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A8 WORLD NEWS
Friday 27 december 2019
Putin says Russia is leading world in hypersonic weapons

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV for the U.S. Defense De-
MOSCOW (AP) — President partment, Lt. Col. Robert
Vladimir Putin said Tuesday Carver, said Tuesday in an
that Russia has got a strong email, "We have seen the
edge in designing new reporting but have nothing
weapons and that it has to add concerning Russia's
become the only country claims."
in the world to deploy hy- Putin said that the first unit
personic weapons. equipped with the Avan-
Speaking at a meeting with gard hypersonic glide ve-
top military brass, Putin said hicle is set to go on duty
that for the first time in his- this month, while the air-
tory Russia is now leading launched Kinzhal hyper-
the world in developing an sonic missiles already have
entire new class of weap- entered service.
ons unlike in the past when The Russian leader first men-
it was catching up with the tioned the Avangard and
United States. the Kinzhal among other
The Russian leader noted prospective weapons sys-
that during Cold War times, tems in his state-of-the-na-
the Soviet Union was behind tion address in March 2018.
the United States in design- Putin said then that the
ing the atomic bomb and Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an annual meeting with top military officials in the Avangard has an intercon-
building strategic bombers National Defense Control Center in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2019. tinental range and can
and intercontinental ballis- Associated Press fly in the atmosphere at a
tic missiles. speed 20 times the speed
"Now we have a situation ment of hypersonic weap- The U.S. also has repeated- hypersonic threats. The of sound. He noted that the
that is unique in modern ons in recent years, and ly warned Congress about administration also plans weapon's ability to change
history when they are trying Defense Secretary Mark hypersonic missiles being to study the idea of basing both its course and its alti-
to catch up to us," he said. Esper said in August that developed by Russia and interceptors in space, so tude en route to a target
"Not a single country has he believes "it's probably China that will be harder the U.S. can strike incoming makes it immune to inter-
hypersonic weapons, let a matter of a couple of to track and defeat. U.S. enemy missiles during the ception by the the enemy.
alone hypersonic weapons years" before the U.S. has officials have talked about first minutes of flight when "It's a weapon of the future,
of intercontinental range." one. He has called it a pri- putting a layer of sensors in the booster engines are still capable of penetrating
The Pentagon and the U.S. ority as the military works to space to more quickly de- burning. both existing and prospec-
military services have been develop new long-range tect enemy missiles, partic- Asked to comment on Pu- tive missile defense sys-
working on the develop- fire capabilities. ularly the more advanced tin's remarks, a spokesman tems," Putin said Tuesday.q

Protesters in Belarus

sentenced to arrests, fines

Associated Press jail and a fine equivalent to
MINSK, Belarus (AP) — $610. About 20 participants
Courts in Belarus on Thurs- in the rallies were also sen-
day sentenced about 20 tenced to fines and arrests
participants in protests by Minsk courts.
against closer integration Lukashenko, who has ruled
with Russia to short jail sen- Belarus for a quarter cen-
tences and fines. tury with little tolerance
The opposition rallies earlier for dissent, has relied on
this month were triggered Russian energy subsidies
by two rounds of talks be- and loans to keep his na-
tween Russian President tion's Soviet-style economy
Vladimir Putin and Belaru- afloat.
sian counterpart Alexander Russia has recently in-
Lukashenko. creased energy prices and
Many in Belarus feared cut subsidies for Belarus to
the negotiations on closer push it toward closer inte-
economic ties could pave gration, but the Belarusian
way for Russia's takeover of leader rejected Moscow's
its western neighbor. Such overtures and vowed to
concerns were triggered uphold Belarus' indepen-
by Moscow's 2014 annexa- dence.
tion of Ukraine's Crimean Authorities allowed the un-
Peninsula. sanctioned rallies to pro-
A court in the Belarusian ceed — an unusual show
capital Minsk sentenced of tolerance in a country
the protests' organizer Pav- where police routinely dis-
el Severinets to 15 days in perse opposition protests.q