Amidst the situation regarding the poisoned ex-Russian spy on UK soil and the expulsion of Russian Diplomats from the U.S., Russia tested its new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, nicknamed “Satan 2”. The missile was tested for the second time on Friday, March 30. Its first test was done in December of 2017 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome spaceport in the west of Russia, as reported by CNBC.
The issue concerning the ex-spy and his daughter’s poisoning resulted in the U.S., UK and several EU nations expelling over 150 Russian diplomats from 24 countries to which Russia has continued to deny having any hand in the attack.
The missile test was done one day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said 60 U.S. diplomats would also be expelled and the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg would be closed in retaliation to the 60 Russian diplomats’ expulsion from the U.S. and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle.
A video of the ballistic missile launch has been tweeted by Russia’s Defense ministry and it said that Sarmat will “replace the Soviet-era #Voevoda”. The Voevoda missile is the world’s heaviest ICBM, also known as “Satan” in the West as reported by The Associated Press. On March 1, President Vladimir Putin proudly said in his state-of-the-nation speech that his missiles cannot be blocked and NATO’s missile defense is useless against it, reported the AP at that time. And he also boasted of its 200 metric ton weight, a higher range and a bigger number of nuclear warheads than “Satan”. In response to this statement, Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White told the AP early March that “We need to ensure we have a credible nuclear deterrent, and we are confident that we are prepared to defend this nation no matter what”.
