Putin: Russia is world leader in advanced weapons production
Russia and the United States have reached parity in nuclear weapons, but Moscow is ahead in advanced weapons development, said Russian President Vladimir Putin on the TV channel "Russia 1".
"And in this sense, we can say with confidence that according to this indicator we are number one in the world today," Putin said, noting that new weapons are already supplied to the Russian army.
In early December, the head of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, said that Russian strategic missile forces are being re-equipping with Yars missile systems. In addition, according to him, the Avangard hypersonic missile systems are about to be supplied to the Russian Army and a new nuclear submarine with Bulava ballistic missiles will soon be commissioned. Gerasimov also noted that more than 95% of missile launchers of the Russian strategic forces are in a state of combat readiness.
Nine countries have nuclear weapons – Russia, the United States, France, Great Britain, India, Israel, Pakistan, China and north Korea. At the end of September, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that about 14 thousand units of nuclear weapons had been accumulated in the world.