Putin Would Not Be Lured Into Military Invasion of Ukraine – Expert

RIANovosti

WASHINGTON, August 21 (RIA Novosti), Leandra Bernstein – The last thing Russian President Vladimir Putin would do is getting involved by the West into a military invasion of Eastern Ukraine, a senior fellow at the Foreign Police Center on the US and Europe told RIA Novosti.

“I don’t think [Putin] would invade Ukraine. I think it’s the last thing he would do,” Clifford Gaddy asserted on Wednesday.

“Why? Because I think Putin thinks it’s our trap, it’s what we want to force him to do. And he is very sensitive to that,” the expert elaborated.

Over the past week western officials and media reports have made constant, but unconfirmed allegations that the humanitarian aid convoy, sent by Russia into Eastern Ukraine, contained weapons. The head of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen went as far as to claim the humanitarian convoy was a pretense for a military invasion.

While many people in Washington have speculated on President Putin’s motives in Ukraine, Gaddy stated, “It has very little to do with Ukraine per se, it’s for the future of Russia.”

Backing his claims that Putin would not be tempted into a military invasion, Gaddy cited Putin’s “repeated statements that historically, Russia today, would be as great, as populous as the United States, as powerful as the United States if over 100 years ago Russia had not been continually drawn into wars and revolutions.”

Contradicting the prevalent belief in Washington that Putin will militarily invade Ukraine, Gaddy called it a “minimal likelihood.”

Gaddy is often critical of Russian policies and has written extensively on Russian economic trends in the past two decades.