the campaign of misinformation and pursue a path of diplomacy. as the uk and our partners said, any russian military incursion into creukraine would be a mass mistake with severe costs. so, this is a very strong statement from the british foreign secretary, and a very precise and strong piece of information from the foreign office. it s not often that the british government releases information like this, tonight they have. right, i mean, that s what is so stunning about this one british security source i spoke with that said, this was strategic to release this information, to put russia on notice, let them know, we know what you re up to, trying to stay one foot ahead, as this source said. and you have these developments, nic, russia having about 100,000 troops deployed near the ukraine border, now this report about moscow putting together what would essentially be a puppet government for ukraine.
that includes going after targets the u.s. hasn t before. for instance, access to the world bond markets for russian energy producers. that would have an immediate economic impact, but also go after the billions of dollars holed up overseas of putin s inner circle. steps the u.s. was not willing to take before to really inflict pain. the other piece is to move more u.s. military assets into eastern europe, nato partners, not creukraine. of course the test is the u.s. is willing to raise the cost. the unknowable is are those costs high enough for russia and i think you saw sullivan and others say we just don t know. if russia s going to make this decision, but they understand that s as far as they can go. they re not going to go to war here. they re not going to put u.s. forces on the ground, u.s. aircraft, et cetera, so ultimately, the question is are