Vladimir Putin could have NATO member states in his sights as he aims to rebuild the old Russian Empire and justify expanding its borders beyond where they are currently
World War 3 fears continue to mount as Russian President Vladimir Putin could attempt to justify a war with NATO, experts have warned.
Amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, Moscow “continues to promote an informal state ideology centred on Russian nationalism,” which officials said “may intend to use in justification of a protracted war in Ukraine and a future conflict against NATO,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said.
The move is designed to “shape and galvanise future generations” in Russia and parts of occupied Ukraine. Kremlin bosses may warn of a future military conflict with the alliance, the ISW added. It comes after Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu ‘completely lost it’ with angry response to Keir Starmer.
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It wrote: “The Kremlin seeks to foster national exceptionalism and further isolate Russia from the West, including by portraying the West as the enemy with whom Russia is engaged in an existential conflict.”
They will use elements from Russian history such as World War 2 which Russians call the “Great Patriotic War.”
Experts said the Russian government continued to portray the country as being in a “direct geopolitical confrontation with the West in order to generate domestic support for the war in Ukraine and future Russian aggression against NATO.”
It comes as Russia continues to court Iran, North Korea and China, which constitutes “a growing threat to Western security.”
The ISW added Russia was “actively pursuing a global anti-Western alliance” and that Moscow’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov wanted to “install an informal sate ideology that perpetuates the idea that the West is in an existential conflict with Russia in order to foster unquestioning support of the Russian government.”
Foreign analysts have become increasingly concerned about Putin’s appetite for war following his invasion of Ukraine and willingness to throw as many Russians into the meat grinder as possible in order to complete its revised war objectives of occupying eastern Ukraine.
There are fears he could turn his sights on the Baltic States – made up of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – in a bid to revise the borders to those of the old Russian Empire.
Officials have been “setting informal conditions” to justify potential aggression against Moldova and the Baltic States.