US trying to alienate Russia over Ukraine

The Obama administration has deepened the conflict in Ukraine because the United States has been trying to alienate Russia over years, a political commentator says.

“I’ve been a critic of the Obama policy toward Ukraine because I think that it has only deepened the conflict mainly by its efforts over many years now to alienate Russia… instead of trying to have a peaceful relationship with Russia,” Sheldon Richman, vice president of The Future of Freedom Foundation, told Press TV on Sunday.

“I think the United States has stayed on the Cold War footing in many ways, the main way is the expansion of the NATO over way up to the Russian border which was contrary to a promise that was made to Gorbachev under the first Bush administration, the George H. W. Bush administration,” he added.

The United States and Russia are at loggerheads over the current situation in Ukraine.

Washington accuses Moscow of being behind the crisis in the country, an allegation denied by Kremlin.

Earlier this week, President Barack Obama held an “informal conversation” with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during the 70th anniversary of D-Day in France.

“The US made a big mistake in helping to promote a regime change, a coup really in Ukraine,” Richman said. “Everybody who understands Russian history should understand this was going to make Russia very nervous and Putin very nervous.”

The analyst concluded that the United States should stop increasing tensions with Russia over Ukraine as the two countries are nuclear powers.

“The United States and Russia are both nuclear powers. They both have nuclear weapons into each other, which is a very dangerous thing and the two should talk about destroying their nuclear arsenals rather than having tensions about Ukraine,” he said.