BREAKING:
A Russian glide bomb just struck a bus in Kramatorsk.
12 Ukrainian civilians were killed and 14 wounded.
— @visegrad24 Oct 8, 2026
Author: wawiimuy
PUTIN’S NUCLEAR THREATS ARE LOSING THEIR POWER 🇷🇺🇺🇦🇬🇧🇺🇸🇨🇳🇮🇳🇮🇷🇮🇱🇵🇰🇫🇷🇯🇵🇰🇷
Russia 🇷🇺 has again told NATO it is prepared to use its full arsenal, including nuclear weapons, to defend what it considers its territory. Vladimir Putin repeated that warning over Kaliningrad on October 1.
According to Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman, the striking part is how little impact those threats now seem to have.
Early in the war, nuclear escalation fears shaped Western decision-making. The U.S. 🇺🇸 and its allies were more cautious about what weapons they supplied to Ukraine 🇺🇦, while China 🇨🇳 and India 🇮🇳 reportedly warned Moscow against nuclear use. Washington is also believed to have signaled that a Russian nuclear strike could trigger direct Western intervention.
Over time, however, many of the boundaries once considered too dangerous were crossed.
Tanks, fighter aircraft and long-range weapons capable of striking targets inside Russia were all once treated as unacceptable escalation risks. Ukraine has since received all three.
Then came Operation Spider’s Web in 2025, when Ukrainian drones struck Russian strategic bombers tied to the nuclear deterrent. Russian doctrine had identified attacks on such assets as potentially justifying nuclear escalation.
No nuclear response followed.
Former NATO deputy secretary-general Rose Gottemoeller summarized the problem bluntly: “Nuclear deterrence is not working.”
Russia is not alone in facing this broader challenge. Iran 🇮🇷 has fired missiles and drones at nuclear-armed Israel 🇮🇱, while India and Pakistan 🇵🇰, both nuclear powers, have exchanged strikes across their territories.
But for Moscow, the stakes may be higher. Russia’s nuclear arsenal remains one of the central pillars of its claim to great-power status, and maintaining it is enormously expensive.
Rachman argues that Moscow is therefore looking for other ways to restore deterrence, including sabotage, assassinations, drone incursions and intensified attacks on Ukrainian cities. Those tools may create fear, but they also increase the risk of miscalculation and escalation.
The bigger strategic danger is that if nuclear threats stop being believed, conventional war may begin to look less risky too.
Putin spent years using the nuclear card to make the West hesitate.
The question now is what happens when the card is played so often that nobody flinches anymore.
— @WW3finalboss Oct 8, 2026
Открытие комплекса по производству электрических батарей • Президент России kremlin.ru/events/president/…
— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) Oct 8, 2026
Germany’s ex-spymaster admits holding files but denies treason ft.trib.al/nQsbFZJ
— @FT Oct 8, 2026
#Azerbaijan #CIA CIA #FBI FBI
Azerbaijan is reportedly behind the corruption of the former German intelligence chief thenewsandtimes.blogspot.com…— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) Oct 8, 2026
The GRU’s dud drone: How Russian intelligence botched a sabotage plot at Leipzig airport
The latest investigation from @christogrozev and @dobrokhotov finds direct evidence of the GRU’s involvement and IDs additional operatives not previously named.
theins.press/en/inv/298011— @InsiderEng Oct 8, 2026
Yandex has said it suspended operations at its data center in Ryazan following a drone strike on Thursday.
— @Newsweek Oct 8, 2026
Royal Navy service member charged with spying for unnamed foreign country, police say bbc.in/3TOGaN3
— @BBCBreaking Oct 8, 2026
Your thoughts on this
— @CityScapesNC Oct 8, 2026
Imagine the man who once ran Germany’s spy service becoming the focus of a major investigation. The CIA is asking what shared secrets, sources and operations have been exposed. This goes way beyond Germany. #CIA #BND #Counterintelligence
— @Robert4787 Oct 8, 2026