MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/. The United States wants the Ukrainian conflict to drag on in order to contain Russia and keep Europe under its thumb, Director of the Center for Current Politics Alexey Chesnakov said in an interview with TASS on Monday.
"There is a viewpoint that Washington does not want a settlement on Ukraine at all. They possibly benefit from preserving a frozen or even a simmering conflict," Chesnakov pointed out.
"Based on their scheme, this makes it possible to distract and contain some Russia’s political and economic resources. In particular, Russia provides Donbass with relatively significant humanitarian, diplomatic and informational assistance. Russia is pressured by sanctions, and this support was a pretext for them," he noted.
Washington is counting on exhausting and weakening Russia through these measures, Chesnakov said. "They need the conflict and the sanctions along with it and our expenditures on humanitarian assistance to last as long as possible," he stressed.
Another key goal is to keep Europe under its thumb, since Donbass is not only the southeast of Ukraine, but also of the entire European continent, the expert emphasized. "The low-intensity conflict on the outskirts of Europe, with America remotely controlling in it, is an effective tool to wield influence on Paris and Berlin."
According to the expert, for the Americans Ukraine is just the means for ‘playing’ this game.
At times, US envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker makes inaccurate and inflammatory statements creating the impression that this opinion is justified, Chesnakov asserted.