Russia’s nuclear rhetoric: Alarming or just ridiculous?

Anyone old enough to remember the Cold War—even its less frigid later decades—can crisply recall the strange psychological quality of those days, when sudden planetary obliteration seemed as likely as, oh, drowning in a rip tide, or getting mauled by a Doberman pinscher. It probably wouldn't happen, but it certainly could. This black psychological fog bank largely dissipated after 1989. But now Putin wants to party like it's 1983.

Last week, a Russian defense ministry website informed the public that "Schizophrenics from America are sharpening nuclear weapons for Moscow." (One wonders if, among sufferers of mental illness, schizophrenics are especially likely to initiate nuclear war.)

Just a few days ago, the Kremlin announced that US military action against the forces of Syria's Bashar al-Assad would result in "terrible, tectonic consequences." (So… leaders at the Kremlin sufficiently prize the hide of a besieged Middle Eastern despot that they would invite their own deaths to prevent his?)

An official from the emergencies ministry announced last Friday that the government has prepared underground shelter for all 12 million souls in Moscow. (Has food for the 12 million been cached as well? Drinking water? Medical supplies? How will sewage and sanitation be addressed? Is, in fact, this underground Moscow an exact replica of its above-ground cousin?)

These entertaining and unsettling quotes come via The Times of London.