The chain of command is much more complex than that, and including the FSB, GRU, and Rosgvardia…

I.e. it’s not like ‘Putin, Shoygu and Gerasimov must turn each his own key at once’, but something like 20 different people must all agree…

The chain of command is much more complex than that, and including the FSB, GRU, and Rosgvardia, plus about 15 other ‘stations’ up and down the chain of command of the RFA.

I.e. it’s not like ‘Putin, Shoygu and Gerasimov must turn each his own key at once’, but something like 20 different people must all agree to accept and obey the order, and then the FSB, and GRU, and Rosgvardia must hand over the nukes to the unit deploying them, and then the ‘last two must turn the keys’.

Overall, the process is very complex, and there are so many variables, that I strongly doubt Putin would come to the idea to ‘challenge/test it’. Moreover, even his ‘nuclear alert’ of 28 Feb was a bluff: he ‘issued the order on the TV’, but units are all in their barracks until this very day.

Overall, this is not only a ‘no-no story’ because it’s ‘thinking the unthinkable’, but a story Putin’s never going to dare to start — simply because the war in Ukraine has taught him better not to mess with scenarios where he does not know the outcome.