Clearly a case could be made, and indeed there are many Russian political observers and commentators inside Russia who make this case, that the red line has already been crossed by the United States, by Ukraine, in attacking Russia with these American weapons; that Russia already has a prima facie case to use nuclear weapons in accordance with its doctrine. But what Putin has done here is tone it down, to ratchet it down, to calm things down, and to say "No we haven't met that yet". This is extraordinary leadership, this is escalation management. Every American needs to thank Vladimir Putin for his maturity because otherwise we may not be here tomorrow.

--- Scott Ritter, Jun 11 2024, in an interview with Andrew Napolitano

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