Vladimir Putin would never expose himself as a protagonist with preemptive impulses, he's smarter than that....let the proxies handle the situation, divert the focus of attention to someone else who already has a history of " imposing barbarism "...it's 100% fact that China does what it wants with impunity, right down to the overt denial of basic human rights including summary executions and genocide. Russia under Putin has become a more sophisticated and socially advanced country than under his predecessors and life isn't as miserable as it's commonly known for over there and things are tolerable....Putin wants to keep it that way, he doesn't need to agitate the masses with concerns about a WWIII...Putin's the talk of Foreign Affairs but it's all unsubstantiated speculation talk, so what , he poisoned a few jewish oligarchs who were seeking full control of Russia's oil industry ergo Russia is their hostage, and we all know what happened 100 years ago when the jews introduced BOLSHEVISM to Russia. Putin will never start a war...China or Israel will though.