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Press TV has conducted an interview with Eric Draitser, founder of stopimperialism.org from New York, about Russia saying it has successfully test-fired a new Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) amid rising tensions with the United States over Ukraine.

- Mr. Draitser, first of all just how significant do you think the timing of this test is?

- Well we are hearing that both sides are saying that this is merely a routine test and that the timing is not necessarily to coincide with events in Ukraine.

But I think that any political observer would note that there is certainly a subtext to all of this while this may have been planned ahead of time, it is impossible to ignore the fact that Russia is flexing its muscles and it is not merely flexing its conventional military muscles as has been the case throughout past incidents. They are now flexing their nuclear capability and of course the Russian nuclear capability is a nuclear deterrent.

This is something that the Putin government has mentioned many times before and of course we have seen countless examples throughout recent history of the very fact that the United States under any circumstances will engage in aggression against any country that it feels does not have a nuclear deterrent. This is one of the motivating factors of every country in recent memory in looking towards nuclear weapons and a nuclear program.

So it is impossible to ignore the timing but I will say that Russia is more than simply warning the United States. Russia is sending a message to its own citizens and Putin specifically is sending a message to its own citizens that not only will Russia not back down from US-NATO expansion, but Russia will do whatever Russia has to do to protect its citizens and to stand up to meddling and bullying from the West.

- And of course in face of threats by the United States to impose sanctions on Russia for sending troops to the Crimea region, just how do you think Moscow will respond?

- Well I think that Moscow is being very calculated in the moves that they have made. Although there has been a presence of the Russian military in Crimea, it is still debatable exactly what that presence is and what they are doing there.

There are many international treaties and it seems that the Russians are walking a very fine line with regard to what they are allowed to do under these internationally recognized treaties.

But the Russian counter measures are multifaceted and varied and this to a large extent depends on what actions the United States and the Western powers take.

We have heard countless threats from both right-wing and left-wing in the United States ruling establishment, the political establishment regarding things like sanctions. We have heard Secretary Kerry who not coincidentally was glad-handing with the Nazis and the various other elements occupying the government in Kiev earlier today, we have heard statements regarding sanctions, and we heard statements regarding booting Russia out of the G8.

If any such action were taken certainly Russia has plenty of tools that it could use that could very severely hurt both the United States and its European partners. I think first and foremost one is to think about Russia turning off the gas to Europe. Russia is the central player in the European gas market and if Russia were to do that, it would cripple specifically a country like Germany which is very export-heavy but a lot of other countries as well. It would cripple the European economy.

Moreover, we have heard talks from advisors to Putin regarding the possibility of Russia moving away from the US dollar. If Russia were to dump the US dollar, this would have a ripple effect throughout the entire global economic system and specifically to Wall Street and the major Wall Street banks which are the owners of a lot of Russian debt.

So there are many tools that the Russians could use and I think all of them are being held very close to the chest depending on how the United States decides to act.