Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed the “final successful test” of a nuclear-powered cruise missile.
The president’s spokesman denied a report by the New York Times newspaper that said a weapon called Buroznik was going to be tested. After that the President made this statement.
This experimental weapon was first announced in 2018. It was praised as having a potentially unlimited range.
It is believed to be powered by a nuclear reactor and capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
But there is very little information available about its capabilities officially. There are reports that previous tests had failed.
President Putin’s statement could not be independently verified, while no statement has yet been released by the Russian Defense Ministry.
However, satellite images circulated last month revealed that Russia had recently built new facilities on a remote Arctic island site where Soviet-era nuclear tests were conducted.
The photos show construction work on Novaya Zemlya, an island in the northern Barents Sea.
“We have finished working on the advanced strategic weapons that I talked about and announced a few years ago,” Putin said at a meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Thursday. What was it?
‘Burozinc has had its ultimate successful experiment. It is a nuclear-powered cruise missile of global range.
The NATO alliance has named the missile Skyfall, which is powered by a nuclear reactor. Solid fuel rocket boosters activate it by releasing it into the air.
The New York Times, citing the arms control campaign group Nuclear Threat Initiative, said 13 previous tests of the system had failed between 2017 and 2019.
Putin also told his audience that work on the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile is almost complete.
Despite this revelation, Putin has said that Russia has no plans to change its nuclear doctrine. It is the policy that determines the circumstances under which its forces may use nuclear weapons.
He added that the existence of the Russian state was not in danger and that “anyone in their right mind and clear memory” would not consider a nuclear attack against it.
But he indicated that Russia could theoretically suspend implementation of the 1996 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. He said that just as the US had signed but never ratified it, Russia could do the same.
During the same meeting in Sochi, Putin said the plane crash that killed Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in August was not caused by “external interference” such as a missile attack.
He said that ‘hand grenade particles’ were found in the bodies of the dead. He added that the head of the investigation committee informed me about it the other day.
The president did not explain how the grenade could have gone off on the plane but said he believed investigators should have tested the bodies for alcohol and drugs.
No official report has yet been released on the cause of the accident.