Putin is preparing for World War III

Russia, surrounded by enemies, is readying to fight an epic war for survival. At least that’s what Vladimir Putin wants his countrymen to think…e most obvious reason is the oldest ruse in the politicians’ book—unite a country behind an imagined external enemy to distract from domestic problems…But there’s another, more worrying reason for the Kremlin’s belligerent rhetoric—it is convinced war is imminent…

“Senior Russians talk about not if but when there is going to be a major war,” says Andrew Monaghan, of Pembroke College, Oxford, and the NATO Defense College in Rome. “They are already on a war footing and have been on it for a long time.”…

What concerns many in the U.S. and Europe is how Putin is planning to use Russia’s new warships, submarines, helicopters and Bulava-class missiles. “Russia is engaged in a strange sort of unilateral arms race,” says one former British ambassador to Russia, who did not wish to be quoted on the record, as he now has a different brief. “Historically, every previous arms race has ended in war. Except in Russia’s case, nobody is quite sure who they are preparing to fight and where.”