Nuclear politics are not one-way, and there is always an opponent on the other side.
Rockets are multipurpose weapons
Also, the Soviet Union needed resistance what can give threat, what comes from the out of the borders of the Warsaw pact. The nuclear threat, what comes outlands was a good excuse for setting the Soviet IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles) and SRBM (Short-Range Ballistic Missiles) in the areas of its allies. The threat, what comes from the NATO-side was looking better than argue those missiles with police duties. In that case, the purpose of those missile systems is to destroy the rebellious forces, and that is one of the uses, what the KGB planned for those weapons.
The users of the missiles don't require highly sophisticated weapons and combat exercises. The IRBM and SRBM missiles can also be equipped with chemical and biological warheads, and the production of hydrazine(1), which can be used as a chemical weapon can argue with that kind of thing.
But if the missile operators will rebel, the SPETSNAZ (or some other special ops)-team can easily terminate that kind of attempts, and the difference between the ground-based systems and aircraft or naval vessels is that if the crew of strategic bomber or submarine is that if the rebellion starts at the airborne, that only way how to stop that action is to destroy the plane. Also if the nuclear weapons are loaded in the aircraft, there is a possibility that somebody steals that plane.
The hydrazine is also a suitable chemical to use as a chemical weapon, which can be delivered from aircraft and helicopters, like MI-24 "Hind" as the image above shows. This image has been originally drawn by DOD (Department of Defense) artists for demonstrating the use of Soviet and later Russian equipment.
So that is one of the reasons, why the Russians have put resources into the research and development of nuclear missiles. The problem with highly-mobile ground-based systems is that those weapons can be destroyed by using the aircraft or even the infantryman can destroy those weapons by shooting the tanks of the rocket booster by using the anti-tank weapons.
And this is another threat in that kind of system. The terrorists can try to capture that kind of weapons. Even if the nuclear warhead is not installed in that system, the rocket will contain very much explosive material. So this means that the rockets cause another threat. Also, the fuel of that kind of rockets is very highly toxic. If the hydrazine, what is normally used in the rockets, where the fuel is stored would release to the water supply, that thing causes the same effect with nerve gas.
So if we would want to act brutally we would release hydrazine to the water system if some prison or some other installation will start to rebel, and also that kind of chemical can be used as the "limited chemical weapon", what can also deliver to the area by using the delivery system, what is used as the delivering the agricultural chemicals. That kind of weapon is the most brutal in the world. But it gives a good threat in the hands of the special forces when they are breaking rebels.
(1) https://cameochemicals.noaa.gov/chemical/5019
Image: Pinterest
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