Russia names Putin’s new ‘super weapons’

MOSCOW: Russia has unveiled the names for a new generation of nuclear-powered missiles touted by President Vladimir Putin as invincible after more than seven million people took part in a quirky public vote organised by the Russian military.

The names chosen include ‘ Peresvet,’ a fter a medieval warrior monk, for a laser and ‘Burevestnik,’ after a seabird, for a cruise missile.

The arms systems, which Putin revealed in a bellicose state-of-thenation speech this month, include a nuclear-powered cruise missile, an underwater nuclear-powered drone, and a laser weapon.

Putin has often used militaristic rhetoric to mobilise support and buttress his narrative that Russia is under siege from the West, and some critics complain that public discourse increasingly resembles that of a country at war.

The culmination of the “name that weapon” vote comes amid fears in both Russia and the West about a new arms race, something Putin and US President Donald Trump have said they don’t want, and after Putin won a landslide re- election victory.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence asked the public to name the weapons systems in an online vote, something it has never done before, and unveiled the results late on Thursday on state TV.

Aftertheresultswereannounced, Deputy Defence Minister Yuri Borisov explained on state TV, to ripples of applause, what the new weapons were capable of.

The defence ministry said Russians had voted to name the new military laser ‘ Peresvet’ after a medieval warrior monk, Alexander Peresvet, who took part in a 14th century battle against the Mongols. Peresvet is revered by some clerics in the Russian Orthodox Church, whose influence has grown under Putin. — Reuters