Putin is apparently having screaming meltdowns with his inner circle, according to some reports. That's a far cry from the ice cold KGB man front he's presented thus far. The screaming whacko is who he really is, and a person like that... I feel like if he foresaw his regime collapsing, he'd order the launch.

Our best hope is that a general would put a bullet in his skull rather than carry out the order. Or that the person with their finger on the actual button is in the mold of Vasily Arkhipov or Stanislav Petrov, the sort of person who thinks, "Is this really justified? Do I really want to be the biggest mass murderer in all of human history?" Those men showed calm thinking and sound judgment in moments of grave peril, so hopefully the men and women with access to the button now are of the same character and fortitude.

This is a moment of extraordinary danger for humanity. In our choose your own adventure book, one of the options at the bottom of this page leads to "the end" on the very next page.