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.