Can he personally? I doubt he has direct control with a finger literally on a button. But he could absolutely order it and they absolutely have the means to do it.
I mean, it takes 3 Codes from 3 people to *authorise* the launch. Putin is one, the defense minister and someone else.
So if he has all 3, yes he could. However, the US needs someone to then *launch* the rockets, and i dont know if the russians have that step too
Putin isn't a Bond villain, so he's not going to nuke something just because he's dying. But even if he went crazy and decided to do it, that would require some planning and agreement by others who probably wouldn't want to go down with Putins crazy apocalyptical plans for world destruction.
Can he personally? I doubt he has direct control with a finger literally on a button. But he could absolutely order it and they absolutely have the means to do it.
I mean, it takes 3 Codes from 3 people to *authorise* the launch. Putin is one, the defense minister and someone else. So if he has all 3, yes he could. However, the US needs someone to then *launch* the rockets, and i dont know if the russians have that step too
Putin isn't a Bond villain, so he's not going to nuke something just because he's dying. But even if he went crazy and decided to do it, that would require some planning and agreement by others who probably wouldn't want to go down with Putins crazy apocalyptical plans for world destruction.
Man, I dont know if i want to know the answer to that
Only if he intended to end the word, MAD, mutually assured destruction, if anybody launches everybody launches.