Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened the UK on Sunday, saying that his country can launch an "unpreventable strike" on an enemy it has detected, a warning rooted on a warship that passed through the Crimea peninsula last week.
During a navy day parade held in St Petersburg, Putin said Russia was capable of striking any vessel it detected, whether it was underwater, above-water, or airborne. The Russian president's threats came weeks after warning shots were fired in the Black Sea in June when a British warship entered the region.
Unpreventable Strike
However, Britain has denied Russia's claims that it fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the ship's path, arguing that the latter pre-announced the shots as a "gunnery exercise." They also said that no bombs were actually dropped during the incident.
In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine as Britain, and the majority of the world's nations did not recognize the area as not part of the Russian nation but Ukraine. Last month, Putin said that his country could have sunk the warship HMS Defender if it wanted to, arguing it was illegally entering Russia's territorial waters, CNBC reported.
Putin previously said that Russia had bolstered its naval capabilities to rival that of international rivals. He said that the development of the country's latest hypersonic precision weapons was formidable enough to be on par with other countries' armaments.
Other countries, including the United States, China, and France, are also planning to develop similar technology as Russia's hypersonic missiles. Currently, Putin's nation has the second-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons worldwide with massive storage of ballistic missiles.
The Kremlin on Monday said it conducted another successful launch of its new Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles. Authorities reported that the missile was launched from an Admiral Groshkov frigate stationed in the White Sea in northern Russia and was able to strike a long-range target placed close to the coast of the Barents Sea.
Russian officials said the new hypersonic missile would be capable of flying at nine times the speed of sound with a long-range capability of 1,000 km, DW reported. After the successful test launch, Putin touted his country's military capabilities, saying that they had the power to defend their homeland and national interests.
Russia's Own Internet
The incident also comes after Putin's announcement that Russia is looking and testing for ways to disconnect itself from the reach of the Worldwide Internet. The country performed tests in June and July based on documents from a Russian internet security working group.
In 2019, Russia passed a law that aimed to protect the region's internet area from outside threats. The law, which was named "sovereign internet," was the country's answer to the aggressive nature of the United States' national cybersecurity policies.
The law bolstered the country's control over connections trying to reach Russia from the worldwide network. However, the move also caused an uproar among free-speech activists. They expressed concerns that the law could be used to increase the region's control over its cyberspace, Voice of America News reported.
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