Russians scoff at Western fears of Ukraine invasion

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — 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 the 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” has struck a chord with the broad public, but most ordinary Russians can’t imagine a war against the “brotherly” Ukrainian people, and observers say the Kremlin will gain nothing from an invasion.