Largest nuclear command exercise in Russia’s recent history

MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin on Saturday took the helm of what the Kremlin described as the largest nuclear command exercise in Russia’s recent history, launching unarmed strategic and cruise missiles from the air, the sea and the ground.

A spokesman for Vladimir V. Putin told news agencies that the test took place “under Putin’s personal control.”

Russian news broadcasts on Saturday featured images of the fiery launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a site near Arkhangelsk, in northern Russia, which was said to have arced across most of Russia and hit its target in the far eastern region of Kamchatka. Another missile was shown bursting up from the Sea of Okhotsk, west of Kamchatka.

In a brief statement, Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, told Russian news agencies that the test took place “under Putin’s personal control.”

“The supreme commander in chief made a high assessment” of the performance of Russia’s combat units and staff, Mr. Peskov told Interfax and other news services. “It was the first time in the recent history of Russia that the strategic nuclear forces have held a command exercise on such a scale.”

Such displays are not unusual in Russia, especially at a period when the government is trying to “beef up the military,” said Pavel Podvig, a researcher with the Russian Nuclear Forces Project.

“Being there and pushing the buttons — that is something that is in his character,” Mr. Podvig said of Mr. Putin. “I wouldn’t read it as any particular message.”

Dmitri V. Trenin, a military analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said Mr. Putin’s involvement was probably intended to give him more credibility in the eyes of the military, an important political constituency. Mr. Putin raised military spending as he strove for a convincing margin of victory in March presidential elections. With that race safely behind him, Russia’s government is struggling to devise a budget that fulfills his campaign promises, and those increases may be adjusted, Mr. Trenin said.

“Two things he needs badly are to continue to support the people who depend on the federal budget, in terms of pay raises, and at the same time to support the military,” Mr. Trenin said.

Defense spending has opened significant rifts within the government, and was the stated reason for the resignation of one of Mr. Putin’s most trusted advisers, Finance Minister Aleksei L. Kudrin. Mr. Kudrin said this month that he had refused repeated offers of government positions because, as he told the radio station Ekho Mosvky, “the policies I disagreed with remain unchanged.”

NYTIMES