The United States has accused Moscow of openly breaching Cold War-era treaties by developing what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a new generation of “invincible” hypersonic weapons and submarines.
Putin unveiled the new arsenal on Thursday in a state of the nation address, challenging Washington to a new arms race ahead of a March 18 presidential election that will all but certainly confirm his grip on power.
Putin left his usual Kremlin perch to speak from a nearby exhibition center — allowing him to show a series of video montages of missiles crossing mountains and oceans, heading over the Atlantic before striking the US eastern seaboard.
“No one really wanted to talk to us basically. No one listened to us then. Listen to us now,” Putin said, prompting a standing ovation from the audience of top officials, lawmakers and celebrities.
He presented Russia’s military efforts as a response to actions by the United States, which last month unveiled plans to revamp its own nuclear arsenal and develop new low-yield atomic weapons.
And underscoring the tensions between the powers, Russia called off strategic talks with the US set for this month after a Washington delegation snubbed a meeting on cybersecurity, Moscow’s ambassador to the US told TASS news agency on Friday.
The US State Department expressed outrage at Putin’s presentation and his “cheesy” animated video of warheads over US soil — and said the Russian leader had confirmed long-held allegations about his program.
Spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters it was “unfortunate” to have watched a video animation that depicted a nuclear attack on the United States.
“We don’t regard that as the behavior of a responsible international player,” she said.
“President Putin has confirmed what the United States government has known for a long time but that Russia has denied prior to this.
“Russia has been developing destabilizing weapons systems for more than a decade in direct violation of its treaty obligations.”
Nauert said Moscow had proven itself in violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), through its development of ground-launched cruise missiles.
The Pentagon reacted with more equanimity, with a spokesman insisting that the US military remains “fully prepared” to react to “anything that comes our way.”
The United States has long accused Russia of breaching the INF treaty and, while it is modernizing its own nuclear arsenal, says it remains in compliance with the terms of the Cold War accord.
The spat came as relations between the powers lie frozen at post-Cold War lows over the Syria and Ukraine conflicts and accusations that Moscow interfered in the US presidential election in 2016.
Also on Thursday, the US formally approved the sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, which is fighting a Russian-backed insurgency in the east of the country.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Ukraine has asked President Donald Trump’s US administration for permission to buy 210 missiles and 37 launchers at a cost of around $47 million.
Meanwhile, Moscow’s ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said Washington’s last-minute pullout from cybersecurity talks in Geneva last month was an “unfriendly step… that gave the impression of having been pre-planned and leading to the further degradation of bilateral relations”.
US accuses Russia of breaching treaties with ‘invincible’ weapons
