I don’t think you fully understand some things that are being played out. The world “leaders” are deciding the future of the world. You don’t get a voice and apparently neither does Russia. China is still trying to find out if it does. The evil going on is giant. The world “leaders” turned Germany off, yes off, just to prevent them from possibly going neutral. So yes Russia could decide to move the cost and pain to nuclear. The question you should ask is what would be their target and delivery method. Another would be who is running thing these days and how much control do they have.
Don’t quit your day job.
The decadent West or the Russian gulag? Not much of a choice. But I pick the West in this one. It's a shame because for a while, it looked like Putin was a reformer in Russia. But he decided to throw it all away.