Russia’s new hypersonic missile was carefully planned to scare West before Putin’s ‘surprise’ – report
Russia’s use of a new hypersonic, non-nuclear ballistic missile against Ukraine last week instantly became the focus of widespread attention, prompting international headlines and a huge volume of speculation from analysts.
Vladimir Putin said Russia would now start mass-producing the Oreshnik missile, which was fired on the city of Dnipro in response to US and UK weapons being used by Kyiv to strike deep inside Russia.
However, a report has emerged suggesting the episode was effectively designed as a propaganda exercise by Moscow, in an effort to revive fear among Western leaders that had become used to threats involving nuclear weapons.
The Moscow Times cites four Russian officials – who all spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject – as saying the Oreshnik strike and the resulting media coverage were “carefully crafted with the involvement of officials, military personnel, intelligence agencies and Kremlin PR experts”.
“There were brainstorming sessions about how to respond and put the Americans and the British in their place for allowing Zelenskyy to use long-range weapons. And how to scare Berlin and other Europeans into submission,” one Russian official told the newspaper.
Another Russian official said: “This show, which was staged and presented to the public, consisted of several phases. The main ones were the actual Oreshnik strike, the dissemination of footage on social media, and its coverage in foreign media.”
Among those reportedly involved in the campaign were foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova and high-ranking Kremlin official Alexei Gromov.
Gromov is said to have been the person who called Zakharova during a news briefing with journalists and, on speakerphone, told her not to comment on the “ballistic missile strike on a military factory in Dnipro”.
“Some of those who were in the brainstorming sessions were particularly proud of that stunt,” a Russian official told the Moscow Times.
As we reported in some detail here, Vladimir Putin then went on to use the launch to issue a number of threats to the West at a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Kazakhstan.
An official familiar with preparations for the summit reportedly said: “The summit was supposed to address member-state issues. However, the boss [Putin] essentially hijacked the public agenda and used it to threaten Zelenskyy’s allies.
“I suspect that for the other summit participants, the heads of CSTO states, this came as a surprise. They essentially became side dishes to our main course: a psychological warfare act against the West.”