Mr. Putin, in a televised meeting with top officials, said Russia would adjust its nuclear doctrine — the document defining when the country could use nuclear weapons — to address “new sources of military threats and risks.”
In particular, Mr. Putin said, Russia would treat “aggression against Russia by any nonnuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state” as a “joint attack on the Russian Federation.”
Mr. Putin also said that Russia would be prepared to use a nuclear weapon even in response to an attack carried out with conventional weapons that creates “a critical threat to our sovereignty.”
Putin draws a red line.
Unknown if Putin’s action influenced the US decision to not approve Ukraine’s use of long range missiles into Russia.
I believe the US is satisfied with the current state of the Ukraine War. Ukraine continues to bleed Russia’s ability to wage any future war.
We are quite willing to fight to the last Ukrainian.
And our nation won’t allow a third party to be in control of beginning WW3.
I am assuming WW3 would have macroeconomic effects.
Putins war in Ukraine has always been under the nuclear umbrella. He knows full well that someone in the west will raise the fear of escalation to nuclear war with any attempt to aid Ukraine.
If not his disinformation organization is well equipped to plant that idea in the western press.
Most doubt he thinks he can win a nuclear war. He is probably bluffing. But a limited nuclear attack with tactical nuclear weapons might be possible.
The inherent advantage of being a brutally repressive dictator. You can threaten the world with nuclear armageddon, and no-one is going to say “you’re nuts”. If the other side is populated by rational people,. they will always cave and surrender, because they are too rational to buy into the “better dead than red” narrative.
Certainly Eisenhower believed that. Kruschev was probably removed because powers in the Kremlin believed that. But we have no indications that current powers in the Kremlin or Putin believe that. That is necessary for his bluff to win.
If Russia is reduced in power; Putin might rather go out in flames. I wonder how the oligarchy feel about that. Could they stop Putin? Would Putin believe a loss in Ukraine makes Russia a second rate power?
A lot of unknowns out there.
Dinosaurs lived on the earth for 165 million years.
It has been 5000 years since humans began developing writing and now we have nuclear weapons and AI. The probability of us lasting for even another 1000 years appears to be zero.