Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the Valdai Discussion Club, a foreign policy forum, using it to announce the successful test of a nuclear-powered cruise missile. Photo / AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the Valdai Discussion Club, a foreign policy forum, using it to announce the successful test of a nuclear-powered cruise missile. Photo / AP
Russia has successfully tested an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile, President Vladimir Putin has said, while warning the country’s parliament could revoke its ratification of a treaty banning nuclear tests.
In a speech at a forum of foreign policy experts, Putin announced that Russia had effectively completed the development of the Burevestnik cruise missile and the Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile and would work on putting them into production.
“We conducted the last successful test of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered global-range cruise missile,” he said without elaborating. His statement was the first announcement of a successful test of the Burevestnik, which translates as “storm petrel”. It was first mentioned by Putin in 2018.
Little is known about the Burevestnik, which was codenamed Skyfall by Nato, and many Western experts have been sceptical about it, noting that a nuclear engine could be highly unreliable.
It is believed to be able to carry a nuclear warhead or a conventional one and could stay aloft for a much longer time than other missiles and cover much more distance, thanks to nuclear propulsion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the test at a foreign policy forum without giving any further details. Photo / AP
When Putin first revealed that Russia was working on the weapon in his 2018 state-of-the-nation address, he claimed it would have an unlimited range, allowing it to circle the globe undetected by missile defence systems.
Many observers have been sceptical, arguing such a weapon could be difficult to handle and pose an environmental threat. The United States and the Soviet Union worked on nuclear-powered rocket engines during the Cold War, but they eventually shelved the projects, considering them too hazardous.
The Burevestnik reportedly suffered an explosion in August 2019 during tests at a navy range on the White Sea, killing five engineers and two servicemen and resulting in a brief spike in radioactivity that fuelled fears in a nearby city.
Russian officials never identified the weapon involved, but the US said it was the Burevestnik.
Putin gestures told the Valdai Discussion Club that, "theoretically", Russia could revoke the 1996 nuclear test-ban treaty. Photo / AP
Russia has reportedly used the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic, where the Soviet Union last tested a nuclear weapon, to build facilities for testing the Burevestnik.
In his speech, Putin noted the US had signed but not ratified the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, while Russia had signed and ratified it. He argued that Russia could “mirror the stand taken by the US”. “Theoretically, we may revoke the ratification.”
His statement comes amid widespread concerns that Russia could resume nuclear tests to try to discourage the West from continuing to offer military support to Ukraine. Many Russian hawks have spoken in favour of resuming the tests.
Putin said that, while some experts had talked about the need to conduct nuclear tests, he had not yet formed an opinion.
“I’m not ready to say yet whether it’s necessary for us to conduct tests or not.”
Russia’s defence doctrine envisages a nuclear response to an atomic strike or even an attack with conventional weapons that “threaten the very existence of the Russian state”. That vague wording has led some Russian experts to urge the Kremlin to sharpen it to force the West to take the warnings more seriously.
Sergei Karaganov, a top Russian foreign affairs expert who advises Putin’s Security Council, has argued that Moscow should ramp up its nuclear threats to “break the will of the West”, or launch a limited nuclear strike on Nato allies in Europe if the West continues supporting Ukraine.
Responding this week to Karaganov’s question about possible changes in the Russian nuclear doctrine, Putin responded that he did not see any reason for that.
“There is no situation in which anything would threaten Russian statehood and the existence of the Russian state,” he said. “I think that no person of sober mind and clear memory could have an idea to use nuclear weapons against Russia.”
