“It's the same old situation with the Americans,” Dmitry, a 49-year old Muscovite smoking a cigarette outside a metro station, told The Moscow Times with a laugh. “Nothing will happen, and then they’ll go around saying they beat everyone.” As the West has repeatedly sounded the war alarm, the Kremlin has insisted it has no such plans. Instead, Moscow accuses the U.S. and NATO of threatening its security by expanding into eastern European countries like Ukraine, which it sees as being within its sphere of influence — and is demanding binding security guarantees. Civilians in the Russian capital were inclined...