The New York Times reported last week that President Obama and his national security team are forging “a new long-term approach to Russia that applies an updated version of the Cold War strategy of containment.” Hawks in the State and Defense Departments are pushing for more comprehensive sanctions and the White House has already drafted a new list of Russian political figures and institutions to target. Speaking on The Thom Hartmann Program, Russia scholar and Nation contributor Stephen Cohen stressed the gravity of this development: “I think future historians are going to look back and say…this is the week that the United States officially declared Cold War on Russia.”

—David Kortava