Russian political scientist and publicist Andrei Piontkovsky believes that US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are practically barred from taking decisions on Ukraine, and now the Special Representative of the State Department Kurt Volcker is doing it.

He told about this in an interview with "Apostrophe".

"In the context of US-Russian, US-Ukrainian relations, I have been saying for more than a month that Trump and Tillerson have been virtually removed from power in the Russian-Ukrainian sector, decisions are made by other people. In Ukraine now operates Volker. And today's decisions (the detention of political technologist Paul Manafort - ed.. ) fix this trend, making it irreversible, "- said Piontkovsky.

The political scientist believes that this situation arose after the US security conference, held in Aspen on July 20-22.

"There, for the first time, the consensus of the military-political establishment sounded very tough:" If Putin believes that he declared a hybrid war to the West and the US, then we will proceed from this and in the war should defeat Putin, "explained Piontkovsky.

He also noted that the main indicator of such a position is the new law on sanctions, which should enter into force in January.

"The strongest blow was the law on sanctions of August 2, very reluctantly signed by Trump. But he could not not sign the law, because almost unanimously he was voted by the Congress. There's an absolutely murderous section 241 on personal sanctions, which is now being implemented. In January, the Russian oligarchs will be used already existing legislation to combat money laundering, obtained by criminal means, "- said Piontkovsky.