As for Stalin, he had no illusions about Hitler’s ultimate aim. In order to parry it he had an obvious interest in embroiling Germany in war with the western powers: in the best case both sides would bleed and exhaust themselves; in the worst case it would give his military and industrial expansion programmes a year or two more. Also he could hope that by allying with Germany he might divert Germany’s ally, Japan, from striking north – against Russia – into the alternative policy of a strike south against the British and Dutch colonies.
