Would Russian President Putin Press The Nuclear Button?

 

Steve Rosenberg, BBC Information: Ukraine invasion: Would Putin push the nuclear button? 

Enable me begin with an admission.

So quite a few instances, I’ve thought: “Putin would never ever do this.” Then he goes and does it. 

“He’d hardly ever annex Crimea, surely?” He did. 

“He’d never start off a war in the Donbas.” He did. 

“He’d under no circumstances launch a whole-scale invasion of Ukraine.” He has. 

I have concluded that the phrase “would by no means do” won’t apply to Vladimir Putin. 

And that raises an uncomfortable problem: “He’d never ever press the nuclear button first. Would he?”  

Read more ….  

Update #1: ‘Yes, He Would’: Fiona Hill on Putin and Nukes (Politico)  

Update #2: Would Vladimir Putin basically use nuclear weapons? (The Guardian) 

WNU Editor: There is only one situation that I can see Putin employing a nuclear weapon in the existing crisis. If the war is not likely as prepared, a tactical nuclear gadget will be utilised on an critical Ukraine military focus on to pressure a brief capitulation of the Ukraine governing administration and a warning to the West to continue to be out.