on the website of the Congress Committee on Intelligence.
The diplomat said Giuliani’s attempts to discredit her, which, according to Jovanovic, Ukrainian officials told her. She also referred to the words of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov, who expressed concern about Washington’s attempts to drag Kiev into US internal political contradictions. At the same time, the question of whether during the conversation with Avakov touched upon the interest of Giuliani and his assistants in the affairs of the Bidenov family and Burisma, Jovanovic answered in the affirmative.
"Yes. It was supposed to take a look at what happened in the past in order to identify something that could reduce the chances (Joe Biden. - RT ) of winning the presidential race, ”said Jovanovic.
- Burisma subsidiary building in Kiev
- Reuters
- © Valentyn Ogirenko
Recall that in April 2019, the former US Vice President Joe Biden announced his decision to take part in the 2020 presidential campaign. Shortly before this, The Hill newspaper published material from which it followed that Biden was implicated in corruption schemes during his work in Ukraine.
According to reporters, in 2014 the son of the vice president - Hunter Biden - received a post on the board of directors of the Burisma energy company operating in Ukraine. Later, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office suspected Biden Jr. of receiving a bribe from the company's management. However, the investigators did not have time to summon him for questioning, because the head of the department, Viktor Shokin, was dismissed at the request of Biden Sr.
New song about the old
According to Vladimir Vasilyev, chief researcher at the US and Canada Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the appointment of a new US ambassador to Ukraine has been postponed for a year due to Democrats' attempts to impeach Trump.
“The whole impeachment story spun from August to February, so the appointment of a new ambassador dragged on. But the topic of Ukraine remains relevant for the White House, and the accusations made against Biden do not lose their sharpness. Therefore, Trump made his choice in favor of the military, and not another diplomatic worker, ”the expert said in a comment to RT.
As Vasilyev notes, all former US ambassadors to Ukraine came from American diplomatic circles and shared their philosophy, which clearly did not coincide with the course of Donald Trump.
“Trump refused the services of personnel diplomats, because he believes that they will torpedo his policy in Ukraine. He wants to see the ambassador to this country as a completely loyal person who is not connected with the structures of the State Department, who will carry out the necessary Trump line in Ukraine, ”Vasilyev emphasized.
The analyst believes that the US president will not abandon attempts to use the story with Biden’s alleged corruption actions.
“His goal is to show that the story of impeachment was necessary for the Democrats only in order to cover Biden and prevent the truth from being revealed,” Vladimir Vasiliev is sure.
However, experts doubt that the appointment of a former military ambassador will allow Kiev to count on an increase in US military assistance.
The expert of the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies Volodymyr Bruter believes that although the United States will continue to support Ukraine, it will be moderate.
“Washington is now little interested in somehow strengthening the Ukrainian army. Rather, it is about ensuring complete loyalty to the White House within the Ukrainian elite and making decisions favorable to the American administration, ”the expert explained in a conversation with RT.
A similar point of view is shared by Vladimir Vasiliev. As the expert recalled, in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, Ukraine is in dire need of support, not only military but also financial.
“Washington can provide assistance to Kiev, but only if the Ukrainian authorities are more accommodating and agree to collect incriminating evidence on Biden. The White House has a wide range of tools for the Ukrainian government to fully side with Trump and focus on cooperation with him, ”the expert concluded.