Why this shutdown is scarier than the others.

In the game of "chicken" drivers race towards each other vying to see which one's nerve fails first and swerves to prevent the likely fatal collision. The idea, of course, is that one of the drivers will "chicken out" and they both live. There's no benefit to be had if both die.

However -- what if there's a third party that wins if that happens? That third party would be motivated to, say, tamper with brakes or steering gear so that chickening out becomes impossible and there's a horrendous head-on crash.

What if that third party is Putin?