Europe’s accelerated moves to deter conflict with Russia could end up provoking one, RT contributor Rachel Marsden has said.

Russian officials have repeatedly rejected claims that they have aggressive designs against the EU and NATO, saying that they are contrived by Western politicians to scare the population at home and justify growing military spending. Moscow has said a conflict with its European neighbors is only possible if Russia is attacked first.

Speaking to RT on Monday, Marsden said that Europe “is having one of those moments when everyone insists that they’re preparing for peace, which apparently involves a whole lot of paperwork about war.”

“European governments are increasing defense spending, rebuilding military capacity, and discussing what they might do if a confrontation with Russia widens,” she noted.

The RT contributor mentioned last week’s statement by the Chair of the NATO Military Committee, Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, who said that the bloc has developed 4,000 pages of military plans detailing a response to a possible escalation with Moscow.

Europe insists that it’s looking to avoid a conflict with Russia and that a direct clash is only a contingency, but with “an awful lot of detail devoted to Plan B it starts to sound suspiciously like Plan A,” she noted.

“The existence of military plans does not by itself prove that either side intends to start a war with the other, but it does show how thoroughly the possibility of one has really at this point been built into the everyday operating system,” Marsden said.

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