Analoguenets. Why Putin’s “wunderwaffe” like “Burevestnik”, “Oreshnik” and “Poseidon” only weakened Russia’s security

Achievements in “wunderwaffe building”

Since the end of October 2025, Vladimir Putin has been reporting almost continuously ( 1 , 2 , 3 ) on successes in the creation of the latest types of weapons, unique in tactical and technical characteristics and providing unprecedented military advantages.

If Putin is to be believed, the achievements in the field of weapons are stunning, although very abstract:

• a task considered “impossible in the near future” has been completed;
• “security and strategic parity are ensured for decades to come, one can safely say for the entire 21st century”;
• the obtained developments will be used in the “national economy”: the lunar program, the development of the Arctic, the electronics industry, the creation of supercomputers;
• “a real treasury of new materials, technologies, unmanned aerial vehicles, software and digital solutions, and elements of the component base has been created.”

All these successes relate to the programs to create the Burevestnik rocket and the Poseidon underwater vehicle. Along with them, Putin regularly mentions other “unparalleled” weapons. At an extended meeting of the board of the Russian Ministry of Defense in December 2025, he announced the placing on combat duty of the Oreshnik mobile ground-based missile system (PGRK) and mentioned a weapon that “no one in the world has” - the Avangard planning warhead.

For the first time, Putin spoke about the diverse “wunderwaffe” in his address to the Federal Assembly back in 2018. Right during the speech, viewers from among the Russian elite were shown animated videos with the use of the latest weapons on the territory of a potential enemy, and Putin, meanwhile, hinted at his readiness to negotiate with Western partners regarding “an updated, promising system of international security and sustainable development of civilization.”

Since then, the aforementioned Burevestnik, Poseidon, Avangard, as well as the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile and air- and sea-based hypersonic missiles Kinzhal and Zircon have invariably acted as an instrument of pressure and demonstration of the Kremlin’s power. Already during the war in Ukraine, the Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile was added to Putin’s set of “miracle weapons.”