TsKB MT Rubin designed this series of missile-armed nuclear-powered submarines, and this ship is the lead unit of a series of fourth-generation craft. It was laid down at Sevmash on 2 November 1996 with the name Yuri Dolgoruky.
9 January 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20130109/178661453/Yury_Dolgoruky.html
President Vladimir Putin (1952- ) speaking with personnel at the 393rd Air Base, Korenovsk (Krasnodar Krai, Southern Federal District) RF
On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia has the means to provide a proper response to the projected deployment of a US missile shield in Europe, although Moscow would prefer to see the American plans revised, saying to personnel at the 393rd Air Base in Krasnodar Krai, “We should look forward and give a response [to these plans] in a timely manner. Of course, our partners would better not do this [implement their missile shield plans], as this move would drive our response”. President Putin emphasised that whatever the rhetoric Western politicians use to describe their shield deployment plans, “this remains a part of the arms race. We have the means to provide a proper response”. In connection with this, Putin underlined the importance of timely implementation of state defence orders, saying, “We must implement state defence orders exactly on time, to an acceptable quality level, and at a reasonable price. If we do so, there’ll be no particular threat to us”.
14 June 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20120614/174030933.html
Editor’s Note:
Mittens makes blustery threats… VVP simply says, “We have the means to counter their threats”. In short, Mittens is a lying loud-mouthed bully, whereas Vova doesn’t have to shout… when you’re right, you don’t have to.
BMD
Voices from Russia 
A View from Moscow by Valentin Zorin… Two Reasons why the USA Abandoned ABM Defence Bases in Eastern Europe
Tags: A View from Moscow, ABM, Anti-Ballistic Missile, Chuck Hagel, Eastern Europe, George H W Bush, Nuclear weapon, political commentary, politics, Richard Garwin, Ronald Reagan, Russia, Russian, Russian history, Soviet Union, strategic weapons, United States, USA, USSR
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Newly-appointed US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel stated that Washington scrapped its plans to deploy ABM bases in Poland and Romania. Some analysts interpreted this move as a goodwill gesture towards Russia, given Moscow’s opposition to the deployment of American ABM bases in proximity to its borders, as it sees such deployments as a threat to its national security. Most likely, the Washington leadership didn’t have such ideas. The decision to abandon commitments that went back to the times of President George H. W. Bush during the 1989 Malta Summit is due to other causes. Whatever the reasons for such a gesture, it definitely wasn’t prompted by concerns about Russia. Two major reasons prompted the recent decision to abandon the planned American ABM bases in Poland and Romania.
Firstly, the missile defence system on which the USA has worked on for decades, since Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” Strategic Defence Initiative, is ineffective. According to Professor Richard Garwin, one of the scientists behind the American hydrogen bomb, speaking to the US Senate, “The American ABM defence system in its current form is simply useless”. After reviewing the situation, a Congressional panel set up to look into the credibility of Garwin’s conclusion found that the widely-hyped potential of the US ABM defence shield was mostly theoretical, on paper. Its report stated, “Bluntly put, it has no basis in reality”. Several years ago, a group of Nobel Prize-winning academics wrote a report addressed to the US President, warning, “It’s impossible to create an effective ABM defence shield, given the current level of scientific and technical knowledge, and it’d be devastating to American national interests, undermining its present economic and political arrangements”.
The state of the US economy is the second reason behind Washington’s decision to call off ABM defence plans for Eastern Europe. A disproportionately-huge US federal debt, some 17 trillion USD (529 trillion Roubles. 13.3 trillion Euros. 11.2 trillion UK Pounds), forced American leaders to cut back on their enormous appetites. The billions of dollars that’d be necessary to deploy ABM bases are too much of a burden for the US federal budget. These two reasons, rather than a notional missile threat coming from the DPRK, or concerns about American-Russian relations, made Washington give up its long-planned and much-cherished ABM defence plans. Moscow has no illusions regarding the true causes of the “peaceful sentiments” seen on the banks of the Potomac. However, if these sentiments become reality, then, Russia would be happy about it.
Valentin Zorin
Voice of Russia World Service
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_03_30/Why-did-US-scrap-missile-defense-plans-for-Eastern-Europe/
http://rus.ruvr.ru/2013_03_27/SSHA-dve-prichini-otkazatsja-ot-razvertivanija-raketnih-baz/