Baltic States – CIS, Direct Speech, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Russia, Ukraine

"If there was a chance for [the former Ukrainian President Victor] Yanukovych to stay in office until the coming elections and an authoritative figure appeared on the political scene, with which the Kremlin would want to cooperate, they would not have called off this scenario even if the desire to annex Crimea was always somebody's fantasy," Utkin said.

Utkin believes that the annexation of Crimea was in "operative plans", i.e., "what should be done, in case of... I believe that currently the actions of the Kremlin are an attempt to obtain something, instead of losing everything," Utkin explained.

When asked, if the Baltic States or Kazakhstan and Belarus could be in Russia's "operative plans", Utkin rejected such a possibility.

"If your country is successful in its development, and manages problems, then the possibility of even a theoretical use of force against you, will be minimal," Utkin is certain.

The full interview with Sergey Utkin is available in Russian here.