Originally Posted by
Xeptu
I think we can safely assume that not much of Russia's anything actually works all that well. I note Putin is not banging the Nuclear drum anymore since he probably learned that all of his techs are in other countries seeking gainful employment and his arsenal hasn't been maintained for the last 22 years. He wouldn't want to attract global attention to that.
He's letting others keep that rhetoric going.
To put this disturbing topic into an aviation context: I wonder if they have (without making a lot of noise about it) already fitted one of the
Kinzhal missiles with a nuclear warhead,
and could thus from their own airspace over their own territory launch one with high confidence that it would not be intercepted. Not sure what target would be worth that risk or escalation, since Russia is still communicating the party line about "special military operation" and not a declared war. (I am also not sure how you'd solve the fusing bit on a missile going that fast, but I don't think a nuke is really a precision strike weapon in any case).
My read (which is hardly expert) is that they'd not use a tactical nuke unless they were in a declared war.