Putin's nuclear show blows up in his face

**Robbo** · 19th February 2004

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...8/ixworld.html

Could be a problem soon.

Putin's nuclear show blows up in his face
By Julius Strauss in Moscow
(Filed: 18/02/2004)

Russia's biggest military exercise since the collapse of communism flopped yesterday, ruining an attempt to project Vladimir Putin as a global leader and reaffirm the country's status as a nuclear superpower.

With Mr Putin and a host of military officials watching from the nuclear submarine Arkhangelsk, two intercontinental ballistic missiles went wrong during a firing from a submarine believed to be the Novomoskovsk. They were aimed at Kamchatka on the Pacific coast. A malfunctioning satellite was blamed.

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</CENTER></TD></TR><TR><TD class=caption><CENTER>Putin promised that Russia will again be a global power </CENTER></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
The Russian website gazeta.ru said one of the missiles blew up shortly after firing. The navy refused to confirm the accident.

Television, which had been leading news programmes with glowing reports of the exercises, quickly reduced them to a short bulletin.

For Mr Putin, decked out in naval garb, it was an embarrassing setback.

With less than a month before presidential elections, he has sought to cast himself as a hard man in the mould of the old Soviet leaders.

He has also pledged to preside over a return to the days when Russia was a powerful global player.

Last week he said the collapse of the Soviet Union had been a "national tragedy of enormous scale".

Speaking before the exercises, which began at the end of January and are due to last until the end of this month, Mr Putin appealed again to the Soviet nostalgia that many Russians still feel.

"The Soviet Union and its power, primarily projected through its nuclear forces, was a factor that balanced power in the world," he said. "We need to maintain this power and we will."

American military planners may take some satisfaction at the Kremlin's embarrassment, but it is unlikely to help the steady souring of relations.

Some analysts predict a further deterioration over the coming months as the former Cold War enemies skirmish over influence in central Asia and the Caucasus.

In recent months America has also stepped up pressure on Russia to improve its democratic record.

Ties between Moscow and Washington are significantly cooler than two years ago when Russia gave wholehearted backing to the war against terrorism.

Last week Col Gen Yuri Baluyevsky, the first deputy chief of the general staff of the armed forces, said that the current exercises were prompted partly by concerns about American policy.

Other Russian officials have spoken out against the expansion of Nato into the Baltic and America's decision to scrap Cold War arms treaties and push ahead with missile defence.

Sergei Ivanov, the defence minister, recently threatened to pull out of the European treaty on conventional forces, which underpins military stability on the continent, because of concern over US expansion.

**Shotgunjim** · 19th February 2004

Some analysts predict a further deterioration over the coming months as the former Cold War enemies skirmish over influence in central Asia and the Caucasus.

Oh dear.... :coffee:

**4me2** · 19th February 2004

F(uk em

**CON-DIGI** · 19th February 2004

The Russians became a World power by spending upto 55% of their GNP on the arms race, and look what it did to their infrastucture, since the end of the cold war the Russian economy has gone into a steep decline.

They may try to catch up with the Americans again, but they simply cannot compete, all they will achieve is more economic misery.

**Yazmon** · 20th February 2004

Yeah but the US is going the same way, so maybe they will come down to their level...

**Robbo** · 20th February 2004

Russia successfully tested a space vehicle that could lead to weapons capable of penetrating missile defenses, a senior general said Thursday. He insisted the device was not meant to counter U.S. efforts to develop an anti-missile shield

Analysts said the device may be part of a campaign to bolster Russia's global clout and burnish President Vladimir Putin's image ahead of March elections he is expected to win. It could also be an effort to restore prestige to the country's military, which has suffered near collapse since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Col.-Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, gave few details about the device tested Wednesday, but said it was a hypersonic vehicle -- one that moves at more than five times the speed of sound -- that could maneuver in orbit.

A weapon based on the craft could use that maneuverability to dodge missile defense systems, he said.

"The flying vehicle changed both altitude and direction of its flight," Baluyevsky said at a news conference. "During the experiment conducted yesterday, we have proven that it's possible to develop weapons that would make any missile defense useless."

The Russian news Web site www.gazeta.ru, citing unnamed General Staff officials, said the vehicle was a warhead with engines that would direct it as it approached a target, rather than going into free fall.

Phil Coyle, a senior adviser to the Washington-based Center for Defense Information, said Russia had been working on such a system for years and "it would not be surprising if they finally succeeded."

Baluyevsky's statement followed Putin's claims a day earlier that Russia could build unrivaled new strategic weapons. Putin made the statements during military exercises that were described as the largest in more than 20 years.

Russia's announcement comes after Washington withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 to develop a missile shield. After fervently protesting the plans, Russia was quiet when the United States abandoned the treaty, though U.S.-Russian relations have soured again lately.

Putin said that the weapons development wasn't directed against the United States, and Baluyevsky reaffirmed the statement.

"The experiment conducted by us mustn't be interpreted as a warning to the Americans not to build their missile defense because we designed this thing," Baluyevsky told The Associated Press. "We have demonstrated our capability, but we have no intention to build this craft tomorrow."

The United States reacted calmly to the Russian plans.

"If you're in that business -- intercontinental ballistic missiles and warheads -- you want them to be survivable, and maneuverability is one way to increase their survivability against any potential defenses," Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said when asked about the statements Putin made Wednesday.

"They've got to design a missile force that they think is sufficient for deterrence, just like we do."

The Russian military's widely reported troubles -- including severe funding shortages, low morale, poor conditions for servicemen and the Kursk nuclear submarine disaster of 2000 -- have undermined Putin's push for Russia to reassert itself as a military power. Underscoring that, the exercises were marred this week by two failed missile launches from nuclear submarines.

Alexei Arbatov, an expert on Russian military programs, said that boasting about future weapons was part of the Kremlin's efforts to bolster Russia's global clout and Putin's popularity at home.

"Putin has sought to make an impression on both domestic and global public and show that Russia has some major new projects in its fold," Arbatov told The Associated Press.

Alexander Pikayev, an independent military analyst, said Putin was catering to the military and nationalists ahead of the March 14 presidential election.

Baluyevsky also said that Russia was developing a new, submarine-based ballistic missile and a new nuclear submarine equipped to carry it that would enter service this decade. And he said the military was developing a new ground-based missile.

Russia had informed the United States about its intention to conduct the experiment and U.S. officials didn't complain, he said.

Baluyevsky refused to comment on what kind of engine the vehicle had, how long its flight lasted, how exactly it maneuvered and what combat load it may carry in the future. He said that it had been designed by Russian companies, but refused to name them.

As part of the current exercises, the military on Wednesday launched a Molniya-M booster rocket with a Kosmos military satellite and two ballistic missiles -- a Topol and an RS-18.

It wasn't clear which of the rockets carried the new vehicle into orbit.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationwo...orld-headlines

They can't be that skint then. Perhaps Putin's been selling a few nukes.