Federico Bordonaro

From today’s Stratfor brief:

In a Dec. 23 test launch, Russia’s Bulava (SS-NX-30) submarine-launched ballistic missile failed — the fifth such failure in eight trial launches from submerged submarines. The Bulava is a core element of Russia’s second-strike capability — the ability to threaten nuclear retaliation after suffering a nuclear strike. The missile’s repeated failure shows that it is not an element Moscow can rely on.

Here’s the comment you can read in today’s Moscow Times:

During his eight years as president, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin repeatedly stressed that the further development of the country’s nuclear forces, including the Bulava project, was vital to defending against foreign states that he said wished to take the country’s natural resources under their control.

“Measures to ensure the support and development of strategic nuclear forces will be given top priority,” Vladislav Putilin, deputy head of the government’s military industrial commission, told journalists Monday.

Putilin said the armed forces would procure 70 strategic nuclear missiles from 2009 to 2011.

He also said the government planned to allocate 4 trillion rubles ($141.5 billion) from 2009 to 2011 for a procurement program to modernize the army.