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Loskutov posted a link on Twitter which he said proved that another anonymous user had posted the video on Wednesday, the day before he did.

“I think you’re better off asking the titushki (about the origins of the video),” he said, using the word that Ukrainian protesters have used to describe violent, government-paid thugs who are meant to delegitimize the protest movement.

The AP verified that the post cited by Loskutov was made on Wednesday, but the sender could not be identified.

Rogozin, Loskutov’s boss, was unavailable for comment but posted an indirect but vociferous response to American accusations online on Friday.

“While the westerners weave little intrigues and get into scandals, Russia is helping the regions of Ukraine restore lost connections with our industries,” he wrote on the blogging platform Twitlonger on Friday morning ahead of a meeting with Ukrainian industrialists.

“Maybe then there will be fewer unemployed and embittered people to organize riots in their own cities with foreign money,” Rogozin said.

In the video, voices resembling those of Nuland and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine discuss international efforts to resolve Ukraine’s ongoing political crisis. At one point, the Nuland voice suggests that the EU’s position should be ignored. “F— the EU,” the female voice said.

Intercepted private conversations aren’t part of the toolbox that we use to assist Ukraine

Nuland has been active in U.S. efforts to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, where anti-government protesters have been camped out in downtown Kyiv for almost three months after President Viktor Yanukovych announced he was shelving an association deal with the EU in favour of closer ties with Russia.