>Russia starts to look very awkward if they launch a nuclear attack and it does not work. What happens next? Yes, I've been thinking about this possibility for

>Russia starts to look very awkward if they launch a nuclear attack and it does not work. What happens next? Yes, I've been thinking about this possibility for a while: * Putin fires tactical atomic weapon at some empty plot of Ukrainian land, and announces it as a "demonstration" of Russian might. * The weapon is a dud. I'm not sure whether this outcome might not be worse in the long run, in terms of geopolitical stability, than if the weapon performs as expected!