Vladimir Putin has recently presented new Russian weapons. Western experts have been busy discussing them ever since. According to several observers, this move literally means that Putin has challenged Washington.
According to Michael Evans, an observer for The Times, the list of new nuclear missiles is a certain way for President Putin to challenge the United States. To his mind, Putin is trying to say that Russia can create better weapons than the USA and outpace the Western world in the arms race. Apparently, both Russia and the USA have been busy improving their nuclear arsenals.
Even though both countries stick to the agreement designed to cap strategic offensive weapons, new technologies do allow them to improve their weapons without expanding their arsenals dramatically.
In particular, Putin boasted several new smart missiles and an underwater drone. Russian experts are also working on a new supersonic missile (it’s seeped is believed to be 4000 miles an hour, the radius is over 600 miles). Given this fact, no Western anti-missile system can track this missile. By the way the Russian underwater drown is capable of carrying and launching nuclear weapons.
According to The Weekly Standard, American senators have been actively discussing Russia’s new weapons, especially Putin’s claim that these weapons are capable of getting over any anti-missile systems. Putin also claims that these weapons is a response to America’s decision to quit the Russian-US nuclear agreement signed in 2002 and deploy its anti-missile systems in Europe close to Russia.
Needless to say, that the American political establishment has been criticizing Putin’s speech. They say that Putin is now doing his best to restart the cold war. Some of them say he is a weak politician who tries to look strong and this speech was made to consolidate his position in advance of the presidential election in Russia.
