US Secretary Of State John Kerry and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The US has formally accused the Russian government of carrying out a series of cyber attacks

President Putin aboard a Russian naval vessel (third right), watching a missile launch. Escalating tensions in US-Russia relations have prompted fear of an all out war between the former cold war rivals

Referencing the incessant hacking of the emails of Democratic Party organisations which have increased in the last few months as the presidential elections approach, US officials identified that “scanning and probing” attempts on “election-related” systems came from servers operated by a Russian company. The nature of these cyber attacks, according to the Department of Homeland Security bear all the hallmarks of Russian state-sponsored cyber warfare.
This fact was made through an official government statement: “The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organisations.

U.S. Army’s chief of staff, Mark A. Milley – Warning to Enemies “‘Russia’, will defeat any foe in ground combat”

“The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts.
“These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process.
“Such activity is not new to Moscow—the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there.
“We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia‘s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”

Secretary Of state, John Kerry addressing issues of Russian war crimes in Syria has been calling for a probe into Russia’s actions

The accusations of Russian interference in domestic politics comes in the wake of escalating tensions between the two former cold war rivals. From facing off over Ukraine, tensions over Syria have reached boiling point, to the point of  Secretary John Kerry recently calling for a war crimes probe into Russia’s actions in the war-torn Syria. The call came after an aid convoy was blown up in Aleppo during a ceasefire brokered by Russia and the US.
Senior US officials had made it clear they held Russia responsible for the bombing shortly after the attack.

To prop up Syria President Bashar al-Assad, Russia has been launching airstrikes  against civilian targets in rebel held territories in violation of the ceasefire agreement

US Army General Mark Milley sent fiery warnings to Russia. With NATO troops massing in eastern Europe and Russian aircraft and submarine encroaching on Western territory, the posturing has even led to fears of an all-out war between the nuclear armed nations.
The US  suspended contact with Russia over Syria on Monday as Secretary of State John Kerry has been enraged by  airstrikes on non-military targets in rebel-controlled areas of Aleppo which has led to the death of hundreds of unarmed innocents civilians, including children.

Russian the paper Moskovsky Komsomolets warns of a potential of Worls War III

Some sections of the Russian media recently adopted an aggressive tone towards the US. In fact, Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets this week predicted “direct military confrontation” with the West, comparing the stalemate in Syria to the Cuban Missile Crisis.“Russia can win big in Syria but it can also lose big too. We must not forget that in Syria we are playing an astonishingly risky game.”
Two Russian papers discuss potential for war between US and Russia over Syria
Moskovsky Komsomolets adds that even its country’s own fighters would not be confident in a war with the US.
“According to our fighter pilots, the best we could do is shoot down a few coalition forces but this would mean a full-scale war,” it added.
And both governments are now ramping up the rhetoric.

Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, “the West is  ‘imposing democracy’ on Moscow” 

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. ‘we are reviewing our “nuclear playbook”’