minister said, they just want to pull this country ukraine into nato although everyone understands ukraine is not ready and could make no contribution to strengthening of nato security, unquote. now putin we assume continues to ponder his next move or when he will reveal it. one russian journalist told me today he is a special-ops man at heart and may view this as such. long-time russian policy expert prominent here since soviet times told me any cost benefit analysis strongly suggests that russia would have way too much to lose by invading ukraine again. the collateral damage would be of epic proportion. i think that it is in russia s interests to escalate at least this particular juncture. i don t know what president putin thinks about that but i think that he is a rational politician and therefore i believe the chances of a direct military operation in ukraine