>>nuclear annihilation by launching any form of retaliation against Moscow

You realize that there are responses quite a bit short of nuclear retaliation? If the RF invades a NATO nation, the US is treaty-bound to come to their aid - but that doesn't mean immediate escalation to a nuclear response.

I'd expect the RF AF to be removed from the airspace of the invaded country, and removal of their troops not very long after (retreat, POWs, or body bags).

Once upon a time, the USSR had conventional forces that far overmatched those of NATO (if you remember 'neutron' bombs, those were to counter the expected columns of invading tanks without destroying infrastructure). That's very much not the case today.

I am NOT saying that NATO forces would invade Russia proper, but it almost certainly would lose access to Kaliningrad and Murmansk and nearly all of their navy not in territorial waters would go to the bottom.

On top of that, look at RF demographics. It's in collapse. After the recent waves of out-migration and the losses in Ukraine, it's pretty much done invading - and that's assuming it remains a 'federation', which I don't see as a safe assumption to make.