Europeans And Russians Are Talking About War

Jill Dougherty, Wilson Center: War Fever

Recently, I grabbed a taxi in Moscow. When the driver asked me where I was from, I told him the United States. “I went there once,” he said, “to Chicago. I really liked it.”

“But tell me something,” he added. “When are we going to war?”

The question, put so starkly, so honestly, shocked me. “Well, I hope never,” I replied. “No one wants war.”

At the office I ask a Russian employee about the mood in his working-class Moscow neighborhood. The old people are buying salt, matches and “gretchka,” (buckwheat) he tells me - the time-worn refuge for Russians stocking up on essentials in case of war.

In the past two months, I’ve traveled to the Baltic region, to Georgia, and to Russia. Talk of war is everywhere.

Read more ....

WNU editor: A reader a few days ago sent me this link and asked for my opinion .... Is Putin’s Purge Of Top Russian Commanders An Advance Warning Of Large-Scale Military Action In The Near Future? (SHTF Plan). I talked to one of my cousins last week in Moscow .... he also asked me the same question .... "are we going to war". A friend of mine who advises Canadian PM Trudeau on international affairs asked me that question on Monday .... and this morning .... one of my business partners wanted my take on why is there so much talk of war!!!!

I am either completely out of the loop .... or maybe my sources of information and intel are all wrong .... but I do not see a war and/or even a small skirmish happening between the West and Russia at anytime in the future. The U.S. is focused on the Presidential election, Europeans are focused on terrorism and the unending refugee/migration crisis, and the Russians are focused on Ukraine/Syria and the economy. And while there are differences between the West and Russia .... it is not enough to start a conflict over .... far from it.

But .... talk of war is clearly making the rounds in the West and in Russia .... and the politicians are not doing anything to quell this concern and/or to diffuse it.

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