Balanced approach needed to prevent possible new Cold War

POTENTIAL WAY OUT

For months after Crimea's affiliation to Russia and what they claimed as Russian military intervention in Ukraine, America and EU have enacted several packages of economic sanctions against Russia in tandem.

Expanded economic sanctions have taken toll on the Russian economy, with its currency depreciating to a record low on Tuesday. Worse, the measures are interpreted by the Kremlin as politically hostile towards Russia, which further complicated the Ukraine crisis.

Tensions between Russia and America intensified after US lawmakers last week passed a bill titled The Ukraine Freedom Support Act which aimed to provide lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine and impose additional sanctions against Russia.

Branding new US sanctions as hostile towards Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday in an interview that Moscow had the right to deploy nuclear weapons in Crimea according to "its interests and its international responsibilities" after Crimea became part of Russia.

Given the complex historical factors and the current circumstances behind the crisis, analysts dialogues and compromises between Russia and the West as well as the warring parties in the country are the only viable solution to the crisis. Military actions and economic sanctions have failed to or will never yield any positive results.

Li Zhonghai, chief editor of The Studies on Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia by CASS, told Xinhua that without a balanced approach to the crisis, which takes into account the interests of all sides concerned, Ukraine would stay stuck in its struggle to adjust its relations with major countries.

A chronic crisis in Ukraine might grow into a trigger for a new Cold War, Li warned.