What worries me is that there is a situation here where Russia benefits from launching nukes beyond just having no option / nothing to lose. If Russia nukes th

What worries me is that there is a situation here where Russia benefits from launching nukes beyond just having no option / nothing to lose. If Russia nukes the West and China remains neutral avoiding an attack, then they would almost certainly take the US's place as the global superpower. Russia would obviously be nuked in retaliation, but Putin himself likely wouldn't die in the attack and could probably strike a deal with Xi to rebuild Russia and Russia's empire with China's aid. Obviously it wouldn't be good news for China if all their main trading partners suddenly got wiped of the face of the Earth, but they'd get through it after several years and would no longer need to worry about the West. My concern is what if nuclear war actually benefits Xi & Putin at this moment in time? During the cold war the USSR was a super power -- they had everything to lose. Now they have very little and we have a lot... The calculation is completely different today. The cost of nuclear war for Russia is dramatically lower than it ever was for the USSR.