Trinity Detonation, public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia

At the Washington Examiner, Dan Hannan asks:

Will Putin Nuke London?

 September 26, 2022 09:29 AM

But we don’t have to look far to find an apter parallel.

…

Putin is following Stalin’s playbook, right down to the hammer-and-sickle flags being hoisted in the towns his troops occupy. Four Ukrainian regions are now being made to vote on integration with Russia. There is, however, an important difference. Six months into the war, Stalin was starting to turn things around. Putin, in contrast, is losing badly.

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Even during the depths of the Cold War, there was a well-understood no-first-strike convention. Until last week, Russia was clear that nuclear weapons were a final resort, to be used only in the face of an existential threat.

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But no one outside the fantasies of some pro-Kremlin TV presenters thinks that the West is threatening Russia with destruction. …

It is possible, I suppose, that Putin has lost his wits and will pull the world down rather than face defeat. It is even conceivable that he might get away with it — that is to say, that there is no posse of sane Russians ready to stop him from pressing the button, that his nuclear rockets system will work better than any of his conventional weapons, and that the West’s defenses will fail.

But does it not seem more plausible that we are dealing with a tawdry, frightened dictator who realizes that he has made a terrible blunder, can see no way out of it, and is playing for time as defeat closes in?

Yes, that seems more plausible.

Glory to Ukraine!