17:38 Tuesday 4th March 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
[C]HRIS MANN: The Foreign Secretary William Hague is warning of a grave risk of escalation in tensions between Russia and Ukraine, after Russian troops fired warning shots in Crimea. The Russian President Vladimir Putin has described events in Ukraine as an unconstitutional coup. Sir James Paice the Conservative MP for South East Cambridgeshire told the Foreign Secretary that Russia’s been emboldened by the international community’s failure to act in previous stand-offs.
(TAPE)
SIR JAMES PAICE: Can I really urge my Right Honorable Friend, particularly on the Thursday’s European Council, to push for the toughest possible economic sanctions? It’s the only lesson that they will learn, otherwise we will see this happen over and over again. And it’s not surprising that former Soviet Union countries are worried.
(LIVE)
CHRIS MANN: So Cambridgeshire MP Sir James Paice there. Let’s get some analysis of how the current situation came to be. Edward Lucas is Senior Editor at the Economist magazine, and an expert on Europe. I spoke to him earlier.
Continue reading “Edward Lucas on Putin’s Gambit”