You think it makes sense for Russia to lose as much as it has in the Ukrainian conflict? That is the thing with authoritarian states, they’re more aggressive and make more costly mistakes. They already have nuclear weapons and they aren’t using them. If I were afraid of nuclear war then I would have lived all my life and all of its remainder in fear because there has always been some madman with a finger over the button, I’m not just going to give up and bend over for him.