World War 3 Cometh!

Anatoly Wasserman, a Russian State Duma deputy and known ally of President Vladimir Putin, has claimed that World War 3 is already in its “fifth phase.” Speaking to Kremlin-backed news outlet Moskovskij Komsomolets, he suggested that the war began at least 16 years ago, with the fourth phase ending when Putin gave his Munich speech in 2007.

He didn’t elaborate on the first three phases but stated: “Before the fifth phase there was a fourth. This is the period that we called perestroika, and then the Yeltsin era began. Officially, the fourth phase of the world war ended with Vladimir Putin’s Munich speech in 2007, when he, in essence, declared that our opponents were behaving in a completely unacceptable manner not only for us but for the entire world.”

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He added: “From this moment, the current fifth phase actually began also at first taking place only in the format of a proxy war. And now this phase has reached the level where the Russian Federation is forced to collide directly with one of the proxies Ukraine. People today see that nothing particularly dangerous is expected in the next three months. But what will happen next is unknown. I hope that it will not come to a direct clash between the United States and any NATO member and Russia.

Putin’s 2007 speech was seen as the moment he turned into the despot we all know today. During the rant, he criticized NATO, the United States, Europe in general, and more.

This was viewed as a catalyst for the 2014 invasion of Donbas, which eventually led to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine which, according to Wasserman, is part of the already in-progress World War 3.