Reporter's Notebook: Putin's Russia-Ukraine aggression built partly on fear, military analysts say

According to Andrei Soldatov, a security services expert, many of the people sent out to negotiate on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin do not always know what he's thinking.

"They absolutely they have no idea what is going on, which is a very ominous sign in itself," Soldatov, in exile for the time being, told Fox News. "It's very clear that the Foreign Ministry doesn't know what is going on. It's all up to one person- though it may also be up to the military, which is getting more and more and more influential and powerful. And the interesting thing is that in Russian society, the military now plays such a huge role, which is quite unprecedented."

Soldatov believes the military's rise in prominence is actually closely linked to Russia's last Ukrainian military adventure, the occupation of Crimea in 2014.

"Crimea's annexation went really smoothly thanks to the military, not thanks to the FSB [Russia's security services]. And Putin has been obsessed with the threat of 'color revolutions,' as you know, from the beginning [ of the century]. And the problem was that the FSB, his main security agency, failed to provide the proper response to threats of 'color revolutions.'"