"Vladimir Putin delivered a very powerful message to the West that they should revise the decision to escalate the conflict," Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for European and International Studies at Russia’s Higher School of Economics, who participated in advising the leadership on amendment of the Russian nuclear doctrine and adoption of the new one, tells Sputnik.
The Oreshnik medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile was fired on the night of November 21 in response to Ukraine's use of NATO's long-range ATACMS and Storm Shadows against Russia's Bryansk and Kursk regions. As a result of the strike a Ukrainian arms manufacturer was successfully hit in Dnepropetrovsk.
With this move, Putin made it clear that if NATO countries continue to use their ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles against Russia, "then Russia might use its medium range missiles against those countries, against the military objects of these Western countries," Suslov continued.
Moreover, Russia is ready for further escalation, according to the pundit. "If the West will respond to these Russian actions in the escalatory way, then Russia will escalate further. And the recent adoption of the newest Russian nuclear doctrine tells that Russia is basically ready at a certain stage to use evil nuclear weapons," he stresses.
Russia's new hypersonic missile is a breakthrough technology, Yuri Knutov, military expert and historian of the Air Defense Forces, tells Sputnik.
"Its speed, as the president said, is 10 Mach. Today, no other country in the world has such missiles," he says.
The pundit underscored that neither the US nor other countries of the world currently possess air defense systems capable of intercepting Russia's new hypersonic missiles.
"We demonstrated a missile that can strike not only Yuzhmash, but also London and Paris if France and Great Britain continue their escalation course towards Russia, continue their direct intervention on the side of Ukraine," Knutov concludes.