Putin has put his nuclear forces in a “special regime of combat duty,” – Explainer

AP with useful reading on Putin’s escalation over the weekend:

• Putin on Sunday told his top defense and military officials to put nuclear forces into a “special mode of combat duty,” but it was not immediately clear how that might change the status of Russian nuclear forces, if at all. Russia, like the United States, has maintained its ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, at a high level of readiness at all times, and it is believed that Russian submarine-based nuclear missiles, such as that of the United States, are similarly set up..

BUT …

• U.S. officials, though annoyed by Putin’s words, said they did not know what he meant. But it is so rare that a US or Russian leader poses an implicit nuclear threat, especially in the current context of the war in Ukraine, that the risk of it becoming nuclear cannot be ruled out.

Adam’s post about the nuclear threat over the weekend:

The escalation of Russian sanctions and rhetoric does not bode well for the Monday market