AJ Sadauskas on Nostr: kravietz 🦇 Those Russia "experts" should realise that Russia threatening to nuke ...

kravietz 🦇 (nprofile…3w02) Those Russia "experts" should realise that Russia threatening to nuke other countries is a standard part of its diplomacy.

It has been since the Soviet Union gained nuclear weapons.

And not just against the West.

For example, in 1969 during the Sino–Soviet split, Brezhnev threatened to nuke China over a disputed border on Zhenbao Island.

When Putin threatens to use nuclear weapons, he's not saying the Russian state has imminent plans to begin global thermonuclear war.

He's saying is this is an issue the Kremlin feels strongly about.

Here's the thing.

The most important priority for the Russian state right now, above all else, is the continuation of the Putin regime.

An all-out global thermonuclear war would almost certainly mean the end of the Putin regime, and would pose a serious risk to Putin's life.

It would end Putin's grand project of recreating the Russian Empire, and reestablishing Russia as the preeminent hegemonic superpower in Eurasia.

It would also destroy much of the wealth of the inner-circle of Russian oligarchs.

In short, Russia doesn't *actually* want a global thermonuclear war.

But it knows it can get its way, or at least gain concessions, by threatening to be planning it.

And the supposed Russia experts fall for it every time.