Putin attempts to shift nuclear brinksmanship

Putin’s track record of nuclear brinksmanship is so long and rich that his attempt to show self-restraint and advance cooperative ideas is, at best, unconvincing, likely motivated by the assumption that Washington’s strategic memory is short. His insistence on staying the course in Ukraine is undercut by Russia’s failure to win significant territory and by the failure of massive missile and drone attacks to terrorize Ukraine. Nuclear weapons may be Putin’s only means of rapidly altering the course of an attritional war. The Western coalition may soon have to gather again political courage and military means to deter his new attempts at blackmail and intimidation.