ONE of the puzzling phenomena in world capitalism today is the bellicosity displayed by Europe vis-à-vis Russia. The claim that Russia has imperialist designs towards Europe, which the European ruling circles keep repeating, is clearly absurd. It is NATO that moved eastwards, in violation of a promise made by the US administration to Gorbachov, and provoked Russia; and it is NATO members, notably US and UK, that torpedoed the Minsk agreement reached between Russia and Ukraine which would have prevented the war.