Sergey Karaganov, head of the Russian Foreign Policy and Defense Council: "We in Russia have not yet definitively recognized the question of what to do with Ukraine. Since Ukraine has effectively become an anti-Russian state, this state should, from a historical point of view, actually not exist. But we still haven't made a final decision on the matter. Therefore we will maneuver and hope that as little blood as possible will be spilled in the process. At some point, perhaps after the most intense fighting has ceased, you will have to make a decision about what to do with that entity now called Ukraine. I am of the opinion that it should not exist not only within its current borders, but maybe not at all."

Sergey Karaganov, head of the Russian Foreign Policy and Defense Council: "We in Russia have not yet definitively recognized the question of what to do with Ukraine. Since Ukraine has effectively become an anti-Russian state, this state should, from a historical point of view, actually not exist. But we still haven't made a final decision on the matter. Therefore we will maneuver and hope that as little blood as possible will be spilled in the process. At some point, perhaps after the most intense fighting has ceased, you will have to make a decision about what to do with that entity now called Ukraine. I am of the opinion that it should not exist not only within its current borders, but maybe not at all."