"US aggression continues to grow and the threats against Moscow are unprecedented". This was stated by Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, commenting on the words of US vice president Joe Biden, who had announced his intention to respond to alleged interference by Russian hackers in the US presidential elections. According to NBC sources, Obama has already ordered "a retaliatory cyber attack".
A situation of extreme tension, defined by the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin: "The worst since 1973". Especially since Moscow, according to the words of Yuri Ushakov, adviser to President Putin, says it is "ready to react to hacker attacks against Russia". A concept reaffirmed by the special responsible for cyber security, Andrei Krutskikh: “The US is playing with fire. No action against Russia will go unpunished. Instead of trying to make a deal, they're trying to scare us. I find it cheeky, crude and stupid."
A real escalation, aggravated by the news that, in the spring of 2017, Italy will send a company of 140 soldiers to Latvia, to increase the strength of the contingent deployed on the border with Russia. A move, announced by the general secretariat of the Organization, Jens Stoltenberg, and confirmed by the Italian defense minister, Roberta Pinotti, which was seen by the Baltic country as a reassurance from the allies, but which for Moscow represents an open provocation.
The frictions between the Russian government and NATO are in fact numerous: from the Syrian conflict, which pits the United States against Putin's Russia, aligned with the forces of Bashar al-Assad, to the never-resolved question of the annexation of Crimea, which represents a occasion of perennial confrontation on the eastern borders of Europe.
