Letter From the Editors
Russia seems to have begun a tradition of introducing new weapons systems and policies toward the end of the year. Last November, military commentators were crowing about the virgin combat strike of the Oreshnik, a nuclear-capable hypersonic intermediate-range missile, coupled with Presidential Order No. 991, which altered Russian nuclear doctrine in vague but ominous ways.
At the time, yours truly noted the oddity of naming a fearsome instrument of death after a hazelnut tree. Now, while addressing arms researchers at a National Unity Day celebration, Putin has welcomed a class of 2025 with more provocative monikers. “Poseidon” for a submarine-drone – that’s surely the bane of any modern-day Odysseus. And Burevestnik – where do I even begin with Burevestnik?
Even the prosaic “petrel” fits the convention of naming flying weapons after birds of prey – the petrel’s cousin, the albatross, is a namesake for aircraft the world over. But the Russian word is more evocative, meaning “herald of the windstorm.” It’s the title of a 1901 poem by Maxim Gorky – generally rendered as “The Stormy Petrel” in English despite referring to the wrong species – in which the revolution-coded title character welcomes an upheaval from which more docile seabirds flee: “Let the storm crash more fiercely!”
The Burevestnik is, according to Putin’s description, a “strategic nuclear-powered cruise missile with unlimited range,” and news of its development has been making waves for years – intentionally so, as a public response to US policy changes. The project was first announced in 2001, as a response to the Bush administration’s abandonment of the ABM Treaty. Successful tests of the micro-reactors were announced shortly after US suspension of the INF Treaty in 2019. It was part of the impetus behind the Biden administration’s extension of the New START treaty as a first order of business.
Trump’s first administration had ignored the message, due either to a general skepticism toward arms control or to a preoccupation with “stormy” problems of an entirely different nature. This time around, though, the winds seemed to have changed, and the US president only recently said another START extension would be a “good idea.” Perhaps Putin meant for the Burevestnik’s entry into service to reinforce this newfound interest in his American counterpart. He even noted that a NATO reconnaissance ship was observing the latest tests: “We didn’t interfere with its work. Let them watch.”
If so, he miscalculated. Novaya gazeta Europe reports: “In response to news that Russia had conducted tests of its nuclear-capable 9M730 Burevestnik and Poseidon weapons in October, Trump ordered the Pentagon to resume American [nuclear] testing ‘immediately,’ citing the need for the US to respond to the fact that ‘other countries’ were already doing so.” Instead of pushing ahead with a START extension, the US was instead moving toward a withdrawal from the remaining arms control treaties, the CTBT in particular. Classic blowback.
At a subsequent meeting of the Russian Security Council, Defense Minister Belousov recounted the history of recent US arms policy partially detailed above and proposed standing by for resumption of Russian nuclear testing in Novaya Zemlya. Putin ordered a feasibility study. Whether this is a step toward escalation or a stalling maneuver – only time will tell. Meanwhile, stateside, the whole political system is facing some blowback, Russian US expert Dmitry Drobnitsky believes. The New York mayoral race ended in victory for Democrat Zohran Mamdani, an immigrant and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, after a come-from-behind primary win over ex-governor Andrew Cuomo, who led a bipartisan mainstream coalition in the general election. Drobnitsky told Izvestia this means “it is now impossible to wage a political battle from a centrist position in that country. Both the Democratic Party’s turn to the left and the Trumpism of the Republicans are a reaction to American problems that have had money thrown at them for years without ever being resolved.” So, is America going to ride out the storm, or reap the whirlwind?