Revelation of Washington's plan to station missile-capable nuclear warheads in Germany was met with a Russian threat to deploy ballistic missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.
An alarming confrontation between Turkish and Russian warplanes over the Black Sea ironically comes as both Ankara and Moscow seek to divide Kurds from the Syrian rebels.
As Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk warns of "World War III," Moscow and Kiev mass troops on their shared border, and the US sends more forces to the Baltics.
Above Russian protests, NATO is beefing up its Baltic Air Policing program with more fighter jets—at the request of regional leaders, who cite Russian provocation.
In light of the Crimea crisis, the EU is reconsidering approval of Russia's pending South Stream and Nord Stream pipelines, that would strategically bypass Ukraine.
