The US saw Russia moving to possibly test Putin's 'doomsday' torpedo

Imagine constantly using doomsday threats as a cheat code to lengthen your stay at the world leadership table.

The cheat code might feel really cool to use, but eventually the cheat code starts to define you, including your past, present, and of course future-you, to an embarrassing degree (see quote at end of article).

(This is part of the reason why I believe Putin could have been effectively replaced by a PRNG and simplistic factor-weighting system resulting in more successful outcomes from as early as 2007. From at least 10-2022 I'm certain a system with no weighting at all could have done better for both Putin and Russia)