I believe he is 100% serious.
And I still think it shouldn't matter. The conflict will grow regardless, and the West shouldn't concede a single inch to the psychopathic asshole.
Otherwise we might as well hand him all of Europe on a silver platter.
Why are WE the ones afraid of consequences? Why should the so-called "mightiest nation on Earth" be the one that cowers whenever someone makes nuclear threats? Didn't we used to lead the world in creating fear of our military and our nuclear weapons?
I don't get how the right in particular treats the USA like a mighty jugger- nah I can't even frame my rhetorical thought, we all know that Russia is deeply involved in shaping the opinions and attitudes of our country's dumbest fuckwads.
Otherwise we might as well hand him all of Europe on a silver platter.
And sadly I believe that a lot of Americans would prefer isolationism and are fine with this, as they'd get to cut military spending.
Of course, Europeans buy American goods and vice versa. If Russia ruled over all of Europe, Putin could just stop all trade with the US as a giant middle finger.
Some at least pretend to. "If we didn't have to police the world, we could save so much on military spending, Europe should get its' own shit together"
And while I as an European agree about the last part, I still think NATO is a beneficial alliance to everyone involved.