That is the view of Russian columnist Yulia Latynina, published in Novaya Gazeta (August 7).
I believe we’re facing nothing less than the first economic world war into which people across the world will be dragged by irresponsible, hostile acts…. Instead of cannons this war will use sanctions, and – like cannons – these will wreak havoc on both sides. The most obvious danger is to Russia….
China stands to benefit most from this global economic war, like all other countries that aren’t caught up in it. And just like in past world wars, the US will benefit as well. On the one hand because the economic and banking systems there are in better shape than in Europe, and on the other because Russia’s failures and the weakness of the EU will trigger a brain drain to America.
Eric Koch’s new book, New Beginnings, was launched on September 20. The book is available from 
When it comes to the question of ‘existential survival’, even via an economic ‘war’, I would not underestimate the tenacity of the Russian bear and its stubbornly ‘irrational’ psyche that in the past endured, sacrificed with heavy life casualties, and prevailed over another menacing ‘irrationality’.
‘Nas mnogo’ (‘we are many’), they used to say.