Thursday, March 1, 2018

There is No Reason for Alarm

In this post I quote from several news articles about Russia's new nuclear capabilities.

Link to article: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vladimir-putin-russia-nuclear-weapons-including-invincible-cruise-missile/

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MOSCOW -- Russia has tested an array of new strategic nuclear weapons that can't be intercepted, President Vladimir Putin announced Thursday, marking a technological breakthrough that would dramatically increase Russia's military capability and boost the Kremlin's global position. Speaking in a state-of-the-nation speech, Putin said the weapons include a nuclear-powered cruise missile,a nuclear-powered underwater drone and new hypersonic missile.

He said the creation of the new weapons has made NATO's U.S.-led missile defense "useless," and means an effective end to what he described as Western efforts to stymie Russia's development.

"I want to tell all those who have fueled the arms race over the last 15 years, sought to win unilateral advantages over Russia, introduced unlawful sanctions aimed to contain our country's development: all what you wanted to impede with your policies have already happened," he said. "You have failed to contain Russia."

...

The Russian leader emphasized that the development of new weapons that have no equivalent in the West came in response to the U.S. withdrawal from a Cold war-era treaty banning missile defenses and U.S. efforts to develop a missile defense system.

He said that the U.S. has ignored Russian complaints.

"No one has listened to us," he said. "You listen to us now."

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From Kaliningrad, which is sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland, Iskander missiles can reach targets in both countries as well as Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia, all of them NATO members.

The head of the Russian parliament's defense committee, Vladimir Shamanov, confirmed the missiles' deployment in remarks carried by Russian news agencies. He added that the move was a response to a NATO buildup near Russia's borders, with the number of U.S. weapons in Poland a particular irritation to Moscow.

...

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn't verify the missile deployment to Kaliningrad specifically, but said any weapons deployment "on Russian territory is exclusively a sovereign issue for the Russian Federation. "Russia has never threatened anyone and is not threatening anyone. Naturally Russia has this sovereign right. It should hardly be cause for anyone to worry," Peskov said.

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Link to: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/vladimir-putin-new-nuclear-weapons_us_5a9832f7e4b09c872bb238ca


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MOSCOW, March 1 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin unveiled an array of new nuclear weapons on Thursday, in one of his most bellicose speeches in years, saying they could hit almost any point in the world and evade a U.S.-built missile shield.

Putin was speaking ahead of an election on March 18 that polls indicate he should win easily. He said a nuclear attack on any of Moscow’s allies would be regarded as an attack on Russia itself and draw an immediate response.

...

“We will view any use of nuclear weapons against Russia or its allies, be it of small, medium or any force, as a nuclear attack on our country,” he said.
“Our response will be immediate. Nobody should have any doubts about that.”
Putin said that Russia did not plan to attack anyone however. Russia’s growing military might was a guarantee of world peace, he said, designed to preserve a strategic balance of power on the planet.

...

Earlier in the speech, he had struck a very different tone, ordering officials to halve the number of Russians living in poverty by sharply boosting social and infrastructure spending in an obvious pre-election pitch to voters.

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Link to: http://www.businessinsider.com/putin-confirms-russian-doomsday-nuclear-weapon-in-annual-speech-2018-3

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Putin described at least five new weapons systems, emphasizing how each could defeat US missile defenses and characterizing nearly all of them as nuclear-capable

But in typical fashion, Putin's descriptions contained wild, scientifically unimaginable claims about how great the weapons were.

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