The August 8 explosion in Russia that killed seven people and set up a radioactive plume remains unexplained. The Russian government agencies reporting on radiation levels have gone silent. The explosion took place at a missile testing facility where Russia’s latest weapons are developed.
When President Vladimir Putin displayed what have been dubbed his “wonder weapons” in March 2018, he was unveiling projects that had been many years in the design and development phase as part of Russia’s strategy for managing escalation in a conflict with the United States. Military planners at Russia’s General Staff headquarters have developed several tiered strategies for escalation management, believing in the coercive power of long range conventional weapons, nonstrategic nuclear weapons, and their strategic nuclear forces. Moscow also believes that the United States broke a fundamental agreement underpinning stability by walking away from the ABM Treaty in 2002. In Russia’s view this treaty enshrined mutual vulnerability, and the decision to fund the more novel nuclear weapon projects is partly tied to the abrogation of the ABM Treaty.
Source: In Russia, what was that explosion? – The Washington Post
