Page 23 - bne_newspaper_February_22_2019

Opinion
February 22, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 23
speech, Putin did take some time to deal with international issues.
After almost an hour of the one and half hour speech, Putin finally got onto the international is- sues, led by the US’s proposed withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).
Putin called this a mistake and offered a threat. The flight time of these missiles from Western Europe to Moscow is only 12 minutes, too short for Russia to mount an effective response, and so if these missiles are deployed it will be seriously destabilising.
Indeed, the mere threat of these missiles
being deployed is destabilising as Putin made
it clear that not only will Russia respond to the deployment of these missiles, targeting the countries where they are stationed, Russia would also target the countries where “these decisions
are made.” Putin was careful not to mention the US by name, but made it crystal clear that if the US purses the deployment of short- or intermediate-range missiles it would lead to a new arms race.
Russia has new missiles that can travel at Mach-9, the new “hypersonic” missile that Putin showcased in his state of the nation speech last year. These were billed as a new class of missile that can travel so fast they can penetrate the US missile defences and are a game changer.
Following last year’s speech the US pooh-poohed the technology, saying they were aware of the missiles and suggested they were not ready or a threat to the US. The main missile in the arsenal is the Zirkon missile that has a range of 1,000km that could target sea-based and land-based tar- gets, and last year Putin claimed Russia has de- veloped a whole family of these types of weapon.