Putin's Atomic Boast

While U.S. officials agonize over the "axis of evil" acquiring nuclear arms, news that the former "evil empire" may have a new nuke is barely raising an eyebrow. In what has become a yearly tradition, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week that his scientists are developing nuclear-missile systems "of a type that no other nuclear state has." Western diplomats responded to Putin's cryptic cock-a-doodle-doo with a polite shrug. The last they heard, the cold war was over. As arms specialists tried to guess what Putin meant, some experts pointed to a mobile version of the silo-based Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile, which is expected to roll out next year. Others wondered if Russia was hyping a long-sought-after missile that can zigzag to avoid interception or one that can travel at five times the speed of sound. Both may be capable of slipping past Washington's national missile shield, which isn't up and running yet. Pentagon officials remain unperturbed. They suggested Putin's comments are directed to his domestic audience. Nuclear arms remain Moscow's lone claim to superpower status, they note, and refreshing Russia's aging nuclear force would be a way of trying to hang on to that position. "Their missile won't work," says a Pentagon adviser, "and neither does our shield."