University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer said on a YouTube program that a Russian victory in the conflict in Ukraine would push Washington to create new security problems for Moscow. He added that in the United States the question is already being asked of what the authorities will do when the Kiev government falls.

He argued that the U.S. set out to defeat Russia-seeking to bring the Russians to their knees, wreck Moscow’s economy, remove Vladimir Putin, and prevail on the battlefield inside Ukraine-and that Washington has been playing hard rather than pulling its punches.

Mearsheimer maintained that under these circumstances it is difficult to imagine the American administration accepting defeat at the hands of a key geopolitical rival. For that reason, he said, tensions in international relations will continue even after the fighting ends. He concluded that the United States is prepared to go a long way to create additional problems for Russia.