NPR

Russians scoff at Western fears of Ukraine invasion

More than half of respondents in recent polls in Russia say the U.S. is responsible for the current standoff over Ukraine.

While the U.S. warns that Russia could invade Ukraine any day, the drumbeat of war is all but unheard in Moscow, where pundits and ordinary people alike don't expect President Vladimir Putin to launch an attack on its ex-Soviet neighbor.

The Kremlin has cast the U.S. warnings of an imminent attack as "hysteria" and "absurdity," and many Russians believe that Washington is deliberately stoking panic and fomenting tensions to trigger a conflict for domestic reasons.

Putin's angry rhetoric about NATO's plans to expand to Russia's "doorstep" and its refusal to hear Moscow's concerns has struck a chord with the public,

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