Nuclear escalation isn't a certainty but it is a frighteningly realistic possibility. Putin has both the capability and the ruthlessness to do the unthinkable. Too many have written off his history of clear and aggressive signals on the subject as the common chest thumpings of a dictator.

China and Russia are intent on destroying and remaking the existing world order. They've even put it in writing [http://en.kremlin.ru/supplement/5770]. Earlier statements might have attempted to cast that aspiration in a slightly more positive light than today's speech [http://en.kremlin.