Russia is developing an array of nuclear weapon systems including a new supersonic missile of almost unlimited range that can overcome NATO defence systems, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced.
In a belligerent state of the nation speech delivered to lawmakers on Thursday, Mr Putin said the new weapons would be unique to Russia.
He announced a new intercontinental ballistic missile complex (ICBM) codenamed Sarmat. Weighing more than 200 tonnes, the system has an increased range over its predecessor. “No anti-missile system will get in its way,” claimed the president.
There were several other major announcements. First, new underwater drones capable of carrying nuclear bombs - an animation showed the submarine striking an aircraft carrier and seaside town.
Second, the development of a new nuclear cruise missile with unpredictable flight trajectory and unlimited range (cue more animations of destruction).
Capable of penetrating any anti-missile or air defence systems, the missile has the potential to change the international strategic balance.
There were “significant results” in the field of laser weapons, too, but Mr Putin declined to elaborate.
As expected, Mr Putin had spent much of the first part of his annual speech focussing on internal problems. He touched on many of the acupuncture spots for ordinary Russians, now experiencing their fourth year of shrinking real-terms incomes. He made promises to halve poverty, double health spending, increase support to parents, extend life expectancy by 10 years and, perhaps less convincingly, to "increase freedom and democracy."
Mr Putin's state-of-nation address has traditionally been used to instruct the country's bureaucrats on the president's priorities, and the hundreds of assembled officials will have taken note.
But it was in the second hour, with an abrupt turn to matters of war, that the real aim of the speech became clear. It was, in short, a challenge to Russia's rediscovered geopolitical foe, the United States. The point was emphasised in animations showing east-west trajectories for the new weapons.
Mr Putin claimed Russia had been moved to step up military development in response to the U.S. withdrawal from the treaty on anti-ballistic weapons systems in 2002: “They thought we would never be able to recover economically, militarily, so ignored our complaints” he said. "They didn't listen, but perhaps they will listen now."
For political commentator and former Kremlin advisor Gleb Pavlovsky, writing on social media, it was the point that Putin found his form: "Only by telling everyone how he would destroy the world did the old man finally come alive."
