Kommersant: Russia: Some Nuclear Heavy Lifting

Russian Missile

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Russia:Some Nuclear Heavy Lifting

Yesterday the Russian military announced the first successful test of the new RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile with multiple independently-targetable detachable warheads. The addition of this missile to Russia's arsenal could put the country back on an equal strategic footing with the United States, which is slated to have no fewer than 2,200 nuclear warheads in its arsenal by 2012. Moscow claims that the maneuverable warheads on the RS-24 will be capable of confounding the American missile defense system.

Along with gaining equal ground with Washington, Moscow is counting on its new rockets to ensure that a Russian attack could successfully penetrate the US missile defense system, no matter how complex it becomes. Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov declared yesterday that the RS-24 missile "is able to overcome any existing or, possibly, future missile defense system." Mr. Safranchuk of the WSI believes that the successful test of the RS-24 "can be regarded as one of the elements of the asymmetric response promised by Vladimir Putin after the US withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002."