Russia’s new ‘super-missile’ Oreshnik is ‘a PR stunt designed to scare the West after Putin’s nuclear bluff failed’
Vladimir Putin’s new ‘superweapon’, Oreshnik, is a propaganda invention to scare the West and will be in production for at least another five years, Russian officials have reportedly admitted.
Russia fired the nuclear-capable hypersonic missile at Dnipro in Ukraine on November 21, in what was described as a combat test.
Images of the attack caused alarm around the world, although they caused virtually no damage to the Ukrainian defense center they targeted because the Putin missile was not equipped with live nuclear warheads.
The Moscow Times now reports that four Russian officials say the Oreshnik threat against Ukraine and the West was an “orchestrated show” by the Putin regime – and that the threatened use of the weapon to wreak havoc is virtually impossible.
“There were brainstorming sessions on how to respond and how to put the Americans and the British in their place for allowing Zelensky to use long-range weapons (against Putin territory),” a Russian source said, the report said.
“And how to scare Berlin and other Europeans so they don’t do it again.”
A Defense Ministry source also admitted that Russia “most likely does not have any real reserves of the Oreshnik systems.”
“Given the bureaucracy and backlog, the industry will take five to seven years to set up their production,” she added.
The moment when Russia first used the Oreshnik to attack Dnipro, on November 21
Vladimir Putin’s new ‘superweapon’ (pictured) is a propaganda invention to scare the West and will be at least five years away from production, Russian officials have reportedly admitted
Above is Putin’s hypersonic Oreshnik missile hitting a defense factory in Dnipro, Ukraine on November 21.
The report states that “a classic military propaganda campaign was intended to instill exaggerated ideas about Russia’s military-industrial complex.”
Another Russian official told the newspaper: “There were several episodes of this show that were staged and presented to the public.
“The most important were the actual attack with the Oreshnik missile, (and) the dissemination of images on social networks and in foreign media.”
When the missile was fired, there were initial fears that it might be an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM).
The report claims that a moment when senior Russian Foreign Ministry officials were called on her cellphone midway through a press conference to be told not to comment on the ICBM claim was all part of the propaganda operation to kill the Oreshnik too hyped.
“The actors in the show included Foreign Affairs Press Secretary Maria Zakharova and Kremlin media curator Alexei Gromov,” the report said.
“The latter rightly called Zakharova during the briefing and forbade her to ‘comment on the ballistic missile attack’ on Dnipro over the loudspeaker.”
One of the Russian officials told the news channel: “Some participants in the brainstorming sessions were particularly proud of this trick with the alleged phone call from Gromov.”
These are the distances the hypersonic missile could reportedly reach
A selection of handout images released by the Russian Defense Ministry on March 1, 2024, showing the test firing of an ICBM from the country’s nuclear deterrent forces
Putin then intervened by threatening Ukraine and the West with the use of multiple nuclear warheads if the US and Britain continued to allow Ukraine to fire their ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory.
Previously, the Kremlin dictator and his propagandists had bluntly threatened to use nuclear weapons, but there was a sense that their bluff had been a lie and that they needed a new non-nuclear threat to frighten Ukraine and the West.
He compared a non-nuclear Oreshnik to a ‘meteorite’ and said the temperature of the explosion zone would be almost as high as the surface of the Sun.
“These are quite powerful elements that are heated to a temperature of 4,000 degrees Celsius,” he said.
‘A kinetic impact, a huge impact. Like a falling meteorite. We know from history how and which meteorites fell where and what the consequences were. It was enough to form entire lakes, wasn’t it?’
“The apparently secret development of the Oreshnik was hyped because the Kremlin’s nuclear threats “are no longer as effective as they once were, with experts and Western leaders alike calling on them to be ignored,” according to The Moscow Times.
‘This is why Kremlin spin doctors recommended launching a huge PR campaign around the Oreshnik.
A view shows a site of a Russian missile attack, amid the Russian attack on Ukraine, in Dnipro
Russia fired an experimental missile into Ukraine on November 21, Western government officials said. Ukraine initially accused Russia of firing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time in history during an attack on Dnipro.
Fragments of a missile that hit Dnipro on November 21 are seen at a forensic analysis center at a secret location in Ukraine, November 24
However, Russia does not have a substantial stockpile of Oreshnik systems, and Putin himself admitted that the attack on Dnipro was a test.
“Realistically, it would take years to mass-produce the Oreshnik, given the bureaucratic inefficiency and lagging innovation plaguing Russia’s defense sector.”
Pavel Aksyonov, military analyst at BBC Russia, said: “Putin waved the nuclear stick for too long. He needed something new. So (he brought out) the Oreshnik.
“It hasn’t destroyed anything, it won’t be available to the military anytime soon, but everyone is scared.”