While some in Congress have warned that Russian involvement in Ukraine portends a “looming” new cold war, Obama administration officials have for the most part brushed off the comparison. The president himself flatly said in July in response to a reporter’s question regarding the Ukrainian situation, “No, it’s not a new Cold War.” But in Germany for a remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry seemed less sanguine about the current state of relations with Russia. While he did say that “we are very hopeful that we can avoid” a new Cold War, he left the door open to the possibility [emphasis added]: