A report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) raised the question of whether Russia might be emboldened to fire a NSNW in the belief that the West lacks the resolve to deliver a nuclear response.
A report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) raised the question of whether Russia might be emboldened to fire a NSNW in the belief that the West lacks the resolve to deliver a nuclear response.
WTF are they smoking?
If the calculation was solely of Russia and Ukraine, that might be considered a logically sound gamble, if still under long-odds. But it’s not. It’s a question of the normalization of the use of nuclear weapons, and sure as shit that won’t fly.
Nothing, it’s Russians being Russians.
Nothing. This is to scare the West.
I Russia using a nuclear weapon (even just a small tac nuke) would have the opposite effect on the West. I also think the backlash from non-western nations against Russia would be significant too. No one wants it to be “acceptable” to use nuclear weapons except in defense, and only as a last resort.
Russia started this war with a invasion. If the rest of the world gives Russia a pass, then any other nuclear nation would expect the same in their offensive operations. Since there are only 9 nuclear armed nations, the other 171-ish nations would not like to give that kind of permission.
But Russia is not using nuclear weapons, they write strategy papers about using nuclear weapons.