(The majority of nuclear nations have signed on to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1972, which binds them to refrain from helping non-nuclear nations to develop nuclear weapons, and work towards nuclear disarmament. The NPT has not worked perfectly, but nuclear stockpiles have been reduced, and the spread of nuclear-armed nations has been somewhat contained.)
Putin's nuclear threats HAVE made headline news a couple of times, so this is a moment in history when people ARE aware of the nuclear threat, and are plenty frightened.
We should take advantage of the moment.
We now have the internet, where an idea can go viral in a week, getting into the minds of millions of people all over the world. We can bypass the mainstream media.
We understand and appreciate our interconnectedness, not only with other humans, but also with all life on planet earth. We have had several generations to observe the effects of human greed on the ecosystem.
Still, right now the United States and Russia each maintain roughly 900 nuclear weapons on prompt-launch status-commonly called high alert or hair-trigger alert-so they can be launched in minutes.
China has a policy of no first use. The US and Russia do not. Russia recently spelled out the conditions under which it would use nuclear weapons. These include a vague statement : when an act of aggression is committed against Russia and its allies, which jeopardises the existence of the country itself, even without the use of nuclear weapons, that is, with the use of conventional weapons."
Putin evidently considered the possibility that Ukraine would join NATO and allow nuclear weapons on its soil as fitting this definition. That's the excuse Russia is giving for invading Ukraine.
Putin knows full well that the Soviet Union did site nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and the government of Ukraine promptly returned them to Russia when the Soviet Union broke up. In other words, his idea of what jeopardizes Russia's existence is hard to define.
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