Putin Says The Magic Words Needed to Justify Nuke Launch

The world of international nuclear policy is both incessantly complex and stupefyingly simple all at once, as the finality of their widespread use really helps us prioritize the key facts.

Key Fact 1:  If the US and Russia lob any nukes at one another, the rest of them will be following closely thereafter.  Go give everyone you love a hug.

Key Fact 2:  Russia has long been looking to scratch the itch of their nuclear fetish, possibly for as petty a reason as to join the USA as the only nation to deploy an atomic weapon in war.

Key Fact 3:  The Kremlin’s military doctrine makes it incredibly easy to justify the deployment of their nuke arsenal, by declaring that any threat to the “existence” of Russia is reason enough to hit that big, red, apocalyptic button.

This is precisely why Vladimir Putin’s recent commentary on the Ukrainian invasion are so globally alarming.

Putin has framed Moscow’s year-long invasion as a defensive pushback against what he sees as a hostile West bent on expanding into territories historically ruled by Russia.

“So for us this is not a geopolitical task, but a task of the survival of Russian statehood, creating conditions for the future development of the country and our children,” he said during a visit to an aviation factory in Buryatia, some 4,400 km (2,750 miles) east of Moscow.

Then, putting the entire planet in his crosshairs:

Putin accuses the West of using Ukraine as a tool to inflict “stragetic defeat” on Russia. Kyiv and its Western allies say Moscow is waging an unprovoked war of imperial conquest that has destroyed Ukrainian cities, killed thousands of people and forced millions more to flee their homes.

And so there it is:  Putin’s pretext for sending armageddon skyward.  His magnum opus of manure meant to somehow manifest the previous myth of Moscow’s military might.