President Putin accused Kiev of resorting to terrorism in its hyper-nationalist campaign to reclaim Crimea and hinted that he might not talk to his Ukrainian counterparts on the sidelines of the G20 summit early next month. Sensing that the situation had markedly deteriorated, Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged “all sides to refrain from taking any steps that could lead to the situation escalating further.”
Amidst the latest spike in tensions, Vice President Biden also called President Poroshenko and asked him “to do his part to avoid escalating tensions.”
Boris Volkhonsky, Head of the Asian Section at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (studio guest) and Jan Van Benthem, Foreign Affairs Commentator at the Nederlands Dagblad (The Netherlands Daily) joined us to discuss the issue.
