Considering all the talk of action when the Soviets overran Hungry and Czechoslovakia in the end the West did nothing but talk. I would guess Putin is expecting the same force, a bullshit avalanche, to be brought to bear if the Russians should overrun Ukraine. Economic sanctions will not work -- Russians have a genetic history of breadlines -- they will survive the deprivations.

Putin knows that using nuclear weapons would be a fatal mistake -- he is just playing the role of a badass much like Khrushchev did years ago -- didn't work out to well that time -- did it?