Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday (October 5) that his country's forces successfully completed the testing of a new nuclear-powered strategic missile, the first time in decades the Kremlin has done so.
Putin also threatened to revoke its ratification of a nuclear test ban treaty, raising fears that Russia could resume nuclear testing.
In his hours-long remarks in a forum in Sochi, Putin said Moscow has almost completed work on "modern types of strategic weapons," which he first announced in 2018.
The name of the new nuclear missile is Burevestnik (Russian for "Storm Petrel") - NATO codename: "Skyfall".
"The last successful test of the Burevestnik, a global-range cruise missile with a nuclear propulsion system, was carried out," he said, explaining that the only thing the Kremlin needed to do was to resolve what he called some "purely administrative and bureaucratic" procedures in order to move on to mass production of the weapons and commissioning them into its arsenal.
"We will do this soon," he added.
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Serious or Empty Threat?
Since the start of Russia's war with Ukraine, Putin has repeatedly threatened to use its nuclear weapons should its sovereignty or territorial integrity be threatened.
This mindset is currently part of Russia's nuclear doctrine, which he said was not in need of any update.
He added that he was not ready to say whether nuclear testing was actually needed, but he threatened to revoke Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Theory, which banned all kinds of nuclear explosions. Putin added such a position would mirror Washington's stance of signing the treaty but not ratifying it.
Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin wrote his support of Putin's plan on Telegram, saying that lawmakers would look into it during the lower house of parliament's next session.
On the other hand, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov clarified Friday (October 6) that revoking the ratification would not mean that Russia planned to conduct nuclear tests.
The New York Times reported earlier this week that, according to satellite imagery and aviation it obtained, Russia might be preparing to test an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile, or might have already tested one, but has not confirmed if it was the Burevestnik Putin was talking about.
However, analysts like International Institute for Strategic Studies director of strategy, technology, and arms control William Alberque were not convinced there was too much to be worried about from the weapon.
"This is a stupid weapon system, designed by stupid people for operational reasons that are not tremendously useful," he told NBC News.
While Russian authorities claimed the missile could bypass missile defense systems and reach Hawaii and the Pacific Coast of the US, there have been doubts about how quickly Russia could develop a major new weapon of such a scale and how easy it would be to handle.
On top of that were alleged reports of Burevestnik failing tests in 2019 and causing a radiation spike near the test site.
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