Welcome to the Empire Files podcast. This is Abby Martin. This is the audio version of each episode of

the Empire Files hosted on Telesaur English. You can watch every episode at the Empirefiles.tv.

While many in power recklessly escalate tensions with Russia, there is very little discussion

of the geopolitical significance of this aggression and the dangerous consequences people could

suffer as a result.

The establishment's anti-Russian sentiment goes beyond allegations of election hacking, with leading

U.S. intelligence officials labeling Russia

as the number one existential threat to the United States. One of the foremost experts on U.S.

Russia relations is sounding the alarm that the potential for nuclear confrontation is greater

than ever before, fueled with virtually no debate by the mass media. Dr. Stephen Cohen is one of the leading scholars on

Russia. He's Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at Princeton and New York University and is the

author of many books on the subject, including Soviet fates and lost alternatives, from Stalinism to the

New Cold War, and the forthcoming book, Why Cold War Again, How America Lost Post-Soviet

Russia.

The Department of Defense has just declared Russia as the number one existential threat facing

this country.

Professor, it seems so interesting that we just came from a war on terror to now a war

on Russia, despite the rise of ISIS.

Right.

Well, they didn't just do this.

I mean, this business that Russia is the number one existential threat has been unfolding this

drama, this false drama, at the expense of our national security, maybe for a decade, but it certainly intensified under the Obama

...