Ron Paul, interviewed Friday by Stuart Varney at Fox Business, says “trouble has been brewing” around Ukraine since the United States government in 2014 “participated in the coup” in the European nation, resulting in political upheavals including the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych. The coup also set in motion developments leading to secession of Crimea from Ukraine and fighting between the Ukraine government’s forces and people in eastern Ukraine.

Concerning current tensions in the region that could lead to a larger military conflict, Paul cautions that “we should be aware of what NATO’s doing, what the European Union is doing, and what our CIA is doing, and how we’re sponsoring one side over the other without looking at what the people in Crimea and eastern Ukraine are actually wanting themselves.”

Paul, who founded the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity in 2013 after retiring from the US House of Representatives, also discusses Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign in the interview.

Watch Paul’s complete interview here:

Reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.