Russia has consistently talked about launching nukes in response to various red lines, and their sabre rattling has been effective in moderating everyone’s tone even when it was blatant lies.

I don’t take seriously the idea of either side actually using nukes, and I never suggested it. The point I was making was about the damage it does to disarmament efforts when, say, a smaller nation gives up its nukes in exchange for assurances and is then invaded by one of the very signatories of those assurances.