Political scientist Maksym Rozumnyi shared his opinions on Espreso TV.“You really need to keep this escalation gradient in view because these are different things. Launching a missile or dropping a bomb from a plane, which the Russians might claim was accidental or some other excuse, is one level, and here it’s obvious that there’s unlikely to be any strong reaction. If we’re talking, for example, about unrest in Narva, and ‘little green men’ with unidentifiable markings appear on NATO territory, that’s a much higher level of escalation. And there’s an even greater, so to speak, level of escalation, what many military analysts consider: breaking through the Suwałki Gap to the Kaliningrad region,” said the political scientist.He added that all these levels carry different probabilities of sharp or decisive reactions.“In my view, today, and as long as Russia lacks the resolve to act in this way, at least until active military operations in Ukraine end, I don’t think we should expect this. Fighting on two fronts is probably not something Russia is ready for. And from NATO’s side, I don’t think even if this gap were breached there would be such a sharp reaction as to bomb Moscow, bunkers, and so on. And anything else is unlikely to stop the Russians,” Rozumnyi said.He believes that a stalemate exists in which Russia is resorting to blackmail.“In my opinion, they are blackmailing to achieve a different result. I think that result is a change in Europe’s behavior. That is, all of this is aimed at making Europe stop supporting Ukraine, make certain geopolitical concessions, and obviously restore economic ties, lift sanctions, and so on. I think this is the ultimate goal of this game,” the political scientist concluded.