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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-25/putin-reviews-naval-parade-touts-russia-s-hypersonic-weapons

Putin Touts Russia’s Hypersonic Nuclear Weapons at Naval Parade

By Alexander Nicholson
July 25, 2021, 3:45 AM PDT
Military can strike any target above or below water: Putin
Navy Day celebrations come a month after Black-Sea standoff

Vladimir Putin arrives for the Navy Day parade in St. Petersburg on July
25. Photographer: Alexey Nikolsky/AFP/Getty Images
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President Vladimir Putin used a Navy Day parade to deliver his latest
reminder of Russia’s military muscle, touting the nation’s hypersonic
nuclear weapons at a ceremony in his hometown of St. Petersburg.

“Today the Russian navy has everything it needs to defend our homeland,
our national interests,” Putin said in a speech in front of a monument
to the fleet’s founder, Peter the Great. “We can locate any enemy,
whether they’re on, under or above the water. And if required, deal them
an unavoidable strike.”

More than 50 vessels and 4,000 troops took part in the parade ahead of
the navy’s 325th anniversary in October. As well as destroyers,
submarines and assault vessels, the Prince Vladimir, a Borei-A class
nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, was on display for the
first time. The event took place without spectators as Russia wrestles
with a new spike in Covid-19 cases due to the delta variant.

RUSSIA-DEFENCE-NAVY-POLITICS
The nuclear-powered Project 955A Borei-A ‘Knyaz Vladimirt’ submarine
during Navy Day parade in St. Petersburg on July 25.Photographer: Alexey
Nikolsky/AFP/Getty Images
In his speech, Putin praised Russia’s rapid rise to naval power. From
the rudimentary vessels of Peter’s day, the navy now possesses “the
latest hypersonic precision weapons systems, that have no equivalent in
the world, and which we constantly and successfully improve,” he said.

In June, Putin accused the U.S. and U.K. of staging a “provocation” in
the Black Sea that saw Britian’s HMS Defender engaged in a stand-off
with Russian ships and fighter jets off the coast of Crimea.

Russia said it used bombs and gunfire in “warning shots” to force the
vessel to leave waters the U.K. and its allies don’t recognize as
Russian territory after Putin’s 2014 annexation of the strategic
peninsula from Ukraine.

Putin stoked fears of a new arms race three years ago when he unveiled
new nuclear weapons in his regular state-of-the-nation address. At the
start of 2021, the last remaining nuclear-arms treaty between the U.S.
and Russia got a five-year extension, when Putin and U.S. President Joe
Biden agreed to prolong the so-called New START in their first exchange
since Biden took office.