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Press TV has conducted an interview with Bill Jones, with the Executive Intelligence Review from Leesburg, about the Kremlin launching military maneuvers in response to war games by NATO near the Russian border.

Press TV: What kind of message do you think both sides are sending to each other? Do you see this as a threatening message?

Jones: Absolutely. I think if the directionality is not changed, we could very well be in a pre-war situation. It is not the maneuvers per se but it is the ambiance, the environment around it. The General Staff just had made a conference in Moscow where the issue was brought up about the so-called color revolutions and they have simply drawn conclusions that those color revolutions are really aimed against them to surround and to undermine Russia itself and therefore defensive measures are required.

When you see that, you see this very clear statements and the increasing NATO involvement close to the borders of Russia. Russia is taking a military response to this and as a nation intent on defending its own sovereignty they have every right to do that. But this can lead to unforeseen consequences. If there is an incident, if something happens, this becomes a very dicey situation indeed.

Press TV: And all this of course developing as result of the crisis in Ukraine. But there are mixed responses or mixed reactions coming because from the one side we see for instance Germany or Poland saying that they welcome the fact that Russia has recognized Mr. Poroshenko as Ukraine’s new President and Russia saying it is willing to work with Mr. Poroshenko. The inside, Mr. Poroshenko himself saying that on the Crimea issue he is very firm and he believes it is part of Ukrainian territory.

So it is not clear whether this issue is at the end of day going to be resolved peacefully or not, is it?

Jones: It is very unclear. There are indications that the parties themselves have realized the dangerous course that they are on it at this point.

However there is such an intent on the part of the EU and the United States to try and teach Russia a lesson that it is going a little further than people would think and it would have been worse of course had not Germany, Ms. Merkel who understands Russia and Putin probably better than any other politician are trying to put it on a different trajectory and hopefully this will succeed and the signs coming from Ukraine from the new President also indicate that he understands that there is a dangerous situation if relations with Russia are not re-established and of course all the propaganda has been about how President Putin wants to occupy Ukraine.

All of this nonsense has created a climate in which many people have had a difficulty in creating diplomatic rapport with the Russian government and we should be thankful to Ms. Merkel and to other people in Germany and elsewhere who understand it. That is the only way out of this dilemma is to discuss the solution to situation in Ukraine.

Press TV: So one question here is however who should be taking that step toward a resolution of this conflict? Is it Russia that has to take a step here? Is it the US? Is it NATO? Which side is responsible?

Jones: Well I think the US and NATO have got to allow the particular feelers which are up now in terms of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to continue and not to put up any road blocks in that because I think if the two parties can get together without this outside influence, things could very much be resolved.

Russia and Ukraine have a long-standing, centuries-long relationship and that’s not to be ignored but the pushing from the outside, the senators going into Ukraine and the US State Department no less going into Ukraine to foment color revolutions and now most recently the Senate delegation going to Bulgaria to stop the Russian supported South Stream, a gas program. That is internal interference in the internal affairs of other countries and it is an interference that can lead to a conflict.

So in terms of stepping down, I think NATO and the United States have got to back off a little bit, now that it is clearly indicated from the Russian leadership and also now from the new Ukrainian leadership that they would like to discuss this. These discussions must go forward and should not be interfered with by any kind of nonsense coming from the Western powers or from NATO.