October 16, 2016 (REUTERS) With
tensions between Russia and the United States at their highest since the Cold
War, there have been alarming signs coming out of Moscow that suggest the
country is ready for war, according to ABC News. Almost no one believes
the Kremlin is actually preparing for a military conflict with the United
States. Most analysts instead see it as a show, intended to boost support at
home and to deter Western countries from intervening militarily in Syria, ABC
News wrote. However, there are some unsettling things Russia has done to give
the impression that war is looming, the report said. As the confrontation
between the United and Russia has worsened over Syria, and amid speculation
Washington might launch air strikes against Syrian government forces, Russian
state-controlled media has gone into high gear, asking Russians whether they
are prepared for nuclear war.
"If that
should one day happen, each of you must know where the nearest bomb shelter
is," a report on the state-controlled network, NTV, noted, before taking
viewers on a tour of a nuclear bunker in Moscow. State outlets, already solidly
anti-American in their coverage, have unleashed themselves further, indulging
in bitter denunciations of America duplicity, bombastic promises of merciless
defenses and freely bandying the nuclear card, it is noted.
This month
Russia held a large-scale civil defense drill across the country, meant to
prepare people for disasters, among them nuclear catastrophe. The drill, which
Russian authorities claimed affected 40 million people, and particularly the
way it was presented on state television, resembled Soviet-era exercises, with
scenes of schoolchildren flooding out in evacuations and being taught to
hurriedly pull on gas masks. Further,
Russia's defense ministry has announced how the country would function in time
of war, clarifying which government bodies would take command.
The maneuvers took on harder forms
as well. This week, Russia deployed nuclear-capable missiles to Kaliningrad,
its northern European enclave between Poland and Lithuania that put the weapons
within striking distance of Western capitals. Moscow has threatened
before to deploy the Iskander-M missiles to Kaliningrad, in response, it says,
to the establishment of the U.S. anti-missile shield being erected in Eastern
Europe. But this week's deployment came sooner than expected, with analysts
suggesting that indicated the Kremlin wanted to play it as part of the broader
saber-rattling display in the confrontation around Syria, ABC News writes.
Russia also conducted a series of
intercontinental ballistic missile tests this week, launching three missiles in
a single day. Most Russians don’t take the war talk seriously, laughing
off the idea on the street. Most take a more realistic view of whether there's
actually need to find a bomb-shelter. A photo being shared on social media
showed an apartment block in suburban Moscow where pranksters or enterprising
fraudsters had posted a flier asking residents to donate cash to build a
neighborhood bomb shelter, according to the report. Read the full article at:
