‘Missile defence killer’: Russia finalises testing on prototype ICBM

Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces have reported a successful launch of a next-generation ICBM that can supposedly pierce any anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system. The test came after the US announced it would resume its ABM programme in Europe.

The test missile launched from a mobile pad at 9:45pm (17:45 GMT) on Thursday, the Defense Ministry said Friday. The test was carried out in the Astrakhan region, deep inside Russian territory, and the prototype’s payload successfully hit the Balkhash range in Kazakhstan.

“The test launch was a success as the [simulated] warhead hit a designated target within the set time frame,” the Russian Defence Ministry statement said. “This test launch was intended to confirm technical characteristics of the missile, as well as to check the safety of the launch procedures and equipment.”

The launch was the third successful test of the prototype ICBM. The development of a new solid-fuel ICBM was officially announced in 2012, and is set to gradually replace the existing Topol-M and later the recently developed Yars missile complex. Strategic Missile Forces expect to finalize testing by the end of 2013 and put the new missile into production in 2014.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin welcomed the test, calling the new ICBM a “missile defence killer... Neither current nor future American missile defense systems will be able to prevent that missile from hitting a target dead on.”

Russia maintains at least 58 silo-based Soviet-made P36M ('SS-18 Satan' NATO classification) ballistic missiles, believed to be the most powerful in the world with up to 10 megaton-class warheads. The Strategic Missile Forces have 160 mobile Topol-M ('SS-25 Sickle') missile systems, 50 silo-based and 18 road-mobile Topol-M ('SS-27 Sickle B') systems, and 18 RS-24 Yars systems.

In recent years, two missile divisions were re-armed with the newest Topol-M and Yars systems, and more will follow in 2013. The Defense Ministry is also preparing to introduce the latest automated battle management system (ASBU), enabling rapid retargeting of ICBMs.

Russia sped up development of new intercontinental ballistic missile systems after the US announced plans to continue deploying its missile defence system in Eastern Europe, near Russian borders.

The issue of the US missile shield in Europe has become a major stumbling block in Russia-US relations. Moscow has demanded legal guarantees from Washington that missile defence systems deployed in Europe would not target Russia's strategic nuclear deterrence capabilities. But Washington refused, citing a need to protect Europe from ‘rogue states' like Iran and North Korea.

In mid-March of 2013, Washington attempted to engage Moscow in new talks about further nuclear arms reduction, after presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev agreed to reduce their nuclear stocks with the New START arms reduction treaty. The US said it would no longer deploy SM-3 IIB ballistic missile interceptors in Poland until 2022.

Nevertheless, Moscow still demands legally binding guarantees from Washington that the system's intentions are peaceful.

On Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with the Polish Foreign Minister, and committed to deploy missile defences in Poland by 2018 as planned. “We are on track to deploy a missile defence site in Poland by 2018 as part of NATO’s modernized approach to our security,” Kerry said.

Russia under Vladimir Putin is not likely to take any US missile defence shield deployment lightly. Putin  maintains Russia's stand as a real 'checker' to US activities.

The Syrian debacle perfectly illustrates Putin's stand viz a viz the US and NATO; he maintains that Libya will never repeat itself just as when he took over from Boris Yeltsin who was pro-US in a way and changed the course of Russia's foreign policy, becoming a facsimile of Soviet days.

Putin Back Again: Russia counters United States Credit Ratings

The Kremlin has alleged that the US credit ratings is not completely fair. With that, Russia has begun to publish its own sovereign debt ratings in a move that is widely seen as a challenge to the grade given by US rating agencies.

Russia using its domestic Expert RA issued its first sovereign debt ratings this week, with Russia getting an A- grade – higher than its current BBB rating assigned by US majors Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.

"It's already abundantly clear that the work of all three American agencies is directed toward inflating the US rating and lowering ratings for emerging economies," President Vladimir Putin's economic adviser Sergei Glazyev, said at the presentation of the rating, Bloomberg reported.

 He pointed out that Russia should stop relying on the ratings issued by the three US agencies, since domestic analysts are no worse than foreign ones.

"Expert RA has analyzed the main problems of  ratings, based on the example of the latest two economic crises, and offered an approach minimizing the effects of those problems on the grades," the rating agency said on its website.

The key difference in approach is giving separate assessments to a country's government as a borrower and its credit climate – the overall credit risk level, the agency said.

Expert RA assigned the United States an AA+ grade, below its top AAA and Aaa grades by Fitch Ratings and Moody's, respectively. America saw its triple-A rating by Standard & Poor's cut a notch to AA+ in 2011. Austria and Canada earned the same assessment.

The highest AAA grade was assigned by Expert RA to Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Russia to host the most Expensive Olympics

The Sochi Winter Olympics will cost Russia over $50 billion, five times more than original estimates, according to an Olympics preparation commission. By 2013, Russia completed 70 percent of the needed facilitates, spending $36.7 billion in total.

The 2014 Sochi Winter Games are turning out to be the most expensive Olympics ever. The Sochi Games are estimated to cost even more than the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, which cost $40 billion, believed to be the most expensive in history.

That total was more than double the cost of the London 2012 Games, which were estimated at $19 billion.
Some explain the expensive price tag over the fact that the city of Sochi did not have most of the needed infrastructure. Jean-Claude Killy, chair of the International Olympic Committee's coordination commission for the Sochi Games, said that 85 percent of the infrastructure had to be built from scratch.

Igor Nikolaev, director of the Strategic Analysis Department at FBK, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the lack of infrastructure was one of the reasons for the huge expense: "There was really a lot that needed to be built in order to prepare for the Olympics, including infrastructure.” He added that the huge estimates cannot be taken literally, since they were artificially inflated by the Olympics' private sponsors.

So far, sponsors have spent $24.6 billion, and costs are expected to increase to $33 billion. Many of Russia’s largest companies are Olympic sponsors, and are seeking to have as much of their expenses as possible qualify as Olympic expenditures. However, not all of their work will qualify as such, Nikolaev explained.

"For example, a company building or renovating its corporate hotel, tries to qualify the expenditure as part of the Olympics’ cost. That helps them to strengthen their bargaining position. You can be sure that then they will ask something in return [such as preferential tariffs, tax breaks, etc.],” Nikolai said.

The $50 billion sum is not a final estimate, and total costs could approach $66.7 billion, he said. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, the head of the Olympic preparatory commission, has proposed that Krasnodar region Governor Aleksandr Tkachev offers tax breaks for companies involved in Olympic construction.

The Olympics preparatory commission, established in mid-January by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is tasked with supervising all work on the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.