were on show at this security meeting in sweden on thursday. if russia decides to pursue confrontation, there will be serious consequences. translation: everyone is talking i about the escalation of tension l in europe, in particular on the russian—ukrainian border. you know our take on this very well. as president putin stated, we don't want any conflicts. so what could trigger a conflict? the two sides have fundamental differences about how the world j should be ordered and specifically |whether there should be this sort| of set of buffer states _ between russia and nato countries, if you like. and there's no real getting over that. i and the russians havel decided to up the ante. but if moscow's threat is to flex its muscle if nato tries to expand in its direction, the us could take aim at russia's achille's heel — its already—struggling economy.