The missiles carry dummies rather than nuclear warheads as Russia is a signatory of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) which bans all nuclear explosions. The Bulava had failed half of its previous trials, calling into question the expensive missile program. The previous launch in June from the same submarine was a success though. A Bulava missile weighs 36.8 tonnes and can travel a distance of 8,000 km (5,000) miles carrying 6-10 nuclear warheads, which would deliver an impact of up to 100 times the atomic blast that devastated Hiroshima in 1945.

MOSCOW – A famous Russian TV anchor made an obscene gesture after mentioning U.S. President Barack Obama in a live newscast, the channel said on Thursday. Tatiana Limanova, an award-winning journalist and host of a news show on the REN-TV private channel, waved her middle finger when presenting a story about the APEC summit in the United States, a moment after mentioning Obama.

Russian President Putin Vs President Obama

The video went viral on the internet, with many viewers speculating the gesture had been meant to insult the U.S. president, who met his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the summit. REN-TV is broadcast across Russia and the former Soviet Union. It is owned by tycoon Yuri Kovalchuk, believed to be close to Russia’s paramount leader, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Medvedev reaffirmed the threat four days after he welcomed Obama to Moscow for a summit aimed to improving troubled ties.

Medvedev and Obama reached a preliminary agreement on new reductions in the Russian and American nuclear arsenals. Russian officials have suggested Moscow may not sign a treaty on the cuts unless the U.S. abandons the previous administration’s plans for missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Medvedev said the Kremlin believes the Bush administration’s decision to build those facilities was “a mistake.”

“If we cannot agree on these questions, you know the consequences,” he told a news conference at the Group of Eight nations’ summit in L’Aquila, Italy.

“What I said in my (state-of-the-nation) address-I have not withdrawn this idea,” he said.

He first made the threat in a state-of the-nation address just hours after Barack Obama was elected in November.

The new remark appeared aimed to stake out a firm position ahead of further talks with the U.S. on an arms reduction deal to replace the 1991 START I treaty, which expires in December. At the same time, his use of the word “revise”-rather than something more unequivocal-appeared to leave the door open for further bargaining on missile defense.

Medvedev made more upbeat comments about his first summit with Obama.

He praised Obama for ordering a review of the missile plans, saying that made him feel “cautiously positive” that the U.S. will abandon the idea.

“Whose point of view will prevail in the American administration, I do not know,” he said.

During the Moscow summit Monday and Tuesday, Obama reiterated the U.S. insistence that the missile defense system would pose no threat to Russia. U.S. officials say they intent would be to guard against a potential missile threat from Iran, but Russian officials say they fear its real intent is to weaken their country’s nuclear deterrent.