why russia's fearsome nukes may have to stay in their silos

Corruption isn’t just a buzzword. It destroyed entire empires, and Putin, of all people, should now know exactly how badly he allowed his friends to loot post-Soviet Russia two a half years into his weeklong “special operation” in Ukraine. (For full disclosure, the author was born and raised in Ukraine.) Given how nuclear weapons work and why they need constant maintenance and attention, he can’t gamble with a nuclear launch unless the situation is almost literally apocalyptic no matter how much he and his surrogates bluster.