Were we not just discussing this scenario the other day, when US Army military bosses feared that Russia could be a significant factor that could trigger another world war?
And it continues to escalate. A Russian tabloid has since suggested that conflict between Russia and US could spark "direct military confrontation".
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The prediction comes as the US suspended contact with Russia over Syria on Monday, and recalled its negotiators from Geneva, The Sun reported.
US Secretary of State, John Kerry, is said to be furious by air strikes on rebel controlled areas of Aleppo, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent people.
Video credit: YouTube/BBC News
Moskovsky Komsomelets has a circulation of just under a million, making it one of the most highly read newspapers in Russia. It suggested hostilities in Syria could spark a war between the two nations, which could be on a similar scale to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
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Image credit: PA
The article headlined, "The stakes are higher than Syria," was a blatant warning to Putin that if he carries on, then the US would react on a big scale. Missiles would fire and WWIII would almost certainly follow.
Translated by The Sun, it read: "Just imagine that the US does what it has wanted to do for a long time and strike against Assad, not by mistake but on purpose and openly.
"Should Russia defend its ally or consider striking against the Americans, but this would definitely lead to a Third World War.
"Russia can win big in Syria but it can also lose big too. We must not forget that in Syria we are playing an astonishingly risky game."
Speaking about the crumbling relations between the two nations, head of the Russian International Affairs Council, Andrey Kortunov, told the BBC: "We had bad relations during the Cold War, but [...] the relationship was more or less stable, because we knew what to expect from each other, we knew the rules of the game.
"Today we don't have anything like that. So relations aren't stable. This is what makes this relationship dangerous."
However, leading political analyst Leonid Radzikhovsky told the broadcaster that Russia wouldn't risk a major war. He believes that although Putin has a hungry desire for power, "he's not the kind of person to open a window on the 18th floor, declare 'I can fly' and jump out." I'm guessing the analogy is relating to Putin not being keen on being 'that guy' who started WWIII.
Certainly does sound like risky business.
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