Obama after ‘thermonuclear war’ by provoking Russia: Steinberg

US President Barack Obama’s foreign policy regarding Ukraine could lead to a “thermonuclear war” because Washington is provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Obama is jeopardizing the population of this planet with the imminent threat of general war that could become a thermonuclear war by trying to provoke Russia in an area where they have vital strategic interests,” senior editor at Executive Intelligence Review Jeff Steinberg told Press TV on Wednesday.

“The Obama policy is dangerously insane,” he added.

Tensions between the United States and Russia escalated following the ouster of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych.

The Obama administration accused the Kremlin of planning a military intervention in Ukraine. However, Russian officials have denied the allegation.

The Pentagon announced that it suspended all military engagements and exercises with Russia over the current crisis.

President Putin called the ouster of the Ukrainian president an “unconstitutional coup” and said he would use force only as a last resort.

Meanwhile, the US president warned Putin against any military intervention in Ukraine.

“President Putin seems to have a different set of lawyers making a different set of interpretations,” Obama said. “But I don’t think that’s fooling anybody.”

Steinberg also noted that the Obama administration is working with neo-Nazis organizations in Ukraine.

“President Obama is literally drawing the United States into an alliance with a bunch of neo-Nazis,” he said.

“The US has waded into a crisis that has no strategic urgency for the US, but is an absolute legitimate strategic red line for Russia,” the analyst added.

“The danger here is that despite the fact that US military advisers are telling Obama there is no military option back off… Obama is just so much of a tool of British interests who have their own games they’re playing to draw the US into a new Cold War with Russia… not just in a Cold War, but in a hot war that could even lead to exchange of nuclear weapons,” he explained.

“So this is a highly dangerous situation precisely because Obama personally is acting not in US strategic interests, but in the interests of serving Wall Street financial circles,” he argued.