[alangibson]

To be fair, a nuclear state did fail. The US launched a program to help secure nuclear material and it more or less worked out.

You could argue that if the Russian state failed then a group of nations could literally just buy their nukes from whatever gangsters ever up in charge.

[ed_balls]

I'd argue USSR collapse was a messy dissolution. A failure would be: Tatarstan declares independence, regular fighting in the streets of Moscow for months.