Russia’s New Nuclear Weapons – Are They Working or Putin’s Bragging?

On Wednesday, over tea and cakes with veterans of the war in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia had tested a new weapon.

“There is nothing like it,” the Russian leader said of the Poseidon, a nuclear-powered underwater drone capable of operating a nuclear weapon that can be launched as a torpedo and which a senior Russian lawmaker said could “take out entire countries.”

When it was first unveiled in 2018, Russian media said Poseidon would be able to reach speeds of 200 km/h (120 mph) and travel along a “constantly changing route” that would make it impossible to intercept.

Putin’s claim came just days after it was announced that Moscow had conducted a test of its Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile with “unlimited range”.

It is a “unique product, unparalleled in the world,” Putin told Burevestnik, noting that the missile is so new, “we have yet to identify what it is, what class of weapons (it) belongs to.”

It is not unusual for Russia to test and show off weapons.

And despite the noisy nature of the Russian announcements, their military value is ambiguous.

“They are basically weapons of Armageddon – too powerful to be used unless you’re happy to destroy the world,” Mark Galeotti, a Russian scholar and long-time observer of Russian politics, told the BBC.

Both the Poseidon and the Burevestnik are second-strike weapons, retaliatory weapons, Mr. Galeotti added — and even the Kremlin’s fiercest propagandists don’t suggest anyone is preparing to strike Russia.

It is also unclear whether the weapons are actually viable.

in 2019 five Russian nuclear engineers were killed in a rocket engine explosion which, according to some Russian and Western experts, is related to Burevestnik.

Two years later, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) – a London-based think tank specializing in global conflict and security – noted that Russia faced “significant technical challenges” in ensuring the “reliable operation of the nuclear engine” of the missile.

Neither “Poseidon” nor “Petrel” were entirely new – both was first introduced to the world in 2018 as part of a new set of weapons that Putin has called “invincible”.

So the timing of the messages – not their content – can be remarkable.

After a whirlwind few months of hesitant diplomacy by US President Donald Trump to try to get Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table, Trump appears to have cooled in his efforts to end the war.

Last week, the White House canceled a summit between Trump and Putin, apparently after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio realized that the gap between the positions of Moscow and Washington was too wide for a high-level meeting to achieve meaningful results.

Not only is there no suggestion of further talks, but shortly after the meeting was called off, Trump imposed sanctions on two of Russia’s biggest oil producers as punishment for Moscow’s failure to agree on a peace deal in Ukraine.

And while his relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appears still strained, Trump appears to be growing increasingly irritated by Moscow’s intransigence.

So Putin may be vying for Trump’s attention.

“In the face of Trump blowing hot and cold with his support for Ukraine or his sympathies for Russia, there is an element here where Moscow has bigger cards than Kiev,” Mr Galeotti argued.

“So in that context (the successful weapons tests) are more about making him think that Russia is really powerful.

Another clue may come from the battlefield in Ukraine.

Three-and-a-half years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor, its troops continue to just roll — at high cost in lives and resources — with no apparent breakthrough anytime soon.

“We’re coming to the end of the summer fighting season in Ukraine and it’s not going very well for the Russians,” said David Heathcote, head of intelligence at McKenzie Intelligence Services.

The Stormtrooper and Poseidon announcements should be seen as a reflection of the weakness of their conventional forces, Mr Heathcote told the BBC.

Russia is not formally part of any military alliances that would serve as a deterrent if it is in the background, and its military is tied down and under pressure in Ukraine.

In these cases, says Mr Heathcote, “the Russians always respond with unnecessary and exaggerated gun rattling”.

While Moscow’s decision to go public with the Tempest and Poseidon tests may have been influenced by this, the claim appears to have already had the tangible effect of provoking Trump to instruct his military to resume testing nuclear weapons.

Trump justified the move as a way to keep up with other countries like Russia and China.

“As others are testing, I think it’s appropriate that we do as well,” Trump said – although it will likely take several months for the US to resume nuclear testing after a 33-year hiatus.

The Kremlin’s reaction to Trump’s statement was swift

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, questioned whether the US president had been properly briefed. The Russian tests “can in no way be interpreted as a nuclear test,” Peskov said.

Trump did not specify what tests he wants the US to resume.

It is likely, said Christopher Egerton of the Institute for Strategic Studies (IIS), that Trump’s decision is a direct response to Russia’s Burevestnik test and that the US may be planning to conduct similar flight tests of US ICBMs.