Documentary filmmakers understand the power of moving images and the candid moment.

HBO’s six-part series “The Jinx” revealed evidence that may seal the conviction of its subject, Robert Durst. More importantly for the world, however, was the new Russian state television documentary about the Crimean crisis, starring a President Vladimir Putin who raised the specter of nuclear war.

People leave after a rally marking the one-year anniversary of the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula, outside the Kremlin, with St. Basil Cathedral in the background, in Moscow on Wednesday. A new Russian state television documentary about th… — People leave after a rally marking the one-year anniversary of the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula, outside the Kremlin, with St. Basil Cathedral in the background, in Moscow on Wednesday. A new Russian state television documentary about the Crimean crisis features President Vladimir Putin raising the specter of using nuclear weapons to defend Russia’s interests, effectively daring the West to risk nuclear war by supporting or intervening in Ukraine. Denis Tyrin The Associated Press

Putin is redefining and reassessing the MAD doctrine in the post-Cold War era. But he is not alone.

Military planners and political leaders around the world are both gaming and training for the tactical use of nuclear weaponry – from field weapons to medium-range missiles – that would cause limited damage but incalculable consequences.

These new weapons and tactics would aim to destroy adversaries’ will to fight or retaliate, but not necessarily their capacity to do so. As a result, Putin is actively changing the unwritten rules of atomic age warfare. READ MORE