Thread: Putin boasts of new Russian nuclear weapons: ‘You listen to us now’

Putin boasts of new Russian nuclear weapons: ‘You listen to us now’
By Vladimir Isachenkov - Associated Press - Updated: 9:08 a.m. on
Thursday, March 1, 2018

MOSCOW (AP) — 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 could dramatically increase Russia’s military capability, boost the Kremlin’s global position and also raise Western concerns about a potential renewed arms race in the 21st century.

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 that have no equivalent elsewhere in the world. 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 announcement comes as Putin is set to easily win another six-year presidential term in the March 18 election.

He said that the nuclear-powered cruise missile tested last fall has a “practically unlimited” range and high speed and maneuverability allowing it to pierce any missile defense.

The Russian leader said the high-speed underwater drone also has an “intercontinental” range and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that could target both aircraft carriers and coastal facilities. He said its “very big” operational depth and a speed that is at least 10 times higher than any other vessel would make it immune to enemy intercept.

Putin accompanied his statement to an audience of hundreds of senior officials and lawmakers with videos and computer images of new weapons, which were shown on giant screens at a conference hall near the Kremlin.

A computer video showed the drone being launched by a submarine, cruising over the seabed, hitting an aircraft carrier and also exploding near the shore.

Putin noted that the tests of the compact nuclear reactor to power the new drone were completed last fall.

He added, to applause, that names for the nuclear-powered cruise missile and the drone haven’t yet been chosen, and suggested that the Defense Ministry run a nationwide contest for the best names.

“No one in the world has anything like that,” he said. “It may appear someday, but by that time we will develop something new.”

The Russian leader said that another new weapon called Avangard is an intercontinental hypersonic missile that would fly to targets at a speed 20 times the speed of sound and strike “like a meteorite, like a fireball.”

Putin said that the weapon is capable of performing sharp maneuvers on its way to targets, making it “absolutely invulnerable for any missile defense system.”

Putin said that Russia also tested a new heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, called Sarmat, adding that its range allows it to fly over both the North and the South poles to reach any target. He said it carries more nuclear warheads than its Soviet-era predecessor, known in the West as Satan.

He said that another new weapons system, called Kinzhal, already has been deployed in Russia’s Southern Military District. He added that it’s a hypersonic missile carried by an aircraft that flies at a speed 10 times of the speed of sound and has a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) away.

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.”

He emphasized that Russia is concerned about the Pentagon-led nuclear review released earlier this year that envisaged the development of low-yield nuclear weapons, saying that it could lower the threshold for using nuclear weapons.

“We will interpret any use of nuclear weapons against Russia and its allies no matter how powerful they are, of low, medium or any other yield, as a nuclear attack,” he said. “It will trigger an immediate answer with all the consequences stemming from it. No one should have any doubts about it.”

He said that Russian military experts and diplomats would be ready to discuss new weapons systems with their U.S. counterparts.

“We aren’t threatening anyone, we aren’t going to attack anyone, we aren’t going to take anything from anyone,” he said. “The growing Russian military power will guarantee global peace.”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...clear-weapons/

Rep. Adam Kinzinger: U.S. may not be able to defend itself against new Russian weapons




Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Illinois Republican (Associated Press) ** FILE ** more >


By Sally Persons - The Washington Times - Thursday, March 1, 2018

Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Thursday that the U.S. may not be able to defend against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new weapon arsenal.

“We have the ability maybe to intercept a rogue North Korean missile. But there’s no way, if the Russians launch all their missiles at us, that we’d be able to defend ourselves and visa versa,” Mr. Kinzinger, Illinois Republican, said on CNN.

Mr. Putin revealed Thursday during his state of the union speech that Russia has developed nuclear weapons that cannot be intercepted. He called the NATO-U.S. missile defense system “useless.”

“You have failed to contain Russia,” Mr. Putin said.

When asked if the House Foreign Affairs Committee would be briefed on the situation Thursday, Mr. Kinzinger said he didn’t know, but added that the U.S. does need to focus on building a defense system against both the North Koreans and the Russians.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...defend-itself/

Trump was right about Russia, we need a new and improved relationship with Russia. Mueller, Comey, McCain, Brennan, Clapper .... all fools who do not know what they do. It's almost Biblical.

December 5, 2017
Why the United States and Russia Can Never Be Friends


By Daniel Ashman


Friendship-with-Russia is a popular policy which candidates state boldly. It helps them get elected.


The yearning for a friend in Moscow stretches back decades, whether it be Bernie Sanders taking his honeymoon in the Soviet Union, Nixon bragging about his friendship with Brezhnev, or Franklin D. Roosevelt defending Stalin every chance he got.

Allegedly, the benefits of increased overtures to Moscow are significant, and varied enough to attract a wide spectrum of supporters. It’s not terribly hard to understand the instinct. Russia is one of the few powers on earth that could end civilization. Who in their right mind would want to fight with them? They have a history of brilliant culture, look like Americans, and share a religion with America’s Founders.


The problem, unfortunately, is that America can never be friends with Russia. America is a country based on freedom of speech and a government representing the people. Russia is the opposite. Russians don’t have anything like it. Not now. Not ever. This is a fundamental, irreconcilable difference.


Russian serfs were dominated by Tsars for centuries. Their revolution was owned by the Bolsheviks who killed people with machine guns for thought crimes. Russia was just getting started though, since Lenin was followed by Stalin. Almost a century after the Red Revolution, Russians still only had the choice of voting for a Communist or a former Communist who had been a career KGB man.


In modern Russia, if you say something that the leadership does not like, you may be shot in your house, shot in the back, or if you are lucky, maybe you will just have sh*t thrown on you and flee the country to protect your family.

By way of contrast, in American politics, Donald Trump was widely despised by the established powers, and won the Presidency. No matter what one thinks of Trump, whether he is a great man or a clown, there can be no doubt that he illustrated the power American citizens have to choose their own destiny. Indeed, the worse one thinks Trump is, the more it shows the power of the people to elect whom they please.


Trump could not have run his campaign in Moscow against Putin. Candidates from Vladimir Bukovsky to Boris Nemtsov to Garry Kasparov, have made milder statements against the establishment than Trump has, only to be exiled or killed.


Trump is a minor revolution against the government, something the world will see and learn from. In fact, there is a long history of America inspiring action around the world. Dramatically, it happened when the French decapitated their king. A more recent example would be how the United States stood with the oppressed people of the world throughout the Cold War, eventually enabling the Romanian people to execute their Communist overlords.


There is a lesson here for Putin. America’s very existence undermines him: his power, wealth, family, and life.


Closed societies engage in censorship of free speech to protect the ruling class. A prosperous and free America is “speaking” to ordinary Russians, whispering, hinting, showing a different type of life, one with freedom, one where Russians could freely say No to Putin.


The Ukrainians were also talking to Russians when almost a million patriots took to the streets, risking their lives, to oust the corrupt Russian puppet Viktor Yanukovych. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine only makes sense in this context. It was to silence freedom loving Ukranians lest the Russian people get any dangerous ideas.


Of course, Putin won’t stage a ground invasion of America. But in other ways, his tactics to weaken America -- promotion of the secession of Texas, and funding BLM to incite ethnic rivalries -- are remarkably similar to Russian actions in Ukraine


Russia, the country who has never held their Communists accountable for mass death, is planning on opening up a memorial to American Indians who died in America hundreds of years ago. The Kremlin wants to show that America is founded on genocide and thus morally bankrupt. If Putin cannot literally silence America, then undermining America’s credibility is necessary. These are not the actions of a friend.


America, for its part, has a choice. The President can call out Russian actions for what they are, this does not mean taking aggressive military action, but merely speaking the truth. A President tried this a few decades ago when he had the clarity to call the most dangerous power humanity has ever seen the “evil empire.” His foreign policy met with good results.


The other choice is to say what adversarial powers want America to say and hope this level of appeasement will decrease conflict without compromising America too badly.


Actually, this policy has already been tried. Bill Clinton tried to work out a relationship with the Kim regime, George Bush remarkably looked the other way while Iran aided Al-Qaeda, and of course Obama’s conciliatory attitude to any foreign power with a grievance was one of his trademark policies. The result is that today the world hangs on a knife’s edge.


Unfortunately, for all the nice gestures America has made to Russia -- from the $20,000,000 given to feed Russians after the Bolshevik Revolution, to helping the Russian people rid themselves of the Communist regime, or the billions America gave Russia after the collapse of Communism -- the Kremlin’s preferred policy is to demonize America.

Pleasant fantasies and smart policy are not the same thing. Unless anyone expects Putin to voluntarily put himself in danger, there is every reason to think Russia’s leaders will continue with the same necessarily antagonistic policy. Pleading with Russia to improve relations is unproductive and unbecoming to America.


Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/arti...#ixzz58Wjq5jJk
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Sounds like the author doesn't want to be friends with Russia. SAD!