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Hello and welcome to the Saturday edition of Coffee House Shots. I'm Cindy Yu and I'm joined by James

Versaith and Owen Matthews, the spectator's Russia correspondent.

So, over the last couple of weeks, when all minds and eyes have been on Boris Johnson and Partygate here in the UK, a bigger story is brewing potentially on the borders within

Eastern Europe. Owen, why don't you start by explaining to us what's been happening on the

Ukrainian border was Russian troops seem to be amassing?

Well, you've already answered your own question. That's exactly what's happening on the border.

The Russian troops are amassing. But actually, what's more significant is what's happening in Ukraine itself.

And we've had a series of very boldly stated and definitively stated information leaks, which I think clearly come from

Western or US intelligence. And those data points are that the Russians have supposedly been

infiltrating agents into Eastern Ukraine to destabilize this situation and possibly cause a

provocation. That's how the US authorities have put it.

Secondly, the US has just sanctioned for individuals for former Ukrainian government officials

all linked to a pro-Russian party, allegedly again, like in the US's iteration, for

attempting to ferment an alternative government in Kiev.

And the third thing is that talks have begun in Geneva, rather fruitless so far,

between the Russians and the US, over Russia's set of December demands,

which have been reiterated this week, rather more forcefully by Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov.

And the demands are these, that NATO discontinue its engagement and its military support for Ukraine,

and rather more controversially and less realistically, that the NATO actually withdraw its international troops

...