Cliff Schecter launched World War Next with 2 people who read Russia for a living: Olga Lautman, the analyst who calls herself "Russia’s nightmare," and Jacob Kaarsbo, a former officer of the Danish Defence Intelligence Service. The premise was simple and uncomfortable. Russia's fought a shadow war vs the West for over a decade. Europe keeps answering with half measures, and Putin now needs a bigger war than he has.
It's been feeling a bit 1980s lately. Berlin blamed Russia for a Leipzig airport drone attack September 1st; the same day, 2 power substations in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia were hit in suspected sabotage, 4,200 megawatts of generation went offline, and an explosion followed at the Augsburg train station. Olga went through the timeline, why it looks like Russia rehearsing what it's done to Ukraine’s grid every winter.
When Theresa May set a date to respond to the Skripal poisoning, Russian oligarch turned Putin critic Boris Berezovsky turned up dead in his London home. When September 1st was set to officially blame Russia for Leipzig, the grid was hit. Russia has been purposely attacking right before announced responses arrive. One of many ways they're conducting tests of how we react and what we're actually willing to do.
Just today they threatened NATO by sending a drone over Romania. Cliff, Olga, and Jacob discussed the very real danger of escalation because Putin wants it, and needs it, at BAM. Check out the video and story.
