Kissinger's remarks cited above followed an article he wrote entitled "Why the Ukraine Crisis is the West's Fault" with a subtitle that reads "The Liberal Delusions that Provoked Putin."

Writing in the Washington Post, Katrina van den Heuvel, editor and publisher of the Nation, also said "liberal and conservative interventionists have much to answer for" what happened in Ukraine. It was Katrina's husband Stephen Cohen, a Princeton Russian expert, who traced the Ukraine crisis to NATO's relentless eastward expansion, directly threatening Russia.

It should be noted that the late George Kennan, the father of "containment," adamantly opposed post Soviet NATO eastward expansion.

Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago also declared: "The United States and its European allies share most of the responsibility for the [Ukraine] crisis. The taproot of the trouble is NATO enlargement, the central element of a larger strategy to move Ukraine out of Russia's orbit and integrate it into the West."

The leaked Victoria Nuland tape tells it all. Her hand-picked Yatseniuk has just been "elected" Ukraine's Prime Minister again. He has persistently urged Ukraine to join NATO.

Putin, in his State of the Nation address, accused Washington of pursuing a new policy of containment, trying to destroy Russia. He explicitly stated Russia's red line: Moscow opposes Ukraine joining the EU. He also declared that Crimea and Sevastopol are sacred to Russia.

The West had better think hard about this, if it wants to avoid fighting a big war with Russia and commit a crime against humanity.

Unfortunately the U.S. House of Representatives has just passed a resolution H. Res. 758, which amounts to a virtual declaration of war on Russia. Such recklessness and irresponsibility is truly astounding. People of the world need to heighten their vigilance.

The writer is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:http://www.ccgp-fushun.com/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

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