National Interest: War between Russia and West "nearly inevitable"

Western intrusion into traditional Russian spheres of influence "represents a highly provocative and destabilizing policy," Robert Merry writes this for the National Interest, in an article headlined, "Stop Poking the Russian Bear."

Beside Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus, the author includes Serbia into one of these "spheres of influence."

"All have been subject to Western designs to one degree or another, including serious US initiatives to dismember Serbia and get Georgia and Ukraine into NATO," Merry writes.

According to him, war between Russia and the West "seems nearly inevitable" because "no self-respecting nation facing inexorable encirclement by an alliance of hostile neighbors can allow such pressures and forces to continue indefinitely."

"Eventually it must protect its interests through military action," the article argues, adds that Russia has...