Russia President Putin visits ballistic missile unit

Moscow, Dec 14: Russia's President Vladimir Putin inspected an intercontinental ballistic missile unit today to show off his country's programme to modernise its ageing nuclear deterrent.

Russian television showed Putin climbing aboard a mobile missile launcher equipped with the Topol-M missile, a new generation of weapon that the military says will be impossible to intercept for years to come.

''This is a serious, significant step forward in terms of increasing Russia's defence capability,'' Channel One showed Putin saying next to the launcher, which was in the Ivanovo region north-west of Moscow.

Russia inherited its nuclear deterrent -- with enough missiles to destroy any opponent many times over -- from the Soviet Union. Then, the missiles were targeted at the United States and its allies.

Though the Cold War has been over for more than a decade, the Kremlin sees its nuclear arsenal as a key factor in maintaining Russia's international status.

Russia has launched a programme to modernise its intercontinental missiles, motivated in part by US programmes to develop anti-missile systems.

''If someone ... has started developing anti-missile defence systems we need to develop the same thing ourselves or respond in some other way,'' Lieutenant-General Vitaly Linnik, Deputy Commander of Strategic Rocket Forces, told Channel One.

Reuters