A good military strategy with Russia (and others) when threatening nukes is what I call the Dirty Harry method, ie "Are you feeling lucky, punk?" Russia's threats are madness given mutually assured destruction, especially when we have the advantage. It implies that like all repressive nationalists, they are thinking with their b*lls and testing our strengths, which we still have assuming we remain united, rational, and firm. Remember that Hitler and Hirohito thought we were a bunch of diffuse pacifist brats before our war machine cranked up (and brains like Einstein and Fermi headed West to join the effort...game over)