Secondo a CNN report, Russia is building a military presence in the Arctic where it tests a new weapon in an area that has emerged from the ice due to the climate crisis.
The aim is to protect its northern borders and open new trade routes from Asia to Europe. The weapon tested by the Russians would be capable of unleashing "radioactive tsunamis" on coastal cities.
The new Russian weapon that could flood US coastal cities with nuclear tsunamis
Military experts and Western officials have highlighted concerns about a specific Russian “superweapon”: the Poseidon 2M39 torpedo. The weapon has been under rapid development since Russian President Vladimir Putin asked the Defense Minister for information on a "key phase" of testing Sergei Shoigu. CNN cites Russian sources about tests conducted in late 2020.
Poseidon 2M39
The stealth torpedo is an unmanned weapon equipped with a nuclear reactor. It aims to get past naval defenses by gliding across the seabed. Russian officials say the torpedo can carry a multi-megaton warhead, and can create radioactive tsunami waves capable of making large coastal areas a deadly target for human life for decades.
It goes without saying that this is a truly fearsome weapon.
It is not a bluff
The Russian Poseidon 2M39 was first announced in 2015. At the time the “father of all Tsunamis” was classified as a paper tiger: experts and officials thought it only served a propaganda purpose.
Given the continuation of the tests (and the announcements on other weapons such as hypersonic missiles) now everyone is starting to take these weapons seriously.
The Russian nuclear torpedo is not a “paper tiger”.
The CNN report mentions the vice admiral Nils Andreas Stensønes, head of Norwegian intelligence. Stensønes confirms the tests and says he considers the Poseidon to be “part of the new type of nuclear deterrent weapons, with an influence far beyond the region in which it is currently tested”.
The space technology company maxes took satellite images that reveal a stark and continuing build-up of Russian military bases and installations along the Arctic coast.
“It's absolutely a project that will be used to scare, as a negotiating card in the future, perhaps in arms control talks,” he says Katarzyna Zysk, professor of international relations at the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies. “But to do that, it has to be credible. And this appears to be true."
Economic, humanitarian and environmental disaster
It is horrifying to imagine a bomb triggering a tsunami of radioactive water aimed directly at a coastal city and its inhabitants. But beyond the initial death toll and economic devastation, an attack by a Poseidon 2M39 could also create severe environmental destruction that will be difficult to undo.
La rivalry between the US and China and the new axis between China and Russia on the space race make the picture uncertain.