Originally Posted by
Big Pistons Forever
Putin may be evil but I don’t think he is stupid. He floated the nuke issue to see what the response will be.
He and his cronies (Medvedev etc) have been signalling their willingness to use nukes since the beginning of this conflict, if not before. Consequently its kind of lost its value as a threat. Recall someone threatened their use when Liz Truss (then foreign secretary) said something idiotic. Retrospectively this seems like an entirely proportionate response, given the havoc she is now wreaking (ok mods, I know...).
It sounds like he got his answer and not in a way good for him so the real question is how does he up the ante without risking an overwhelming response that will be unrecoverable by Russia.
The question for me is how would Putin in turn respond to this. Would he double down and attack a NATO member state, with all the consequences that would follow?
I think the sabotage of the Nordstream pipe line is a signal of his intent to go after European energy infrastructure. There is lots of room for mischief with wink wink nudge nudge deniability.
If he can get the EU to crack he thinks he can leverage imposed negotiations on Ukraine with terms favourable to him…..
There's all kinds of asymmetric (and deniable) mischief he could potentially instigate - cyber, fifth columnists (presumably) etc. But so far, nothing. I can't quite fathom why he hasn't and has instead reached for his biggest stick.