FEARS are rising that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing to stage a terrifying nuclear explosion test in the pristine Arctic.
The nuke would be detonated at the same place where the world’s most powerful bomb was detonated in 1961, claims a political analyst.
ReutersRussian President Vladimir Putin is feared to be poised to stage a nuclear test in the Arctic[/caption]
East2WestCloud after the 50-megaton explosion of the giant Tsar bomb in 1961[/caption]
East2WestKremlin commanders today announced the test-firing of a Yars ballistic missile[/caption]
Sixty years ago, Russia unleashed the infamous Tsar Bomba and ignited an explosion with 3,300 times more energy than the nuclear bomb that fell on Hiroshima.
There are acute concerns that Putin, 71, will stage another full nuclear explosion test in the same spot, on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.
Political analyst Dmitry Bolkunets said: “In the near future, a nuclear bomb will probably be detonated on the island of Novaya Zemlya.
“Tests may take place underground.”
Putin has already revoked Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and ordered his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, to be ready to resume tests.
In August last year, Shoigu was sent to conduct an inspection at Novaya Zemlya – where the notorious 50-megaton Tsar Bomb, nicknamed the “King of Bombs”, was detonated on October 30, 1961.
Some of Putin’s closest aides have called on the tyrant to scare the West over its support for Ukraine using a jolt equivalent to the Tsar Bomb.
Putin ally and head of the Kurchatov Nuclear Institute Mikhail Kovalchuk said: “I think this is a correct idea.”
Others have urged Putin to unleash hypersonic nuclear weapons on Ukraine or the West.
Officially called “product 602” and code-named Ivan, the massive thermonuclear Tsar Bomba was designed to show Soviet scientists had caught up with the US in destructive power.
The city destroyer was so huge – 26ft long, 7ft wide and weighing 27 tons – it could not fit in a plane.
Top secret footage declassified in 2020 showed it slung below a specially-converted Tu-95 bomber on its one and only test.
The crew released the monster nuke at high altitude over Severny Island in Russia‘s far north.
A parachute slowed its fall before it detonated 2.4 miles above the ground with a blinding flash seen 630 miles away.
The shock wave from the Tsar Bomb circled the Earth three times and the nuclear mushroom rose above the stratosphere as glass was blown out in houses nearly 800 kilometres away.
About 130 nuclear tests were conducted on Novaya Zemlya between September 21, 1955 and October 24, 1990 – including 88 atmospheric, 39 underground, and three underwater.
News of the Putin’s new potential nuke test came as hundreds gathered at a Moscow church to farewell the president’s most vocal critic, Alexei Navalny, who died in jail last month while serving a 19-year sentence on trumped-up extremism charges.
Western leaders and members of his team have claimed Navalny was “murdered” on the direct orders of the Russian dictator.
Russia announced during the funeral proceedings today that it had test-fired a Yars ballistic missile, which can carry nuclear warheads up to a strength of 500 kilotons – nearly 30 times the strength of the bomb dropped by the US on Hiroshima to end World War II.
Video released by Russian state media showed the 50,000kg, 75ft weapon being fired from a mobile missile launcher.
The missile, launched from Plesetsk cosmodrome, hit the Kura range on the Kamchatka Peninsula on Russia’s Pacific coast.
It came after deranged despot Putin yesterday warned the West is in danger of being nuked during a more-than-two-hour rant at Russian elites.
ReutersA model of the Soviet-made Tsar Bomba is displayed at the nuclear energy museum Atom in Moscow[/caption]
Cover ImagesThe Tsar Bomba ignited what is still the most powerful man-made explosion ever seen[/caption]
ReutersMourners attend a funeral service for Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny[/caption]
APA woman holds a portrait of Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia signed ‘Eternal love has no death’ in Moscow[/caption]
East2WestThe Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was launched at Plesetsk cosmodrome[/caption]
