The former National Security advisor to Donald Trump John Bolton has said Russian President Vladimir Putin is 'calling the shots' as tensions between Ukraine and Russia remain high.
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has expressed concern that Russia is continuing its military build-up around Ukraine, and that it has now deployed more troops and military equipment to Belarus than any time in 30 years.
Speaking exclusively to GB News, Mr Bolton shared concern about Europe's strategy for dealing with Putin after reports of a plot by Moscow to create a pretext for an invasion using a faked video emerged from the New York Times.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a flower-laying ceremony marking the 78th anniversary of lifting of the Leningrad siege during World War Two.
SPUTNIK
"The bigger picture here is that Putin really has the initiative at this moment he's calling the shots, he's playing the tune we're reacting. We don't have a strategy I think he's got a wide range of options starting from splitting Nato. which we're already doing a pretty good job of ourselves" said the former Security Advisor.
When asked about the potential threat of Russia deliberately being aggressive to create a fake video to frame Ukrainian troops as the aggressor, Bolton said he felt this could be a possible tactic used by Putin.
Bolton said: "I think that's certainly one possible scenario you know Europe has had experience with this before when the Nazis faked an incident along the Polish border in 1939 and invaded in September. So the Russians can simply copy that if that's what they have in mind."
"I don't think we really know what he's going to do I don't think he does either because he's still weighing the costs and benefits but as i say he has the initiative and that's never good."
Russia now has more than 100,000 troops stationed near Ukraine’s northern and eastern borders, raising concern that Moscow might invade again, as it did in 2014, and destabilise the Ukrainian economy. Russian officials deny that an invasion is planned.
“Over the last days, we have seen a significant movement of Russian military forces into Belarus. This is the biggest Russian deployment there since the Cold War,” Mr Stoltenberg told reporters at Nato headquarters in Brussels.
He said Russian troop numbers in Belarus are likely to climb to 30,000, with the backing of special forces, advanced fighter jets, Iskander short-range ballistic missiles and S-400 ground-to-air missile defence systems.