MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared creation of new strategic weapons and continues the systematic work to perfect the means of overcoming missile defenses.
In his annual address to the Federal Assembly on Thursday Putin touched upon the theme of the US missile defense.
"What have we done apart from protests and warnings? What has Russia’s response to this challenge been?" Putin asked to follow with a prompt answer.
"Over the years since the United States’ unilateral withdrawal from the ABM treaty we kept working intensively on new generation hardware and weapons. This allowed for making a rapid headway in creating new strategic armaments."
He recalled that "the system of US global missile defense is being created mainly against strategic missiles flying along ballistic paths."
"These weapons constitute the basis of our nuclear deterrence force and of those of other nuclear countries," Putin said.
"In that connection Russia has developed and keeps perfecting very moderate-cost but highly effective system of circumventing missile defense systems, which are installed on our intercontinental ballistic missile systems," Putin said.