Yeah. Did you catch the "Normandy" discussions yesterday? Putin, Merkel, Hollande, and the president of the Ukraine. Merkel was telling reporters even before the meeting that it didn't look promising.
If the Baltic states were not members of NATO I'd say they'd be deeply unhappy by recent events. Turkey as a member of NATO dodged Russian wrath when that shot down that Sukhoi fighter.
WW1 was a bit different as there was an expectation of a war by everyone, and it was even welcomed by all parties as a way of venting nationalistic pride. Incidentally, the Kaiser's war effort was a European common customs treaty which would have excluded the UK (hello EU). In this instance however we have no real war objective from either the West or Putin, other than Putin's desire to claim territory inhabited by Russian speakers. Practically speaking, I'm guessing there isn't much left that he hasn't already grabbed so that might be the end of it in so far as invasions go.
If I had to pick a Russian frontier which would bring about a war, I'd choose Iran and their long-standing Caspian Sea dispute. Iran has few friends, is a fair-weather ally of Russia in respect of the airbase, and the US would barely mutter a word about a Russian maritime claim over the sea.
Edit: I see also that the Caspian Sea contains oil reserves. Aha.
Last edited by First Amongst Daves; 2016-10-20 7:49 AM.
