‘US fears more Ukraine loss to Russia’

The United States is taking a hard line on Russia for fear of losing more of Ukraine’s territory following Crimea’s secession, an analyst tells Press TV in an interview.

Christopher Walker said on Thursday that Western governments hope that the Russian government would not decide to annex more of Ukraine’s ethnic Russians.

“I think they’re almost praying that [Russian president] Mr. [Vladimir] Putin sticks to his words and now that he’s got Crimea back, does not extend his territorial ambitions to other Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine,” he said.

On Sunday, 96.8 percent of the residents of Crimea voted to break away from Ukraine and rejoin Russia in a referendum that has triggered the biggest crisis in relations between the United States and Russia since the Cold War.

The United States moved immediately to impose sanctions on top Russian officials, including advisors to Putin.

On Tuesday, Putin signed a treaty making Crimea part of Russia and accused the United States of basing its policies on the rule of the gun and not international law.

Walker ruled out the possibility of “military action” by Washington against Moscow.

“There could also be further visa restrictions, but the Russians have already flicked those off really as not being frightfully serious. And the list of 21 people named so far appears to have little logic behind it,” he said.

Walker said Putin will not be scared by the threatening gestures of the US and NATO.

“It’s all sophistry and words really, not hard actions that are going to shake Mr. Putin to change his policy,” he said.

In a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described the sanctions as “absolutely unacceptable”, saying that the measures would have consequences.