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Kremlin spokesman clarifies Putin’s statement about Oreshnik 'duel'

"It is very important to talk about these statements by the president in the context of the question he was asked," Dmitry Peskov pointed out

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov

© Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/. When Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a "technological duel" between the Oreshnik system and Western air defenses, he was responding to a question about the vulnerabilities of the new Russian missile, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked whether the president was joking about this so-called "duel."

"It is very important to talk about these statements by the president in the context of the question he was asked. It was not his initiative. He was asked to explain the possible vulnerabilities [of the missile]. The president, as he usually does, spoke in sufficient detail about how this missile works and so on, and to what extent it is invulnerable to the available air defense systems," Peskov emphasized.

The day before, during a press conference, Putin proposed a hypothetical duel to the Western experts who doubted the capabilities of Russia’s Oreshnik missile: choose a target in Kiev, bring air defense forces there and try to intercept its strike.

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Foreign policy Vladimir Putin Dmitry Peskov

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