Putin's rhetoric took an ominous turn this week with references to nukes and Nazis. I'll discount Putin's statements to his adversaries. More importantly he ap

Putin's rhetoric took an ominous turn this week with references to nukes and Nazis. I'll discount Putin's statements to his adversaries. More importantly he appears to be preparing his domestic audience for war. From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/29/putin-kiev-nazis_n_5738622.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/29/putin-kiev-nazis_n_... [Putin's] tone grew intense while he spoke about Russia's military might, reminding the crowd that Russia was a strong nuclear power. "Russia's partners... should understand it's best not to mess with us," Putin said. Putin compared Kiev's assault on the rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk to the 900-day Nazi siege of Leningrad in which 1 million civilians died, perhaps the most powerful historical analogy it is possible to invoke in Russia. Then Ukraine played the NATO card. It's hard to see how this ends peacefully. Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk told a government meeting on Friday the cabinet would "bring before parliament a law to scrap the non-aligned status of the Ukrainian state and establish a course towards membership of NATO".