Moscow:
Russia’s military conducted a series of intercontinental ballistic missile tests Wednesday, the latest flexing of its muscles as tensions with the US spike over Syria.
Russian forces fired a nuclear-capable rocket from a Pacific Fleet submarine in the Sea of Okhotsk north of Japan, state-run RIA Novosti reported.
A Topol missile was shot off from a submarine in the Barents Sea, and a third was launched from an inland site in the north-west of the vast country, Russian agencies reported.
The latest display of might by Moscow—which has been conducting regular military drills since ties with the West slumped in 2014 over Ukraine—comes as tensions have shot up in recent days.
Russia has pulled the plug on a series of deals with the US—including a symbolic disarmament pact between the two nuclear powers to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium—as Washington has halted talks on Syria.
The Kremlin has also moved an air defence missile system and missile cruisers to the war-ravaged country to bolster its forces there.
That comes as the West has accused Moscow of committing potential war crimes in its bombing of rebel-held part of the city of Aleppo in support of an assault by regime forces.
Washington has previously lashed out at Moscow for resorting to alleged “nuclear sabre-rattling” as East-West relations fell to the worst level since the Cold War following Russia’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014.
