There are two subjects Russians talk about a lot: history and geography. In recent days, there’s been much public discussion of both.
Russian officials and the media have been constantly recalling «Yugoslavia — 1999», «Iraq — 2003» and «Libya — 2011» as examples of Western military intervention which resulted in regime change.
The suspicion in Moscow is that the West is plotting to add «Syria — 2013» to the list.
One of the headlines this week in the Russian government daily Rossiskaya Gazeta was: «Will Obama risk repeating the Libyan-Iraqi scenario in Syria?»
Moscow appears now to be expecting a US strike on Syria. According to the head of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian Parliament, Alexei Pushkov: «It’s only a question of time.»
But the Russians have not stopped arguing their case that military intervention would be wrong.