Try to lie credibly, please

The US officially recognizes the capital of Ukraine as Kyiv, not Kiev. The former is the Ukrainian spelling (translated from Cyrillic, naturally), the latter is Russian.

The US is courting Ukraine and Viktor Yushchenko, its western-leaning President. So this little touch would help de-Russify the Ukraine. Here's the part that redlined The Monk's BS meter:

Ukraine's Western-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko, elected on the wave of the 2004 Orange Revolution's mass protests against election fraud, has sought to take his nation out of Russia's influence and join NATO and the European Union.

"I don't think this decision has anything reflective in it," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Thursday.

Keep repeating it and someone might believe it.