No one is "failing to understand" there is a nuclear threat here. What is not understood is that I'm talking about the media and I don't really care about Putin's statement. In my opinion this statement is deliberately made ambiguous because if he said nuclear and something happens and he does not use nuclear he would look like an idiot wouldn't he. There is a difference between saying the word, hence making a commitment, and not saying it.

Again, that is NOT the point here. The point is, the media's job is to report exactly what he said. "National Security", or whoever can then interpret it as "nuclear", and make a statement about it, then the media can report on that too. The media dubbing "nuclear" over what Putin said, is wrong. If we can't trust them on doing the basic job, then we can't trust them on anything.