It’s ‘reckless’ to talk about defeating Russia, says former advisor to the Soviet Union

Russia has “considerable firepower” and it’s reckless to talk about defeating the country, according to a former economic advisor to the Soviet Union.

Jeffrey Sachs, now an economics professor at Columbia University, said the U.S. seems to believe it can beat Russia militarily, and the West is supporting Ukraine in its effort to push Russia out.

“With that view, Ukraine decided not to continue negotiations that were underway” even though talks were advancing at the end of March, he told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Friday. Instead, Ukraine “changed the tune and said that now, their goal is to defeat Russia.”

“What it means is an escalation of the war, an escalation of global dangers, an escalation of the economic fallout and a lost opportunity to find an off-ramp to this conflict as was taking shape already,” Sachs said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this week that he does not foresee Ukraine peace negotiations happening in the immediate future.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence and the White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment, which was sent after office hours.

There’s no off-ramp from the “clear U.S. war aims” at this point, and that is a dangerous situation, said Sachs.

“I’ve lived through decades of reckless U.S. foreign policy, U.S. bravado, and I’m afraid that we’re at it again,” he said. “This is not to condone Russia’s invasion.”

“I believe that the dangers are very high and that there’s a lot of naivete right now and Ukraine has bought into it.”

There could be a lot of destruction, loss of life and “tremendous danger for the whole world,” including in the form of economic spillovers, the professor said.

He added that Finland’s expected bid to join NATO makes it difficult to reach a negotiated outcome, and that it brings NATO and Russia “right to the knife edge.”