Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday that Russia was developing a nuclear missile system that he claimed was unrivalled in the world.
The president said Russia was ”testing the most up-to-date nuclear missile systems” which would be put into service ”in the next few years”.
”What is more, they will be developments of the kind that other nuclear powers do not and will not have,” Putin added in televised remarks to high-ranking military officers.
His brief statement was seen as both an attempt to boost military morale and a hint that Russia’s nuclear deterrent would not be rendered obsolete by the US launch of a missile defence shield.
Washington reacted cautiously to Russia’s nuclear designs last night, viewing them as consistent with bilateral treaties. ”We do not perceive Russia’s nuclear sustainment and modernisation activities as threatening,” said the state department spokesperson Adam Ereli.
Putin, who meets George Bush this weekend in Chile, appeared to refer to a new nuclear warhead delivery system that a senior Russian military official said in February had been successfully tested.
It is claimed the warhead can detach from the main missile during the final stages of its descent, and then continue to fly like a cruise missile, evading any missile defence shield.
Colonel General Yuri Baluyevsky, the then first deputy chief of staff, told reporters after the February test: ”The flying vehicle changed both the altitude and direction of its flight … We proved it’s possible to develop weapons that would make any missile defence useless.”
Anatoly Dyakov, the director of the Moscow Centre for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies, said: ”It seems like Putin was speaking about the new manoeuvrable warhead.” That warhead would have had to overcome the ”very complicated problem” of the ”huge surge in G-forces” that could tear it apart in this final stage.
Dyakov said the announcement sought to emphasise ”that US efforts to undermine their nuclear deterrents are in vain”.
He added the statement was ”directed towards the Russian military to show the political leadership is paying serious attention to the needs of the army”.
The announcement came as Kremlin officials also insisted that military spending was rising and social benefits for the military would improve.
Sergei Ivanov, the defence minister, said Russia was capable of securing its own nuclear arsenal, the chaos surrounding which had been a serious embarrassment for the military in the past decade.
Putin added that, while international terrorism was the main threat to Russia today, ”the moment we take our attention away from the nuclear missile shield, we will be confronted with other threats”.
Ivan Safranchuk, the head of the Centre for Defence Information in Moscow, said the Kremlin head’s statement was not about foreign policy but a sign Putin had sided with those top brass members urging nuclear strategic arms development, and decided against the lobby promoting stronger conventional forces.
Putin on Wednesday awarded a civilian medal to one of the leaders of the 1991 attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. Dmitry Yazov, 80, was presented with the Order of Merit. – Guardian Unlimited