From Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin -- With Love and Credulity

Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images

"The missile's test-launch and ground trials make it possible to create a brand-new weapon, a strategic nuclear missile powered by a nuclear engine. 

"The range is unlimited. It can maneuver for an unlimited period of time. No one in the world has anything similar."
"I would like to tell those who have been trying to escalate the arms race for the past 15 years, to gain unilateral advantages over Russia, and to impose restrictions and sanctions ... The attempt at containing Russia has failed. This is not a bluff."  
"No one listened to us. Listen to us now."
"I'd like to stress that Russia's growing military might does not threaten anyone, and we have never planned to use this potential for offensive, even more so aggressive purposes. We are not threatening anyone, and have no intention to attack anyone or grab anything from anyone at gunpoint."
"Russia's growing military might is a reliable guarantee of peace on earth, because this might continue to help maintain the strategic balance and the global balance of forces, which, as you know, has been a key factor of international security since World War II."
Russian President Vladimir V. Putin 

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses Federal Assembly, Moscow, Russian Federation, March 1, 2018.  
Maxim Shipenkov/EPA via Shutterstock

"We're not surprised by the statement. And the American people should rest assured that we are fully prepared."
"They [Kremlin/Putin] know very well that it's not about them. Our missile defense has never been about them."
U.S. Pentagon's chief spokesperson, Dana White

"Putin's statement makes it clear we are in a new arms race that will put us under the terror of a new Cold War, in constant fear of death at any instant."
"While Russia and the United States compare the size of their arsenals, the rest of the world is joining a treaty that bans them."
Beatrice Fihn, executive director, ICBN [International Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons]

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his annual address to the Federal Assembly at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, March 1, 2018 in Moscow.  Maxim Shipenkov/EPA via Shutterstock

It all started years ago with Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" defensive anti-missile scenario initiative, one that sounded alarm bells of paranoia in Moscow understandably, given the longstanding rivalry from the Cold War to the present between the two world powers where, post-World War II each viewed the other as ideological rivals: Communism (Socialism for the People) versus Democracy (Capitalism). Each linked their executive powers to their military exceptionalism with nuclear technology in overdrive.

Reagan's "Evil Empire" crumbled and as the Soviet Union saw its satellites eagerly deserting the USSR 'egalitarian socialistic pact' its economy and social cohesion fell into disrepair even as its status as one of two world powers dissolved in the tatters of its remnant Russian Federation. The urge and the will to outbid one another in the display of highly technically advanced hardware for combat once mutually assured destruction was put to rest was and remains alive and kicking, the contest of late becoming ever more frenzied.

Of course, Moscow means no harm, it is only defending its interests. It threatens no one,  until those times erupt when it does, as with the Georgian and Ukraine invasions, tut-tut. And Vladimir Putin wouldn't dream of indulging in unforgivable violence on a war footing, and that's an absolute guarantee that Syrians may have some hesitation in supporting, if they're of the Sunni Muslim variety. The world has grown accustomed to the kind of nationalistic military hardware display that the Kremlin usually puts on show. When their latest arms technology is showcased rumbling on parade.

Might it be possible that Putin is a trifle nose-out-of-joint at all the attention focused on North Korea's ballistic missile/nuclear showmanship? Kim Jong-Un may alert the world to focus its attention on his exploits in conflict technology, but the big-time stuff of advanced technology is Russia's display of showmanship, its less-than-subtle threats that assurances do nothing whatever to soften. A missile that can slip through radar undetected? Now that's a formidable advance. Meant to be a toy, obviously, since Mr. Putin's assurance renders it so.

And more, evidently, much more. A nuclear-armed underwater drone. An intercontinental ballistic missile called the Sarmat by Russian engineers, and Satan 2 by NATO, of the 200-ton missile capable of reaching "any point in the world" with the added attraction of unstoppability by any missile defence system. Wait; there's more, a hypersonic missile named "Kinzhal" (Dagger). And then there's a new intercontinental-hypersonic missile called "Avangard", capable of flight at 20 times the speed of sound. Which "...comes to targets like a meteorite; like a burning sphere", smiled Vladimir Putin.

A "burning sphere" is what will become of Planet Earth should these deadly devices ever be deployed, triggering a like response. Rest assured, the world has it on the highest authority whose word of honour simply cannot be doubted, that these wonderful new systems are meant only for defensive purposes. An assurance that leaves some question of doubt, given that language and descriptives and meaning are so malleable in the mouth and mind of a master manipulator.

Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP/Getty Images    Russian President Vladimir Putin stands on the stage while addressing the Federal Assembly at Moscow's Manezh exhibition centre, March 1, 2018.

Though in international intelligence circles there appears to be some doubt whether these instruments of war have gone beyond the experimental stage to completion, if they have advanced to that stage their usefulness will be but a matter of time in overcoming any technological obstacles. So, yes, Mr. Putin, we're listening....