PARIS: Secret "Russian subs" off Sweden, tit-for-tat sanctions, NATO fighters scrambling to intercept Russian warplanes: relations between the West and Moscow over Ukraine have sparked incidents reminiscent of the Cold War that terrified the world for decades.
Even Cold War doyen Mikhail Gorbachev used the highly symbolic 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall to warn the world was "on the brink of a new Cold War", adding that "some are even saying that it has already begun".
And it's not just former leaders. Finland's Prime Minister Alexander Stubb also sounded the alarm, saying that Russia's actions over Ukraine were bringing the world to the "brink of a Cold War."
But while experts agree that the current situation is extremely dangerous, they say it is very different to when the two nuclear-armed superpowers faced off, seemingly only minutes away from all-out global destruction.
Instead of a Cold War, experts see a period of geopolitical rebalancing after years of the United States assuming the role of sole superpower.
"Saying that we're in a Cold War is to misunderstand the situation," says Vladimir Evseev, director of the Moscow-based think-tank NCO Public Political Studies Center.
"This isn't a Cold War, but a period of transition. Western domination is coming to an end. The West can no longer impose its will on the world," added the expert.
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