FOX News, by Lawrence Richard: Russian President Vladimir Putin flew on a nuclear-capable strategic bomber on Thursday, in a likely move to flaunt Russia’s nuclear capabilities in defiance of the West.
Moscow said Putin took a brief flight on a modernized Tu-160M bomber, codenamed “Blackjacks” by NATO.
State media showed Putin, 71, taking off in the giant plane from a runway belonging to the factory in Kazan, which makes the supersonic aircraft.
The plane landed less than an hour later, Russian news agency TASS reported. Moscow did not provide specifics on its flight path, which is considered a military secret, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The giant swing-wing plane is a modernized version of a Cold War-era bomber owned by the former Soviet Union. While it was not used during the conflict, it would have deployed to deliver weapons at long distances, Reuters reported.
The Tu-160M is capable of carrying 12 cruise missiles or 12 short-range nuclear missiles and can fly approximately 7,500 miles without needing to refuel. It has just four crew members.
In 2005, the Russian president flew inside another version of the aircraft.
Russia signed a contract in 2018 to purchase 10 modernized Tu-160M nuclear bombers. They are expected to be delivered to the Russian Air Force by 2027.
Each bomber cost about $163 million.
The flight comes just days after opposition politician Alexei Navalny was found dead in his prison cell and as Putin is seeking re-election in the Russian presidential race next month. He is expected to easily win another six-year term.
It also comes as Russia’s military continues to occupy territories in Ukraine amid a war that is nearing its two-year milestone. The war has further worsened already strained relations between the U.S. and Russia, as Washington has accused the Kremlin of cyberattacks and interfering in its elections with misinformation campaigns on social media.
Prophetic Link:
“We are standing upon the threshold of great and solemn events. Prophecies are fulfilling. Strange, eventful history is being recorded in the books of heaven. Everything in our world is in agitation. There are wars, and rumors of wars. The nations are angry, and the time of the dead has come, that they should be judged. Events are changing to bring about the day of God which hasteth greatly. Only a moment of time, as it were, yet remains. But while already nation is rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, there is not now a general engagement. As yet the four winds are held until the servants of God shall be sealed in their foreheads. Then the powers of earth will marshal their forces for the last great battle.” Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, page 14