Eastern Europe and irresponsible journalism: In Europe and Russia, There’s Talk of War - by Jill Dougherty

Atomic War: often result of irresponsible Politicians and Journalists

"Recently, I grabbed a taxi in Moscow. When the driver asked me where I was from, I told him the United States. “I went there once,” he said, “to Chicago. I really liked it.”

“But tell me something,” he added. “When are we going to war?”

The question, put so starkly, so honestly, shocked me. “Well, I hope never,” I replied. “No one wants war.”

At the office, I ask a Russian employee about the mood in his working class Moscow neighborhood. The old people are buying salt, matches and gretchka [buckwheat], he tells me—the time-worn refuge for Russians stocking up on essentials in case of war.

In the past two months, I’ve traveled to the Baltic region, to Georgia, and to Russia. Talk of war is everywhere.

In Estonia, at the Lennart Meri security conference, we take a bus two and a half hours to the east of Tallinn, to Narva, a city on the border with Russia, for a discussion: “What is Narva Afraid of?” a variant on the geo-political debate: “Is Narva Next?”

In an interview widely quoted in the Russian media, a foreign affairs expert and a member of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Foreign Policy and Defense Council, Sergei Karaganov, told the German magazine Der Spiegel that Western propaganda against Russia “is reminiscent of the period preceding a new war.”

“The help offered by NATO is not symbolic help for the Baltic states,” he said. “It is a provocation. If NATO initiates an encroachment--against a nuclear power like ourselves--it will be punished.”

President Vladimir Putin himself plays both sides against the middle, warning the West that Russia will have to “strengthen the potential of its strategic nuclear forces” in order to counter the United States’ missile shield, while at the same time insisting it’s the West, not Russia, that’s destroying the balance that kept the world from nuclear conflict during the Cold War.

During the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in June, he tells the heads of international news agencies that the U.S. is lying when it claims its missile defense system will not threaten Russia:

As I browse in a Moscow gift shop, a t-shirt catches my eye: a buff-looking Vladimir Putin dressed in a black turtleneck and tight black pants, with the words “SAVE THE WORLD” in white letters across his image.

How? There’s no answer on this t-shirt and, in the real world, no magic prescription.
But all the talk of war isn’t as crazy as it seems, several Russians tell me. “They may not love us,” they say, “but they fear us.”

Note EU-Digest: This quoted article by Jill Dougherty is a perfect example of pro-NATO propaganda, support of the weapons industry and irresponsible journalism. It is packed with scary comments, refueling cold war fears and whipping up peoples emotions. 

The EU must speak out that it does not want another cold or God forbid a hot war war with Russia, and that it does not support NATO troop movements on Russia's borders, regardless of what the  US or the usually "short sighted" Eastern European EU members are saying.The NATO, being perfectly honest, is also an organization,  whose time has come and gone, and for the past 20 years certainly has not achieved any positive track record    

Read more:  In  Europe and Russia, There’s Talk of War

Sochi Olympics: Sochi forces hunt for potential female suicide bombers - Media Hype Is Counter-productive

Russian security officials are hunting down "several" potential female suicide bombers, one of whom is believed to be in Sochi, where the Winter Olympics will begin next month, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports.

The Canadian Broadcasting news has confirmed eyewitness accounts from Sochi that police have left posters and leaflets about the potential suicide bombers in the area of the Olympic venues. A police letter said that one of them, Ruzanna Ibragimova, a 22-year-old widow of an Islamic militant, was at large in Sochi. Russian authorities have blamed the so-called "black widows" of slain insurgents for previous suicide attacks in the country.

CBS News national security analyst Juan Zarate, who worked on multiple Olympic security plans with foreign leaders, said that women will likely not fly under the radar at Sochi. "Certain females don't attract as much security attention as certain male suicide bombers or fighters but I think now with the ramped-up security around Sochi, females are going to get just as much scrutiny as males,"

Zarate said. Russian President Vladimir Putin has guaranteed safety at the Games but CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports that other officials increasingly wary. On Monday, U.S. military sources confirmed there are plans to provide U.S. assistance in Russia if an evacuation is necessary. Orr reports that aircraft will likely on alert at European bases with two Navy ships patrolling the nearby Black Sea.

CBS News has also learned the FBI will have almost 40 agents stationed throughout Russia to assist with American security.

 Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers says it's prudent precaution. "I think what the U.S. military does almost continuously is plan for all sorts of contingencies," Myers said.

Note EU-Digest: unfortunately all the media hype about potential terrorism attacks during the Sochi Olympics is having a counter productive effect by elevating these crazed and fanatic extremists to celebrity status. It is sensationalism based irresponsible journalism.  

Read more: Sochi forces hunt for potential female suicide bombers - CBS News