I think it's unlikely that any nation has a literal 'big red button' that simply needs to be pushed by said bloodthirsty leader in order to initiate said offensive.
Weren't the US nuclear codes famously set to 00000000? If that's the level of security the US has with probably the largest most advanced military in the world I wouldn't put it past Putin to literally have a big button on his desk behind a "break glass to end the world" window to stop him accidentally pressing it when he puts his coffee down.
(, Wed 19 Mar 2025, 10:35, Reply)
Technically, yes. In order to arm the missiles.
But the launch command still needed to be issued from two separate locations.
There was a Dead Hand procedure in place where the launch could be initiated from a single location on a timer, but that timer could then be terminated from any other location should the launch be unauthorised.
Don't get me wrong, the 00000000 arming codes were still pretty crazy, but as I said in my previous comment, I think we're at much higher risk of a nuclear apocalypse via incompetence/bad actors than we'll ever be from a single bad-tempered head of state.
(, Wed 19 Mar 2025, 16:28, Reply)