Evening Medusa

March 1. Putin's message: nuclear missiles, "fire ball" and lasers

Vladimir Putinmade a message to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation - and at the same time to the whole world. The message turned out to be like this:

And now in order

According to the Constitution of Russia, the President’s Epistle is an annual appeal to the parliament on the situation in the country and the main directions of politics. At the end of 2017, Putin, contrary to expectations, did not make a message, but transferred the event to 2018, closer to the presidential election.

The first part of the president’s speech was devoted to the economic and social development of the country (it is necessary to halve the poverty level and increase GDP by one and a half times). The second part completely overshadowed her.

Putin spoke about the new military developments of Russia , most of which have no, according to him, analogues in other countries. Some of them were successfully tested, and some are already entering the troops. Among these developments:

• winged rocket with a nuclear engine and “almost unlimited range”;
• Avangard missile system with a planning winged block, which can go to the goal “as a meteorite, like a fire ball”;
• underwater intercontinental drones;
• Combat laser complexes.

Putin concluded that, taking into account these developments , NATO approaches to Russian borders and the deployment of missile defense systems lose their meaning . At the same time, the president assured that Russia does not threaten anyone.

Reactions

Putin’s words that “no one listened” to Russia, but they must “listen now”, deputies of the State Duma, members of the Federation Council and the leaders of the Russian regions met with applause and standing on a standing ovation (this all lasted 40 seconds).

When Putin completed the performance, the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov admitted that he was "still in shock." State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin noted that Putin “personally coordinated” the development of new weapons.

On Twitter, they began to joke about the nuclear war, to recall the Teslu launched into space and compare the videos that accompanied Putin’s performance with computer games. Deputies and officials began to fantasize on the topic of possible names for new weapons, offering options like “arctic fox” and “silence”.

We followed the reactions to Putin's performance here .

And another surprise

The example of Putin was soon followed by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. He confirmed that the fifth generation Su-57 experienced Russian fighters in Syria. “This will be another surprise for our colleagues,” the minister promised .

Victor Davydov