It is late at night and I am full of dreams. I travel the vast labyrinth of the mind, these days inevitably to Russia. I live in a world which has no history, and so is ruled by a secret that it does not itself acknowledge: that very history. Nothingread more

The leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party is warning that if Hillary Clinton is elected president, it will lead to war. In a recent interview with Reuters, State Duma Chairman Vladimir Zhirinovsky said:

"Americans voting for a president on Nov. 8 must realize that they are voting for peace on Planet Earth if they vote for Trump. But if they vote for Hillary it’s war. It will be a short movie. There will be Hiroshimas and Nagasakis everywhere."
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If Vladimir Putin had personally ordered the shoot-down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 last week, events could not have played into his hands more perfectly. In fact, the result has been so valuable to Putin, that it seems possible that he did take a calculated risk here and order the missile to be fired at the plane.

It wasn’t just any plane that was shot down. It was the only plane to cross the combat zone that day that was packed with Dutch nationals. On the surface, it would seem that the last thing Putin would want to do would be to create such friction between him and his biggest western trading partner.
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