Russia will be able to counter hypersonic weapons: Putin

Tells Russia state TV that U.S. not handling COVID cases well

MOSCOW — Russia will soon be in a position to counter hypersonic arms deployed by other countries, President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday, adding that Moscow was ahead of the United States in developing new types of weapons.

Hypersonic glide vehicles can steer an unpredictable course and manoeuvre sharply as they approach impact. They also follow a much flatter and lower trajectory than ballistic missiles.

Washington and Moscow have been expanding their defence capabilities as some Cold War-era arms control agreements collapsed during worsening of Russia’s ties with the West.

Last year Russia deployed its first hypersonic nuclearcapable missiles, while the Pentagon has a goal of fielding hypersonic capabilities in the early to mid-2020s.

“It’s very likely that we will have means to combat hypersonic weapons by the time the world’s leading countries have such weapons,” Putin was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency.

While Russia and the United States had broadly the same number of nuclear weapons, Putin said Moscow was ahead in advanced arms development.

COVID COMMENTS

Putin also said Sunday that Russia was emerging from the novel coronavirus epidemic with minimal losses, having handled it better than the United States where he said party political interests got in the way.

With 528,964 confirmed cases, Russia has the thirdhighest number of infections after Brazil and the United States.

Its official death toll stands at 6,948, much lower than in many other countries, including the United States which has had over 115,000 deaths.

The veracity of Russian statistics has sometimes been the focus of fierce debate, however.