ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

NATO is continuing its military buildup and “exercises” on Russia’s borders, Moscow is taking “counter-measures,” while the US mainstream media remains silent. By Stephen F. Cohen Twitter Email Pri Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US -Russian Cold War. (Previous installments are at TheNation.com ). This installment returns to the large-scale NATO military buildup on Russia’s Western frontiers, again on land, sea, and in the air, now featuring Operation “Anaconda-2016,” an “exercise” involving more than 30,000 American and other NATO forces in Poland. Batchelor asks whether alarmed warnings by informed analysts, including three longtime Russian residents in the United States, that actual war may be imminent are plausible. Cohen thinks this worst-case scenario cannot be ruled out, for several reasons. The NATO build up is not episodic but intended to grow and be permanent, and be ratified at the NATO