"In terms of him not going into the government, just let him stay out and do his political homework," a male voice - believed to be Pyatt - replied. "In terms of the process moving ahead, we want to keep the moderate democrats together," he said.

 "It’s just not going to work," Nuland  said.

 "That would be great I think to help glue this thing and have the UN glue it and you know, f**k the EU," Nuland said .

"We've got to do something to make it stick together, because you can be pretty sure that if it does start to gain altitude the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it," Pyatt replied.