According to a retired US Department of Defense officer, Former Pentagon insider Gregory Weaver, who specialised in nuclear weapons defence, Russia does not have a strict adherence to the Mad, Mutually Assured Destruction doctrine regarding nuclear weapons, and has instead a “escalate to de-escalate” position. This is not well known outside of the circle of defence experts, and it certainly is not well known in the general intellectual population, whose thought is still back in the 1960s.
But, as documented by the late Dr Peter Pry, this nuclear doctrine is also held by other axis of evil adversaries, such as communist China, North Korea, and Iran. The policy relates to the use of smaller scale tactical nukes, rather than things like the country-destroying Satan II missile which can annihilated areas the size of France or Texas. There is no coming back if one of those giant fire crackers is let off.
