MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. Russian specialists continue to develop state-of-the-art weapons even now that Russia has hypersonic weapons no one else has, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with RT Arabic, Al Arabiya and Sky News TV channels on Sunday ahead of his visit to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
"We have hypersonic missiles that follow a low trajectory rather than a ballistic one. No one has hypersonic missiles today, except us. Of course, the world’s leading powers will one day develop them, sooner or later. But we will be able to come up with something new by that time. I know what projects our scientists, researchers, designers and engineers are working on right now," he said.
According to the president, Russia "cannot help but feel concern over overall global security and strategic balance." He recalled that the United States had withdrawn from the Anti-Ballistic Missiles (ABM) Treaty, which "was the cornerstone of the entire global strategic security system, because it imposed limits on the missile defense systems of our countries," back in 2002. The document, in his words, was geared "to make it clear that neither party can ever win a nuclear war, should it happen."
"The United States withdrew from the treaty in order to secure some serious strategic advantage for themselves, thinking that they might shield themselves from a threat, unlike Russia. It would leave Russia in a very vulnerable position, while the US would be protected by an ABM system," Putin said, adding that back then he had warned American partners that Russia would not spend tens of billions on such systems but would be forces to keep the strategic balance and would have to "develop offensive weapons that will defeat any ABM system."
"And we have developed them, and everyone knows it by now. The ABM systems are designed to intercept ballistic missiles, i.e. missiles that follow a ballistic trajectory whereas what we did was we enhanced and improved ballistic missiles significantly and developed a new weapon that has no rivals in the world," he stressed.
"Unfortunately, this has led to an arms race of sorts. But that is what has happened. It is a fact. Sadly, this is true," he added.