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In recent months, perhaps due to the collapse of the Russian economy, perhaps because Vladimir Putin keeps waking up on the wrong side of the bed, Russia has been amping up its bellicosity toward the U.S.
If you have a free half hour, I highly, highly suggest you read this Vox article about how eager Russia is to start World War 3.
The crux of the argument is that Putin wants to see NATO destroyed, as he views it as a direct threat to Russia’s existence. To that end, he may be willing to invade a NATO country (possibly Estonia) to see if member states uphold their obligation to defend it in the event of an attack.
Along the way, the piece states how Russia is basically taunting the entire West with moves that could not be considered acts of war, but are intentionally aggressive, to the point of trying to bait NATO into a conflict. Case in point, the country flew bombers off the coast of America on the Fourth of Fucking July.
Yea. From CNN:
The U.S. military performed two intercepts of Russians aircraft, though they never entered U.S. airspace, according to a U.S. military official.
The official told CNN that while the U.S. intercepts were routine from a military point of view, the Pentagon views it as Putin “sending a message” to the U.S. on Independence Day.
The message is basically “What are you gonna do?” and he sent it twice.
In Alaska, F-22s took off to identify and track two TU-95 Bear bombers near the Southern coast. The two jets were followed until they turned around.
Similarly off the coast of California, F-15s tracked two other TU-95s that had been detected near the coast of San Francisco. The incident in California was a rarity, because Russian forces don’t generally travel that far South.
Russia bein’ a fuckboi these days.