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Brochure Sputnik / Alexei Druzhinin / Kremlin / REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday noted US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s tough stance on Moscow, but expressed hope that if elected, the former vice president could boost talks on a new arms deal. between adversaries. Putin said so while boasting of a supposedly successful test of a hypersonic missile.
The advanced hypersonic missile test, if true, would be the latest in Russia’s development of weapons systems aimed at making its nuclear arsenal faster to deliver around the world, and unstoppable by states’ missile defense systems. United.
“As far as the Democratic Party candidate … we also see quite sharp anti-Russian rhetoric. Unfortunately, we are used to this,” Putin said during a televised press conference on Wednesday.
But he also said that Biden had made encouraging comments about New START, the last major nuclear weapons treaty still in place between Moscow and Washington.
That treaty will expire in February, and bilateral talks between the two countries have borne fruit so far. there is no agreement on a pact to replace it.
“Candidate Biden said publicly that he was ready for an extension of New START or to reach a new treaty to limit … strategic weapons, and this is a very serious element of our cooperation going forward,” Putin said.
Meanwhile, he hailed Russia’s seemingly successful test of a new hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile as a “big event” for the country.
The army said the Tsirkon missile was fired from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate in the White Sea Tuesday morning in the Russian Arctic and successfully hit its target.
Valery Gerasimov, the Russian army chief of staff, told Putin, who turned 68 on Wednesday, that it was the first time the missile had successfully hit a target at sea.
“The launch tasks were carried out. The acid test was successful,” he told Putin.
Gerasimov said the missile hit its target 280 miles away in the Barents Sea and reached a speed of Mach 8, eight times the speed of sound.
Russia has in recent years touted the development of futuristic new weapons that it hopes will give it an edge in any arms race with the United States.
Putin said the Tsirkon trial by fire was a “great event not only in the life of our armed forces, but for all of Russia.”
He said such weapons, which Putin claimed have no equivalent worldwide, “will undoubtedly, in the long run, boost our state’s defense capabilities.”
RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY / Brochure / Reuters
The Defense Ministry said the plan was to equip both warships and submarines with the Tsirkon.
Russia boasts of developing a series of “invincible” weapons that outperform existing systems and include Sarmat ICMs and Burevestnik cruise missiles.
The first Avangard hypersonic missiles were put into service in December last year, according to Russian officials.
The program is not without risks and seven people died in an explosion at a missile test site in August 2019. Western experts linked the explosion to work at the Burevestnik.
