This article came out today and I thought it fit into this discussion. http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/11/russia-ready-to-use-nuclear-weapons-2/
As kid the sage advice regarding fights, taunting and making threats was never to bluff. If you say something, you better be ready to do it, because if you say stuff they don’t like people will call you on it. Turned out they were right most of the time. Also found out people that give warnings usually mean what they say as well.
If Russian leaders say they will use nukes they probably mean it.