A political analyst holds certain Western governments accountable for the crisis in Ukraine, saying the West has been the main aggressor in the current circumstances in the crisis-hit country.
“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin is going to sit back and as the West escalates he is going to respond but he is not escalating on his own because he is creating a clear path here that the West has been the aggressor in this whole situation,” Jim W. Dean, the managing editor and columnist at Veterans Today, told Press TV.
“And we agree with the independent intelligence community and we agree 100 percent that is who the aggressor has been,” he added.
He noted that it is “very possible” that the relationship between Russia and the US will not return to the status quo and said it could be the West’s goal.
Pointing to the very precarious financial situation that the European countries are facing, the commentator said there are efforts to divert public attention and make it focus on something else.
“If anybody thinks that the soviets are going to allow a, basically, shadow government, a Western, terrorist, puppet government installed in Ukraine, think that they are going to rule over the whole country and have control over all of those industries and all of those Russian-speaking people, they are smoking dope. That is never going to happen,” Dean pointed out.
The analyst’s remarks came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday held a telephone conversation with his US counterpart John Kerry, warning the United States against “hasty and reckless steps” over the crisis in Ukraine that could harm Moscow-Washington relations.
US President Barack Obama has already signed an executive order authorizing visa restrictions on those he accused of “threatening Ukraine’s sovereignty and integrity.”
In response, Moscow has accused Washington of double standards and interfering in Ukraine.
Political crisis erupted in Ukraine in November 2013, after the country’s ousted President Viktor Yanukovych refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia.
Also participating in the Press TV debate, Richard Weitz senior fellow at Hudson Institute said he disagrees that the West is the main aggressor.
“The point of NATO Exercise, if it is that large it must be planned before recent weeks, I mean before the events. We have these exercises all the time. The other acts I know have been listed by [US Defense] Secretary [Chuck] Hagel and others as a response, it is not though as if NATO is about to counter attack and seize the Crimea back for Ukraine,” he said.
“I mean these are moves because what you are seeing now is the Pols, the Czechs, Latvians, are coming to the NATO and saying: Well, you said you would defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity, it has been violated, you did not defend it, how do we know you will defend us? And so this is a way of reassuring them that unlike Ukraine these are actual NATO members,” Weitz added.
