Do you like political thrillers?
Crucial moment in these stories: The audience's realization that behind the curtain of the previous story lies a completely different truth.
Until the true motives, aspirations, and goals are revealed, we must observe and try to align our hunches and reasoning with the clues.
The word "suspense" aptly describes this exciting state.
Bearable if you can experience this feeling as a spectator of world politics;
terrible if you live in Ukraine.
In the country about whose fate the most dangerous political thriller of the moment revolves, because an attack by Russia appears to be a realistic scenario.
Enter the Negotiators: No fewer than three important rounds of talks took place this week, and the actors in this scene did their best to keep the suspense up.
more on the subject
Ukraine crisis: NATO insiders fear Russian attack on several frontsBy Markus Becker and Matthias Gebauer, Brussels and Berlin
One crisis, many cards: This is how the Russian military drives up on the border with UkraineBy Alexander Epp and Anna-Lena Kornfeld
Negotiations on Ukraine crisis in Geneva: USA offer disarmament talks to Russia
Russia's troop deployment on the Ukrainian border: party mood and fear of warLina Verschwele reports from Kiev
"For Putin, fear is the central element in making politics," analyzes Christina lever, SPIEGEL correspondent in Russia, "will he start an offensive?
I don't know, and I sometimes get the impression that the diplomats in Moscow don't know either."
In the United States, too, whose experts speculated that an attack by Russia could even take place at the end of January or beginning of February, the possibility of a new war in Europe is no longer ruled out.
With consequences for the whole world.
"The Russians can be trusted to invade under any pretext, and then the Americans and Europeans have a massive problem," says Washington correspondent Roland Nelles, "and that would of course lead to a massive crisis in Europe, with significant impact on the global economy, and of course nobody in the West wants that«.
Always have a packed suitcase ready
Right in the middle: Ukraine, whose government is not even allowed to take part in talks about the future of its own country.
And since the Russian annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and the ongoing fighting in the eastern Ukrainian Donbass region, its residents have had to live with the fear of a Russian invasion.
Kiev's city administration recently recommended that its citizens always have a packed suitcase ready in case of an emergency.
"I think almost everyone here has a plan for it," reports SPIEGEL editor Lina Verschwele from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, "and most of them at least know where their personal documents are."
So how likely is war in Ukraine after this week?
How quickly can the diplomatic thriller turn into a real conflict?
And what motives lurk behind the diplomatic façade?
These are the questions that »Eight Billion« explores this week.
Listen to the current episode here: