This article is the second of two parts about Russia’s radical new gambit in its relationship with Western powers. In part 1 I covered the recent history of the conflict, its broader historical context as well as its economic underpinnings. This part discusses Russia’s likely response to the US/NATO failure to respond to her security concerns. The video version, which covers both parts is available at this link.

Clearly, the conflict between east and west is not over ideology or a bit of territory. It is about hegemony over resource rich regions of the world and this makes the two sides’ positions intractable. The Russians clearly understand this which may explain why they presented the Western powers with a set of demands so tough that they certainly knew they would be rejected. It seems that Russia really does intend to respond with military technical measures that will jeopardize western powers’ security. So far however, even among the Russian analysts, nobody seems to know what’s coming next.