Russian dictator Vladimir Putin announced the"successful" test of an underwater vehicle with a nuclear power plant "Poseidon". The Kremlin leader boasted that the power of"Poseidon" allegedly "significantly exceeds" the power of the Russian missile "Sarmat", which, according to him, will soon be put on combat duty. In an interview with UNIAN, military expert and former SBU employee Ivan Stupak spoke in detail about whether the Russian Federation has really produced a powerful weapon that can scare the whole world, or whether these are just another"scarecrow" of Moscow.

What threats does this device pose and to whom?

If I'm not mistaken,"Poseidon" is several tens of meters long. It's something like"Petrel". But"Petrel" flies for several months, and this thing can swim in the world ocean for quite a long time. For Ukraine - zero risks at all, because it will not reach Ukraine.

If not Ukraine, are the Russians trying to silence anyone in particular?

This is more of a threat to the British Isles. Not to the United States - no, they are afraid of spoiling relations with them. This is a threat to the abstract Western world, which has access to the World Ocean. By the way, Dmitry Kiselyov threatened the British that there would be a radioactive wave 50 meters high.

However, it is worth considering that these are Russians, they lie a lot about their"superwanderwaffles", just like about the"Petrel". I think they lied a lot here too. The main goal is to show that the Russian Federation is worth something in this world, that it can at least counter something to everything that exists in the civilized world. And this all concerns exclusively weapons. Artificial intelligence? No. Cures for oncology, AIDS? No. Any breakthrough discoveries? No. The Russian Federation develops exclusively what can be used to kill.

They are trying to show the whole world now that they have such super weapons. The whole world should supposedly be scared, especially the Europeans, and agree to any conditions from Russia, because they supposedly have some kind of super weapon that they can theoretically use against everyone. But this is a piece product, like the"Oreshnik". There was more talk about it. In fact, there is nothing special about it. The"Burevestnik" is the same.

So, in general, this is another attempt to show that they have at least something, because after four years on the Ukrainian fronts, I suppose it's embarrassing even to their own people.

Why did this"Poseidon" appear now? Is it related to some events or statements in the world?

No, it was announced a long time ago. I remember people talking about it a year and a half ago, maybe even more, but then something didn't work out. And it's a long process, you can't do something like that in a month and a half. Maybe they were pushing scientists and developers. Another question is how to put it into production? It's not a problem to make one copy. We also have"Ruta","Hell","Flamingo". Showing a sample is one thing, but making a series is a very huge problem.

Putin also stated that Poseidon is also said to have no equal in terms of speed in the world and will not appear in the near future. How realistic is this?

It is stated that it can swim at 200 km/h. However, this is the speed of a helicopter in the air - 200-250 km/h. And we are talking about such a speed underwater. It is worth understanding that the speed of submarines is 40-60 km/h. American submarines - 45-60 km/h. The best submarines have a speed of 55 km/h, but they do not swim at full speed. Just like airplanes. They do not fly at full speed, because this wears out the resource very quickly. And here they say 200. I can't even imagine how this can be implemented. I think a lot of things are twisted here, in particular, regarding numbers, characteristics. I assume that this is all part of the cutting of the Russian budget. Because the money is huge and it is necessary to allocate it for some various"buns", there is a lot of lobbying for various types of weapons. The bigger, the louder the project, the more actively money is allocated for it. The more mysterious the project, the easier it is to allocate money for it and say that it is a state secret.

And regarding the fact that the power of the Poseidon allegedly exceeds the Sarmatian, do you think this is exaggerated again?

I think they lied a lot, just like about"Petrel".

How many units of such"Poseidons" do you think the Russians have in total?

I think this is the first one. They have to put it on combat duty. If I'm not mistaken, out of 13 launches of the"Burevestnik", only 2 were successful, and it was put on duty anyway. And then there will be mass production. The question is how quickly they can produce: one, two, three per year. It depends on many factors.

In general, a nuclear reactor is not a cheap story. Besides, a nuclear facility is a one-way street. You create it, and then it is destroyed somewhere.

Technically, if you see a huge thing moving quickly underwater from a satellite, it might leave behind a huge number of waves and vibrations. Also, with the help of various echo sounders, you can notice and, in principle, predict where it will swim, and try to stop it somehow.