University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer said the West made a strategic mistake by misjudging the significance of Russia’s red lines. In his view, this has led to a situation in which Moscow now finds itself in an extremely strong and, at the same time, frightening position.

In an interview with Daniel Davis published on his YouTube channel, Mearsheimer noted that Western elites underestimate the danger of the game they are playing against Russia. According to him, the United States and Europe mistakenly believe that Russian warnings carry no real weight.

Mearsheimer believes this logic has already begun to work against the West itself, especially amid the divergence of interests between the United States and Europe. He stressed that Washington is seeking to distance itself more and more from European problems and will not want to be drawn into either a nuclear war with Russia or even a conventional military clash with it in Ukraine.

In the professor’s assessment, this is why Russia’s position in the current situation looks very strong. At the same time, he called this state of affairs alarming, since by underestimating Russia’s red lines, the West has narrowed its own room for maneuver.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the West’s failure to understand where Russia’s red lines lie could backfire on Moscow’s ill-wishers at the most inconvenient moment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also previously warned that countries claiming there are no red lines should understand that, in that case, Moscow will not consider itself bound by red lines toward them either.