In his interview with "Beyond the News" program (1/15/2022), Kronig confirmed that Russia is preparing its forces for a military confrontation, and not only in the context of psychological warfare, considering that it is related to accurate intelligence information.
For his part, former Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrew Fodorov said that the results of the recent negotiations between America and Russia were negative, according to the Kremlin's description, which led to additional problems because Russia is not ready to back down from the non-expansion of NATO, especially for Ukraine.
He stressed that the risks are high in light of the presence of about 110 Russian soldiers on the border with Ukraine, considering that the situation may explode at any moment and that any kind of provocation from the Ukrainian side may lead to a major conflict and a strong Russian reaction.
He believed that Russia has justifications to protect citizens in these areas, as there are about 650,000 residents of the region who hold Russian citizenship, and therefore Moscow has the right to protect its citizens, he said, while acknowledging the significant negative consequences of this also on Russian-American relations and the Russian economy.
A provocation that justifies the intrusion
But Kronig opposed him in opinion, as he considered that Russia could say that Ukraine started the provocations to justify the upcoming invasion, stressing that the relationship between America and Russia will be greatly affected, and that America and NATO, instead of direct intervention, will resort to providing the Ukrainian government with weapons to confront the Russians and make their mission difficult. .
He also added that US President Joe Biden announced that the military option is not on offer, but historically Washington has always changed its mind in the event of a deterioration of the situation, and therefore he considered that the possibility of direct US intervention is on display.
It is reported that the United States said it had information indicating that Russia might invade Ukraine, which could lead to widespread human rights violations and war crimes.
The Pentagon said that it has data indicating that Moscow deployed a group of agents, to fabricate what looks like an attack against its forces or Russian-speakers in Ukraine as a pretext for the invasion, which Russia considered baseless allegations.