Shoygu: Russia has got weapons decades ahead of its rivals

What exactly are the weapons?

Mr Putin said the weapons made NATO’s US-led missile defence system “useless” and signalled the end to Western efforts to check Russia’s nuclear ambitions.

Peskov rejected an assertion that Putin’s speech, one of his most bellicose in years, would deepen Russia’s global isolation and said it did not herald the start of a new arms race.

Michaela Dodge, a Heritage Foundation missile defence expert, said Putin’s statements confirmed that the Trump Administration was right to build its recent review of nuclear weapons policy around concerns about Russian Federation.

How anxious should we be?

Still, the Pentagon on Thursday brushed off Putin’s boast of developing “invincible” missiles, claiming the United States was fully prepared for anything that might come its way.

During his two hour long speech, Putin used videos to highlight the capabilities of the new missile technologies.

Analysts say claims of developments likely to be aimed at Russian voters.

“They [US] also admit that Russian Federation has invested so much in the modernisation of its nuclear arsenal they are far ahead of where the US is now”. News’ Megyn Kelly posed that question to the Russian strongman in an exclusive video after his presentation to the Duma, pressing Putin on his nuclear doctrine.

Why is Putin doing this now?

The Kelly interview with Putin will continue with clips “in the coming days”, Holt said.

The Russian leader, who has been in power since May 2012, said the missile’s appearance is being kept under wraps.

“It’s unfortunate that Mr Putin chose to include Tampa Bay in his threat but at this point we’ll write it off as overheated rhetoric created to prop up his failing regime”, he said. He said the new missiles were in response to what he sees as USA violations of a nuclear arms treaty.

“In the U.S., after this speech, the entire political elite will vote for an increase in military spending”, political analyst Alexei Makarkin told AFP, adding that Putin’s address was a “challenge” to Washington.

“Russia has no plans to be drawn into any arms race”, TASS cited the spokesman as saying.

What will the impact be? The United States on Thursday accused Moscow of openly breaching Cold War-era treaties by developing the weapons.

Neverless, despite our efforts to maintain a positive relationship, Moscow perceives Washington and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as its main opponents and an impediment to its destabilizing geopolitical goals in Euroasia, “says so-called review of Nuclear posture, document that replaces strategy designed by Barack Obama in 2010”.

“The USSR arms race ended badly, it ruined the Soviet economy”.

“In 1990, the ports of the Soviet Union had an aggregate capacity of 600 million tonnes, but after the country broke apart, we lost nearly half”.