PUTIN IN PROPHECY? Russia ‘Is In Danger Of Sparking A War With The West’, With More Than 40 ‘Close Encounters’ With Foreign Militaries In The Last Eight Months

The report said Moscow should 'urgently re-evaluate' its posture and also recommended both Russia and NATO improve communications and exercise 'military and political restraint'; above, President Vladimir Putin is seen at an APEC conference in China yesterday

Forces from Russia and other NATO member states have been linked to more than 40 dangerous incidents over the past eight months, a report has revealed.

They include three incidents during the past year which could have sparked open conflict between Russia and the West, according to the findings by the European Leadership Network.

The report follows this weekend's celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, during which ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned that Russia and the West were in danger of entering a 'new Cold War.'

According to Fox News the report said: 'We believe [the incidents] are a very serious development, not necessarily because they indicate a desire on the part of Russia to start a war but because they show a dangerous game of brinkmanship is being played, with the potential for unintended escalation in what is now the most serious security crisis in Europe since the cold war.' 

Gorbachev accused the West, particularly the U.S, of giving in to 'triumphalism' after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the communist bloc. The result, he said, could partly be seen in the inability of global powers to prevent or resolve conflicts in Yugoslavia, the Middle East and most recently Ukraine.

Mikhail Gorbachev warned that Russia and the West were in danger of entering a 'new Cold War

The first incident noted in the report involved a near-collision between a civilian airliner and a Russian spy plane that had turned off its transponders - making it difficult to track by air controllers - that occurred in March. 

The aircraft, on its way to Rome from Copenhagen, was carrying 132 people.  

The abduction of Eston Kohver, an Estonian secret service operative, who was taken to Moscow in September and accused of espionage, was the second major incident noted in the report.

The third involved last month's hunt in Sweden for a suspected Russian submarine, after 'foreign underwater activity' was spotted in Stockholm.

According to the report, most of the incidents have occurred around the Baltic Sea. Others have happened over the Black Sea and along both the U.S. and Canadian borders.  

In September, military officials said that two F-22 fighter jets intercepted six Russian military airplanes that were flying about 55 nautical miles from the coast of Alaska. After the U.S. jets were scrambled the planes returned to Russia. 

Two of the planes were later spotted 40 nautical miles off the Canadian coastline in the Beaufort Sea.

Russia has been involved in more than 40 dangerous incidents over the past eight months; earlier this month the Swedish military hunted a suspected Russian submarine near Stockholm 

The report said Moscow should 'urgently re-evaluate' its posture. It also recommended both Russia and NATO improve communications and exercise 'military and political restraint'.