by Matt Taibbi

In an irony so miserable it must be true, widespread belief that peace talks are coming under after Donald Trump’s inauguration is pushing Russia and the U.S. into a game of nuclear chicken, leaving us with “60 days to decide on World War,” as one Russian newspaper put it this week.

While the story may not be getting Cuban Missile Crisis treatment here, Joe Biden’s decision to green-light launches of U.S.-made ATACMS missiles into Russia has that country’s media in freakout mode. Rhetoric was hotter than ever today, the 1000th day of the war, after at least six ATACMS were fired into Russian territory.

“Russia and the West have reached the point of no return,” declared Moskovsky Komsomolets.

“Halfway to Armageddon,” read a RuNews24 headline.

“The most dangerous moment of escalation in the history of this war, and maybe the most dangerous moment in European history since 1945,” historian Alexander Friedman told EuroRadio.

“World War III, closer still?” asked Irina Romaliskaya, at the top of Evening newscast.

“The last ‘red line,’” grumbled Andrei Krasov, First Secretary of the Duma’s Defense Committee.

[…]

Read complete article in Racket News, here:

https://www.racket.news/p/our-sixty-days-of-nuclear-chicken