Putin’s sabre-rattling simply highlights Russia’s weakness

We’ve never heard its like before, said Maria Zheleznova in Vedomosti (Moscow). For sheer “militaristic ecstasy”, Vladimir Putin’s televised pre-election address exceeded even the most martial speeches of Soviet leaders like Khrushchev and Andropov. He began with promises of a “beautiful future” – prosperity and housing for all, alongside affordable healthcare and education. Then he got down to what he relished most: a video presentation of Russia’s new hypersonic nuclear weapons. One graphic even seemed to suggest a nuclear strike on Florida. Russia’s well-intentioned efforts to negotiate with Western powers had consistently been spurned, he railed; this would make them sit up and listen. His audience lapped it up – they gave him one standing ovation after another.

These weapons do indeed pose serious dangers, said Gernot Kramper in Stern (Hamburg). The nuclear-armed Status-6 super-torpedo, which can reportedly travel at 115mph, could trigger a “mega-tsunami” that would send a wall of water 500 metres high smashing into the US coast. The new Avangard missile is launched into the outer atmosphere and crashes back to Earth at 20 times the speed of sound. Even more chilling was the announcement of a nuclear-powered cruise missile, which has a practically unlimited range and is impossible to stop. But there was little of substance in Putin’s “braggadocio”, said James Stavridis in Bloomberg (New York). US intelligence has been tracking such systems and doubts their viability (the US long ago ditched attempts to create nuclear-powered cruise missiles). And even if they do work, they’re unlikely to change the balance of power. What was new, however, was Putin’s hyper-vitriolic tone. It’s hard to imagine even Donald Trump depicting nuclear attacks on Russia on a big-screen display. This “screams of a man desperate for respect, and such men can be very dangerous”.

The Russian media certainly did their best to big-up the speech’s impact on America, said Roman Dobrokhotov in Al Jazeera (Doha). Commentators all declared that the US had been “dead scared” by the unveiling of the new weapons. “Did they wake you up, Trump?” asked Olga Skabeeva, co-anchor of a Russian TV talk show. Actually, most Americans are more bothered by the allegations about Moscow meddling in their election. In fact, the morning Trump was expected to react to the address, he was busy beginning his trade war on Europe. No, the real effect of Putin’s speech was to make Russia look like North Korea: “a weak country whose only trump card is nuclear weaponry”. Meanwhile, the real threat to US supremacy went by unremarked, said Maxim Trudolyubov in The Moscow Times. In the week after Putin’s sabre-rattling, China said its defence budget will rise 8.1% and reach $174.5bn in 2018.