Financial Times: “Russia intends to double the number of its troops stationed along its border with the Baltic states and Finland as it prepares for a potential military conflict with NATO within the next decade, according to Estonia’s foreign intelligence service.”
Even with nuclear warfare.
I think Putin knows that he can get off five or six nukes on strategic cities to destabilize Europe and America without much additional repercussion, assuming it is already at war with the West.
The West cannot nuke Russia back because their major retaliatory strike package is automatic, under dead hand control, and would surely cause global nuclear winter.
Or, maybe the West retaliated and nukes some Russian cities without triggering the dead hand. Putin absolutely doesn’t give a shit if tens of millions of Russian civilians die. It literally will not matter to him in any sense. He will still be a billionaire oligarch living in obscene luxury and will still remain president as a long as he desires.