Pifer says Zelenskyi should not persecute Poroshenko
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi should find out where the member of parliament Andriy Derkach got recordings of conversations at the presidential level, and not persecute the fifth president of Ukraine, European Solidarity Party leader Petro Poroshenko, ex-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer has said.
Censor.NET reports citing Pryamiy TV channel.
"I think it’s a bad idea to initiate an investigation against Poroshenko. There is nothing good when the newly elected president pursues his predecessors. There should be a very important reason for this, but we don’t see it here," Pifer said in an interview with the Pryamiy TV channel.
"At the same time, there is a question that really requires a legitimate investigation - namely, where did Mr. Derkach get these tapes from. I am 99% sure that they did not come to Ukraine from the American side. In the United States, it is not customary to record telephone conversations at the presidential level. This decision was made after the presidency of Nixon, who recorded absolutely everything, which entailed many scandals. Since then we have not made such records.
So where did Derkach get such records? They were provided by someone from Ukraine, or someone else is listening to these conversations. Perhaps they are recorded by the Russians. In the end, Mr. Derkach has pro-Russian sympathies, he even graduated from the KGB high school in Russia.
There is no need to discard Russian interest in this matter because it is Moscow that needs to aggravate relations between Ukraine and the United States. This issue is really worth investigating," said Pifer.
in the US State Department expressed concern over Zelenskyi's statement about the "Derkach tapes."
