In a dramatic escalation of East-West tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces put on high alert Sunday in response to what he called “aggressive statements” by leading NATO powers.
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Putin, in giving the nuclear alert directive, cited not only the alleged statements by NATO members but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including the Russian leader himself.
This is madness on a scale unseen since Putin's intellectual ancestor was still yammering about ultimate victory in April of 1945 as his capital city was being shelled and bombed into heaps of rubble.
Meanwhile, the members of Putin's fan club in western Europe are trying to dissemble and step back from their full-throated embrace of the New Butcher of Ukraine. We should never forget who they are.
Also, the fucking Norks are clamoring for attention.
Some *minor*logical inconsistency here; threatening nuclear response to economic sanctions.If you threaten NATO/EU/US & don't get capitulation, there's few moves left: back down (hopefully through some non humiliating off ramps which we are apparently expected to provide), or pull the trigger.If he accepts the off ramps he'll be abandoning the *greater russia* narrative that the whole Ukraine fiasco is in aid of & accepting a *lesser russia* result. Don't see how this works for him (and potentially us either, given MAD.
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