[Maursault]

> remember, the end game of escalation, however remote is nukes

This is Russia not the Soviet Union. With Putin and cronies ransacking the Russian treasury for more than 20 years, what are the chances there's enough left to maintain the arsenal? Of the 5K+ nuclear warheads Russia inherited, how many even work? Remember that the Soviet Union was a rusting shell years before it dissolved in 1991. I just have a sinking suspicion the US could win a nuclear war against Russia with a single, low yield strike, with no response. But then again, why would we waste a nuclear warhead when we can use Rods from God to cut the head off the snake? The ethical considerations have a lot of wiggle room here, as Russia is a mafia state with a government that is an assassination society, so an assassination exception for Russian heads of state is then only ethical.[1] But honestly, it would be so much cooler to arrest and extract Putin, and take him alive to face justice at The Hague.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Soviet_and_Russian_ass...