22 February 2024 , 15:41
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Vladimir Putin today took a joyride in a supersonic Tu-160M strategic bomber - before claiming Russia's nuke threat has been "inflated by the West".
His stunt - scheduled to last 40 minutes - appeared to be intended to enhance his macho ratingsas he stands for re-election next month, and distract attention from the “murder” of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an Arctic jail. But by flying in a type of warplane that has been used to wreak havoc in Ukraine with conventional weapons, he was sending a message that he intends to keep fighting in Ukraine.
And the Tu-160M - aka White Swan - is a key part of his nuclear strike force at a time when the Kremlin is bluntly warning the West over the risk of nuclear war. Putin was seen taking off in Kazan a day after he visited a factory in the city where the Tupolev bombers are manufactured. He clambered up a ladder at the factory to go inside the plane and spent ten minutes in the cockpit. He then made the decision to fly one of the bombers himself - his first flight since he took to the sky in a Tu-160 in 2005.
The electioneering stunt came less than a week after a man who wanted to oust him as president - Navalny - was “murdered” inside his bleak Arctic jail. The March election is rigged so Putin cannot lose but he is currently more visible on state TV than for years.
A report on Putin-controlled Russian state TV said: “We just saw that [Putin] again, for the second time in two days, climbed into the cockpit of a Tu-160 strategic bomber.” The warlord's spokespersn Dmitry Peskov was on hand meanwhile to say Putin “made a decision to take a flight…. “There will be a flight [with Putin] now.”
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The deputy head of the Russian security council recently warned that Putin could bomb London, Washington, Berlin and Kyiv in the event of setbacks in the war with Kyiv resulting in a retreat by Moscow’s forces. Today he doubled down on this warning the West that Russia is capable of starting nuclear war by accident.
Dictator Vladimir Putin taunts the West making a 40-minute flight on Tu-160M strategic bomber, a type of plane used to strike Ukraine, and capable to launching nuclear strikes on Europe and America (Zarubinreporter/ East2west news)Medvedev also accused Western leaders of not taking the threat seriously. "Sad as it may sound, this [nuclear war] scenario is real,” said the Putin lackey. "We must do everything we can to prevent it from happening. But this very clock, which is ticking in a certain direction, has now accelerated very much. And in this I also see the inability, excuse me, the impotence of these Western authorities. [They] keep saying the same thing: ‘No, it's the Russians who are scaring us, they will never do it’.
“They're wrong. If it comes to the existence of our country, and I said this recently, what choice is left for the [Russian] leadership, for the head of state? None.” Medvedev stressed: “So this is, unfortunately, a real threat, a direct and clear threat to all of humanity. And secondly, there are also accidents, from which no one is immune. And the accidental, unintentional start of a nuclear conflict cannot be discounted. So all these games around Ukraine are extremely dangerous."
The US has warned allies that Russia is developing a space-based nuclear weapon designed to destroy western satellite networks. Such a weapon would wreak havoc with Western satellite communications, GPS, space surveillance and military command operations. The Tu-160 strategic bomber is known to NATO as Blackjack, and can carry two dozen missiles with a total payload of 45 tons.
The Mach 2 bomber has a variable-sweep wing of the integral low-wing scheme, and a maximum take-off weight of 275 tons. The nuclear bomber dates from the 1960s but state controlled Russian TV reporting Putin’s Kazan visit eulogised the plane’s potential and claimed it was “a technology that many of Russia's rivals have been unable to copy”.
TV Channel Rossiya 1 told its viewers that the aircraft was "the world's biggest warplane and fastest bomber”. It declared: "This aircraft right now is about 50 years ahead of everything else.” Putin named the new plane he clambered aboard after the first president of the Tatarstan region, Mintimer Shaimiyev.