Russia raises the nuclear stakes

Doomsday?: President Putin imagined as Dr Strangelove by our illustrator (above) in a reference to the 1964 Cold War comedy film in which an American general goes crazy and nukes Moscow.

Could Putin pull the trigger? This week marked an escalation in Russian president Vladimir Putin’s nuclear sabre-rattling, as he issued a new “warning” to the West. But some think Moscow’s red lines are losing their colour.