An order by Vladimir Putin to strike Ukraine or the West with nuclear weapons will not be obeyed by his top commanders, an expert has predicted.
Many leading military and security officials - as well as the president's own cronies - believe Putin to be dying or gravely ill, Christo Grozev, a senior investigative journalist on Russian affairs, has said.
He says his officers are not willing to risk being hauled before a modern equivalent of the Nuremberg trials for unleashing nuclear armageddon.
