Russia is already at war with the west. It has been so since its occupation of Crimea in 2014, when Russia sought to secure its access to Sevastopol as a base for its Black Sea Fleet and as a potential lever of influence over Kyiv’s political direction.
Even in 2014 – at the annual Valdai security conference – Vladimir Putin was referencing an escalation towards conflict with the west. He later described the west as having “crossed a line”.
Putin signalled at the time that he was prepared to escalate further and threaten wider military conflict, but mostly the west ignored those messages. It’s taken a long time for Nato and many western nations to realise their significance, and to understand that they are dealing with a continual escalation.
