So much for nuclear non-proliferation! Russia announces best nuke system in world being deployed.

New Nuclear Weapon to Surpass Others, Putin Says
By By STEVEN LEE MYERS

MOSCOW, Nov. 17 - President Vladimir V. Putin, meeting with Russia's defense officials and military commanders here, said today that the country would soon deploy new nuclear missile systems that would surpass those of any other nuclear power.

Reiterating previous statements, though providing no new details, Mr. Putin said Russia would continue to emphasize its nuclear deterrent, despite a new focus on new threats like terrorism, which has roiled the country in recent months with deadly result.

"We are not only conducting research and successful testing of the newest nuclear missile systems," he said in concluding remarks to a regular gathering of commanders at the Ministry of Defense, which were reported by news agencies and broadcast on NTV. "I am certain that in the immediate years to come we will be armed with them. These are such developments and such systems that other nuclear states do not have.'' In his remarks, which amounted to a broad overview of military strategy and budgets but with a dash of boosterism, Mr. Putin did not elaborate on the new systems he meant. The Russian military, however, is widely reported to have been trying to perfect land- and sea-based ballistic missiles with warheads that could elude a missile-defense system like the one being constructed by the Bush administration.

Mr. Putin announced in February that Russia had successfully tested a new nuclear-tipped missile during an exercise that also included two embarrassing missile misfires. At the time, he said the system would allow "deep maneuvering," a statement arms experts in Russia and abroad took to mean a warhead that could alter its course as it homed in on a target.

A day after that test, Col. Gen. Yuri N. Baluyevsky, who this summer was promoted to the chief of the general staff, said the missile was a "hypersonic flying vehicle," though neither he nor any other officials have provided further details about the weapon or, more importantly, its viability.

The missile is reportedly a variant of the Topol, a ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile that is already in Russia's arsenal, but Russia's efforts are shrouded in secrecy.

Mr. Putin's remarks, made almost in passing and not a part of his main address, did not appear to be timed to any particular event. However, he has recently sought to bolster Russia's image as a superpower.

Dmitri V. Trenin, deputy director of the Carnegie Moscow Center and an expert on the Russian military, said Mr. Putin's statement was not particularly new.

He described it as a gesture to bolster confidence of the armed services. The Russian military remains troubled, despite the government's efforts to boost spending, including a 27 percent increase - to roughly $20 billion - in the military budget for 2005. Last month, a senior missile designer publicly complained in remarks to Russian news agencies that production of the Topol missiles had ground to a halt twice this year because of a lack of money.

Mr. Trenin also suggested that Mr. Putin's address could have been meant to calm discontent that has arisen in nationalist quarters over recent diplomatic initiatives, including a territorial concession to the Chinese on the Amur River and the possibility of a similar concession to the Japanese in the Kurile Islands.

"He wants to send a message to the republic that Russia remains a major military force," Mr. Trenin said.

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PS, the "By By" typo at the top is actually on the NYT pages, OOPSIE!