“We have no way further to retreat,” says Putin, as NATO escalates military build-up on Russia’s borders

In an extraordinary speech on Tuesday before Russia’s officer corps, the entire Defense Ministry as well as cadets of military schools, President Vladimir Putin made clear that the Russian government is preparing for a potential war with NATO.

For much of the speech, Putin highlighted case after case in the past three decades in which the US has bombed countries, in complete disregard of international law and previous agreements. He pointed to Iraq, Libya and Syria and, in particular, the bombing of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Putin also accused the US of supporting ISIS and other Islamist terrorist organizations, including in separatist Islamist movements in Russia’s North Caucasus.

Putin indicated that the Kremlin fears that the US, working together with the government in Kiev, is preparing a military provocation with chemical weapons. Pointing to the situation in Ukraine, where a US- and EU-backed coup in 2014 toppled a pro-Russian government, triggering an ongoing civil war and massive build-up of NATO on Russia’s borders, Putin said that NATO must understand that “We have no way further to retreat,” this is “right before our doorstep.”

Putin warned, “In case of continuation of the rather aggressive line of our Western colleagues, we will respond with adequate military-technical measures, [we] will react harshly to the unfriendly steps.”

[wsws.org]

I don't think walking into the cave where a mad bear resides will have good results. Especially after poking it repeatedly for decades with false narratives and accusations. A lot of innocent people living around Russia will potentially pay the price.

{Focused on the destruction of the Soviet state and the plunder of its social resources, robbery that was carried out hand-in-glove with the American bourgeoisie, the newly emerging oligarchy in Russia was caught up in the delusional belief in the possibility of peaceful cooperation with imperialism. Yet all the agreements and assurances from NATO, including that it would not move closer to Russia’s borders, were blown to pieces within years.}

They made their deals with minions of a devil. Just like they make deals with terrorist. Russia will always have a target on it as long as the Anglo-Saxon power structure remains united. They have no empathy or regard for the innocent in the region who would be lost in a major scale of war while discovering how powerful Russia might be, how resilient their people are. As much of the world was deceptively indoctrinated from the erasure of the actual dominating power that helped to win WWII. Their resilience wasn't expected as they were hoping they'd be crushed with the Germans. If you know the history, you know the west had every intention of marching into Russia next. Instead, they beat the west into Germany. Their oligarchy has allowed itself to be deceptively indoctrinated into an imperialistic structure that will shit on them in a heartbeat. Like much of our citizenship they're trapped in a delusional reality via the wealth they have been benefiting from.