Bricmont noted that Poroshenko’s appointment of former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen as his personal adviser was "odd" and indicated Poroshenko’s bizarrely distorted policy priorities.
"There is something strange about Ukraine or at least about its new government. There is something quite odd in that choice," Bricmont told Sputnik.
After two years in office, Poroshenko still failed to recognize that Russia wanted peaceful, stable and prosperous relations with Ukraine, Bricmont observed.
"What does Russia want? Before the 2014 coup in Kiev [toppling President Viktor Yanukovich], it wanted good relations with its neighbors, and still does. Moscow has, of course, welcomed back Crimea inside the Russian Federation, but there is good evidence that this was the desire of a majority of Crimeans after the coup," Bricmont pointed out.
Russia had shown restraint in not getting militarily involved in Donetsk and Lugansk from the Poroshenko regime in Kiev, Bricmont maintained.
"As for eastern Ukraine, everybody knows that if Russia really wanted to intervene militarily there, the problem would be solved quickly," he recalled.
Poroshenko’s stunt in appointing Rasmussen reflected his attempts to revive grievances from 70 years earlier, Bricmont suggested.
Ukraine’s current leaders would do better to bury the past and work for a peaceful future, Bricmont advised.
"Unfortunately, many politicians and journalists in Washington, who do not care at all about World War II and its aftermath, encourage Ukrainian resentments relative to that period in order to stoke the flames of an artificial conflict that has no military solution, short of World War III," he warned.
California State University Emeritus Professor of Political Science Beau Grosscup agreed that Poroshenko appeared obsessed with bringing Ukraine fully into NATO, even though major Western European nations like Germany and France were opposed to the idea.
"This appointment is the latest proof of the Ukraine government's effort to entangle itself with US-Europe and seek membership in NATO. It is both a political and personnel provocative act aimed at signaling to Russia where Poroshenko's loyalties and Ukraine's future lies," he stated.
Poroshenko hoped to use Rasmussen’s appointment to coordinate Ukraine-NATO activities as much as possible, Grosscup concluded.