Close military encounters between Russia and the west ‘at cold war levels’

[Slave of the Beast]

Close military encounters between Russia and the west have jumped to cold war levels, with 40 dangerous or sensitive incidents recorded in the past eight months alone, according to a report published on Monday.

The report, Dangerous Brinkmanship by the European Leadership Network, logs a series of “highly disturbing” incidents since the Ukrainian crisis began earlier this year, including an alarming near-collision between a Russian reconnaissance plane and a passenger plane taking off from Denmark in March with 132 passengers on board.

What made the incident especially dangerous was that the Russian plane did not have on its transponders, the usual method of signalling its presence to other aircraft.

The report by the London-based thinktank comes after a warning from former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev that the world is “on the brink of a new cold war”.

The encounters have taken place mainly around the Baltic Sea but also in the Black Sea and along the US and Canadian borders.

“We believe the nearly 40 incidents logged are a very serious development, not necessarily because they indicate a desire on the part of Russia to start a war but because they show a dangerous game of brinkmanship is being played, with the potential for unintended escalation in what is now the most serious security crisis in Europe since the cold war,” say the report’s authors Thomas Frear, Lukasz Kulesa and Ian Kearns.

Source.

Why can't we all just get along and agree to focus on killing Muslims?

[constantinople]

This is pretty old news man.  As soon as Russia started pushing West, again, the Cold War re-ignited.

[Slave of the Beast]

This is pretty old news man.  As soon as Russia started pushing West, again, the Cold War re-ignited.

You might have a point if the article was announcing the start of Cold War II.

It isn't.

[stentor]

We've been in conflict with brown dudes long enough, it's time to throw some white paint in the mix.

[Saint Hubertus]

Long live the cold war, thanks to the high level of *who got the biggher dick* mamy thing were developed and the space race too

[Rationahl]

Can't we all just adopt isolationism

[starvingniglet]

NATO vs. BRICS, WWIII in a nutshell

been slowly simmering since Gulf War 1

[Hewfil1]

Here's my opinions. If it starts, we're going to jump in, get ourselves massacred. End of story.

[Hewfil1]

Can't we all just adopt isolationism

We tried that, but it wasn't really "isolationism", we just kept involvement to a minimum, and on the down-low.

[constantinople]

Long live the cold war, thanks to the high level of *who got the biggher dick* mamy thing were developed and the space race too

This is *sort* of true.  Technology is currently developing as fast as it possibly can, I don't think a new Cold War will create the same sort of production and innovation levels we saw during the 50's, 60's, and 70's.

I think it WILL force new international policy out of organizations like NATO and the UN, policies which we may or may not end up liking.

Can't we all just adopt isolationism

Not really. Once the United States took over as the dominant world power after WWI, it pretty much falls on us to maintain some semblance of global stability.  After that, you had the implentation of things like the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the League of Nations, and after WWII, the United Nations.

We are well and way too far gone to return to the isolationist policies we had pre-WWI.

[constantinople]

The thing is, with missile technology on both sides allowing for extreme long-range warfare, the annexing of geographic areas like the Baltics and the straits of Turkey won't be as critical to the westward expansion of a reformed USSR.  Granted they will probably *want* to push all the way to the Curzon Line again, but I don't think that is a realistic goal.

I imagine places like Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltics are willing to adopt the "scorched earth" policy of Stalin in order to stop Russia from capturing the farmland and shipping channels it would need to have a prolonged invasion of Western Europe.  The irony of Ukrainians starving Russians into complacency makes my dick hard.