Russia Test-Fires Ballistic Missile To Mid-Pacific

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev (C), flanked by Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov (L), visits a Russian aircraft carrier in the Barents Sea October 11, 2008.
REUTERS/RIA Novosti/Kremlin/Dmitry Astakhov

Russia Test-Fires Ballistic Missile to Mid-Pacific -- Reuters

MURMANSK, Russia (Reuters) - Russia test-launched a strategic missile to the equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean for the first time on Saturday, at a time when Moscow's growing assertiveness is fuelling tension with the West.

President Dmitry Medvedev, who watched the launch from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, has said problems caused by global financial turmoil would not hurt Russian plans to revive its armed forces, a symbol for Moscow's resurgence.

Russia's newest missile, the Sineva, was launched by the nuclear-powered submarine Tula from an underwater position in the Arctic Barents Sea, and hit an unspecified area near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, a navy spokesman said.

"For the first time in the history of the Russian Navy the target of the missile was in an equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean rather than the Kura testing ground on the Kamchatka Peninsula," he said.

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