Representative Michael R. Turner, who drew criticism last week after releasing a cryptic statement about a new threat, said he wanted to avoid “an international crisis.”
There is a dawning recognition that the continent urgently needs to step up its own defense, especially as the U.S. wavers, but the commitments still are not coming.
American spy agencies are divided on whether Moscow would go so far, but the concern is urgent enough that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has asked China and India to try to talk Russia down.