MOSCOW - Russian lawmaker Maria Butina on Wednesday said that the West was involved in the Ukrainian incursion into sovereign Russian territory and was thus "poking the bear" in a dangerous escalation.

The United States and other Western backers of Ukraine have denied that they were informed beforehand of the dramatic attack on Russia's Kursk region.

"Of course they are involved," Butina told Reuters when asked if the West was involved. "When I studied in the United States the main rule was: 'Don't poke the bear'. What the West is doing today? They are poking the bear."

Butina, who spent 15 months in U.S. prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent and is now a lawmaker for the ruling United Russia party, said that the attack on Russia was an act of "international terrorism" as civilian infrastructure had been attacked.

"They try to make a PR act on blood, using military force and terrorism and that is not the way to negotiate," Butina said in English.

"Our response should be in the military field, which means today to force the Ukrainian forces out and to put responsibility on those who are really responsible for forcing and escalating this conflict - this is the West."

  - Reuters