Russia - not 'Puutiin' - is doubling down and not backing down because the exceptionalist, entitled, rules-dont-apply-to-us, greedy and sociopath lot that runs the US establishment has never stopped trying to corner and destroy Russia in the past 30 years. Seeing how diplomacy and calling the west 'partners' did not solve anything but it ended up with nuclear weapons being placed and Nazis being armed at its border, Russia broke all ties with the US. Which is 'the West', obviously, because the rest seem to be just doing what the US tells them to.

Hence there's the risk of nuclear war. Because even after openly being warned about it, the exceptionalist, deeply religious, sociopathic and greedy old white men who dominate the American military-industry-oil complex, do not have a habit of caring about what others say and they think they are on a 'god given mission' which justifies their unlimited greed.