Russian state television listed American military facilities that the Kremlin would target in the event of a nuclear strike days after President Vladimir Putin warned that his country is ready for a second “Cuban Missile Crisis,” Reuters reports.
The Pentagon and Camp David in Maryland were among the targets shown on Sunday evening. Only days before, Putin warned that although Russia doesn’t want another Cuban Missile Crisis, but “if someone wants that, well OK they are welcome,” according to CNN. He then referred to the claims he made about Russian missile flight times during his state of the union address last week.
Last Sunday on “Vesti Nedeli,” the main weekly news show on Russian TV, host Dmitry Kiselyov showed a map of the United States and pointed out a number of locations that Moscow would target if nuclear war broke out. He described the targets as military or presidential command centers, and said that the “Tsirkon” or “Zircon” hypersonic missiles in development could hit those targets in under five minutes should they launch from Russian submarines.
“For now, we’re not threatening anyone, but if such a deployment takes place, our response will be instant,” he said.
Reuters reports that concerns are growing in Russia about what America will do now that the intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the arms control agreement the two countries have had since 1987, is ending. Putin has said that should the U.S. deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe, Russia would have no choice but to place hypersonic nuclear missiles on submarines close to American waters.
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