'Reckless raising of stakes in Ukraine may lead to civil war'

The West’s open support for Ukrainian protests incites and supports revolutionary behavior, political commentator Aleksandr Nekrassov told RT.

RT:The deals Yanukovich made could save Ukraine's economy from a default - this could surely boost his credibility couldn't it?

Aleksandr Nekrassov: I think whatever he would have signed in Russia or not signed probably, I think that the anti-government protesters would have said they are not happy that. I think there is no tactical platform. There is nothing – no program those protesters have – and to be honest with you, the only reason why they are still there is because they feel the might of the European Union behind them and so foreign politicians like Senator McCain and others, coming over and basically inflaming tensions. I think it is actually quite amazing that we see European countries sending their politicians there because it is provoking violence in a sense.

RT:The EU's chief diplomat, Catherine Ashton, has now said the deals with Russia won't hamper Ukraine's ability to sign the association agreement with the EU - is that still on the cards do you think?

AN: Well I think that the EU seems to be pretty desperate to get Ukraine on the path of joining the Union itself. And it is quite remarkable, isn’t it, because if you look at the situation in the European Union, it is really not that great. Ok, they are throwing all these wonderful statistics at us but if you ask people on the ground, you see that the situation is not good.

They are printing money in billions and trillions and think they can prop-up their economy. It is not working really. It is actually quite fascinating if you think that the EU which is experiencing all those economic problems wants Ukraine, which has a serious crisis, to join it in some way or the other as quickly as possible, is putting so much pressure on it. I think this is quite remarkable. I think what we can conclude from that, it’s the mineral resources and the labor market they are after, and they want to get to it with any means possible.

AN: Well it is and it isn’t. On the other hand think about America and some other NATO countries using Al Qaeda and the jihadists in Syria and basically supplying them with weapons. The same has happened in Libya. The same has happened for a while in Egypt and Yemen by the way. So in a sense it is not new. What is new is that the EU is actually prepared to raise the stakes so high in a European country on its fringes, basically risking a sort of a civil war in a sense and without even thinking of the consequence.

And for Senator McCain, of all people, to come over to Ukraine and threaten sanctions – who is Senator McCain to threaten sanctions when it comes to Ukraine? On what authority is he doing that? And you know what is also amazing, what I find remarkable is for example Britain where 70 or more percent of people don’t really want to be in the EU and the British government is actually siding with the opposition, anti-government protesters, who want to be in the EU. I find it quite remarkable. Another thing we have a United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) which was always banging on how it is against the EU. Not a word from UKIP about the EU interfering into the Ukrainian affairs.