Yeah, the biggest upside to confirming Russia is no longer a nuclear power is that a conventional response would then be plausible. Thinking this opens the door to a nuclear strike without retaliation is absurd and still a global disaster.
Now, I’m not saying Russia is no longer a nuclear power, but their conventional arsenal clearly wasn’t as well maintained as we previously believed, and nuclear arsenals are also very expensive to maintain. But even if 90% of their nukes were unusable, it would still be a global threat if they launched them.
Yeah, the biggest upside to confirming Russia is no longer a nuclear power is that a conventional response would then be plausible. Thinking this opens the door to a nuclear strike without retaliation is absurd and still a global disaster.
Now, I’m not saying Russia is no longer a nuclear power, but their conventional arsenal clearly wasn’t as well maintained as we previously believed, and nuclear arsenals are also very expensive to maintain. But even if 90% of their nukes were unusable, it would still be a global threat if they launched them.