Russia test-fires a nuclear-capable missile to land near NATO borders just HOURS after Putin's talks with Finland and Norway
The Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, a submarine-launched weapon carrying nuclear warheads with a range of more than 5,000 miles, was fired from the Generalissimo Suvorov — a Borei-A-class vessel of Russia's Pacific Fleet — while submerged beneath the Sea of Okhotsk. Russia's Defence Ministry released video footage of the launch, set to stirring music, and confirmed the warheads reached their designated target. The test range at Cape Kanin in Arkhangelsk lies just 320 miles from Vardø in Norway and 386 miles from Nuorgam in Finland.
Finland's President Alexander Stubb called the preceding talks with Putin 'frank and substantive'; Putin used the call to blame NATO and the EU for prolonging the war.
The launch coincided with the US military's Global Thunder nuclear command exercise, during which a B-52 bomber flew to northern Europe escorted by British and Norwegian jets.
The Bulava is 100 TIMES more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and each Borei-class submarine can carry up to 16 of them.