I think it is necessary to clarify the situation a bit.
Firstly, there will be no nuclear war because every Russian official (I mean EVERY) has real estate in the US or his kids studying in the US or his money in the US banks or his ex-wife lives in the US and I can continue.
Secondly, everything Putin says is designed for the local public. All this is solely to distract people from real problems.
thats_all_folks.jpg
And it works perfectly - using the image of the external enemy/competitor to distract people from the country's internal problems never fails.